Oregon State University research into marine protected areas plays a crucial role in the historic “High Seas Treaty” that goes into effect Jan. 17.
Less than two years after OSU scientists led the publication of a landmark marine protected area guide in Science, the United Nations in June 2023 adopted the text of the treaty. The treaty’s aim is to safeguard and sustainably use the high seas, the two-thirds of the ocean not under individual nations’ control.
Known officially as the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Agreement, the treaty was under discussion for more than two decades. Once the agreement was opened for signatures, it took just three days for an economically and geographically diverse collection of 81 U.N. member states, including the U.S., to sign it, giving a non-binding signal of their intent to comply.
The first nation to ratify the High Seas Treaty – providing formal consent to being legally bound by it – was Palau in January 2024. The terms of the treaty call for it to go into effect 120 days after 60 nations have ratified it, and Morocco became the 60th on Sept. 19, 2025.
“It’s time to celebrate,” said Oregon State University Distinguished Professor Jane Lubchenco, senior author of “The MPA Guide: A framework to achieve global goals for the ocean,” published in Science in September 2021.
“We have an unprecedented opportunity to protect and sustainably use the biodiversity in an area covering nearly half the planet,” said Lubchenco, who writes about the treaty in an article published today in Nature Reviews Biodiversity. “That area houses phenomenal biodiversity, but it’s declining and at risk. This new treaty is a very big deal and very good news – science is informing pioneering global policy, and needs to continue doing so.”
OSU's Kirsten Grorud-Colvert and Jenna Sullivan-Stack were the lead authors of the MPA Guide, coordinating the contributions of more than three dozen scientists from around the globe to produce a road map for helping nations better plan, evaluate and monitor marine protected areas. MPAs are parts of the ocean set aside to protect ecosystems from extractive activities such as fishing, mining and drilling.
The World Data Base on Protected Areas, a United Nations affiliate, has adopted the MPA Guide and hosts its documents on its Protected Planet website, and the MPAtlas, an independent, non-governmental authority on ocean protection, bases its determinations on the MPA Guide. MPAs are categorized based on their level of protection.
“The guide was the culmination of decades of work by hundreds of scientists and stakeholders and established a structure for an evidence-based understanding of where we stand on ocean protection,” said Grorud-Colvert, associate professor of integrative biology in the College of Science. “We obviously still have a lot of work to do, but the High Seas Treaty represents another huge milestone and I’m really proud of the part OSU plays in providing the science for establishing MPAs on the high seas.”
Grorud-Colvert and Sullivan-Stack reflect further on the treaty in an editorial published today in Science.
