Monegasque UN delegation commits to preserving High Seas

Monaco was the first European and Mediterranean state to sign the Marine Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) Agreement, on Thursday May 9.

Isabelle Picco, Permanent Representative of Monaco to the UN, conveyed Prince Albert II’s ratification to the United Nations headquarters in New York in person. The Sovereign originally signed the BBNJ Agreement on September 20, 2023, which is a treaty whose aim is to act to protect maritime and oceanic spaces and the fauna and flora they contain.

Monaco is therefore the first European and Mediterranean country to commit to the treaty and the fifth in the world after Palau, Chile, Belize and the Seychelles. The event concludes 20 years of negotiations between the two parties and will finally set things moving in the right direction.

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Speaking to Monaco Info, Isabelle Picco said: “This is a very important moment for the Principality and I would like to thank the Sovereign Prince for the honour of being able to hand over this ratification document today. This treaty shows the example of a joint effort between developing countries and countries such as the Principality, which was very active in 2008 with a meeting on the protection of marine biodiversity in the high seas and the Rio+20 workshop in 2012.”

Current efforts suggest the possibility of fifty additional ratifications in the coming months at the UN.