The Ocean is life. Producing more than half of the planet’s oxygen, harboring most of the world’s biodiversity, constituting a major source of food and medicine, and helping to regulate the climate, a healthy Ocean is crucial for the survival and well-being of all life forms on Earth. Despite its significance, the Ocean is under threat facing multiple overlapping and interrelated challenges, including overfishing, climate change, biodiversity and habitat loss, and pollution.

The need to protect the Ocean led to years of intense multilateral negotiations with a view to developing a holistic framework, addressing a unique characteristic compared to terrestrial ecosystems; approximately two-thirds of the Ocean, which covers 70% of the planet’s surface, fall in areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ).

In June 2023, states adopted an international legally binding instrument under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ Agreement). The BBNJ Agreement focuses on, among other things:

• marine genetic resources, including benefit-sharing considerations;
• area-based management tools, including marine protected areas;
• environmental impact assessments; and
• capacity-building and the transfer of marine technology.

The BBNJ Agreement received the required 60 ratifications on 19 September 2025 and, 120 days later, on 17 January 2026, officially entered into force.

To ensure the smooth implementation of the Agreement, the UN General Assembly decided to convene a Preparatory Commission (PrepCom), which at its organizational session agreed to hold three sessions through early 2026, and more if needed. The first session was held from 14-25 April 2025, while the second session took place from 18-29 August 2025.

PrepCom III continued discussions on important building blocks, including:

• rules of procedure for the Conference of the Parties (COP);
• rules of procedure and modalities of operation of the subsidiary bodies;
• funding of the Secretariat, COP, and subsidiary bodies;
• operationalization of other provisions on financial resources and mechanism, including the establishment of the voluntary trust fund and the operationalization of the special fund;
• arrangements with the Global Environment Facility;
• arrangements to enhance cooperation with relevant legal instruments, frameworks, and bodies;
• operationalization of the Clearing-House Mechanism (CHM); and
• arrangements for the Secretariat, including the selection of its seat.

Delegates worked on the basis of revised aids to negotiations prepared by Co-Chairs Janine Coye-Felson (Belize) and Adam McCarthy (Australia), and notes by the UN Division for Ocean Affairs and Law of the Sea (UNDOALOS), which is the Agreement’s Interim Secretariat, building on negotiations during the first two sessions. They further addressed a study on the technical aspects of the operationalization of the CHM, including technical requirements, a draft roadmap for its operationalization, and a draft workplan for its initial phase.

Since PrepCom III was the first meeting taking place following the entry into force of the BBNJ Agreement, delegates needed to redouble their efforts and reach common ground on the agreement’s institutional and financial architecture. Many long-standing participants have stressed that successfully setting the stage for COP 1 will be an important victory toward conserving critical global commons at times when multilateralism is under pressure. PrepCom III convened at UN Headquarters in New York from 23 March-2 April 2026.

The Earth Negotiations Bulletin (ENB) writers for this meeting were Asterios Tsioumanis, Ph.D., and Marc Calabretta. The Digital Editor was Diego Noguera. The Editor was Pamela Chasek, Ph.D.