Three months before the negotiation of an international instrument for the conservation and sustainable use of high seas biodiversity begins at the United Nations in New York, the “High Seas, What’s at Stake?” meeting will be held in Paris at the Oceanographic Institute on 21 June 2018.

The event is organized jointly by The High Seas Alliance, the Albert I Prince of Monaco Foundation, the Albert II of Monaco Foundation, the Tara Foundation, and the Institute on Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI), with support from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the Nature Conservancy (TNC) and the Pew Charitable Trusts. Participants are expected to include representatives from the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, the French Ministry of the Ecological and Solidary Transition, the European Commission, and the Office of the UN Secretary General's Special Envoy for the Ocean. Full programme and online registration is available at: http://bit.ly/2I0XQLo

During the event, participants are expected to discuss the need to act now on high seas issues related, and the obstacles to conserving and sustaining the high seas. Participants will also consider expectations for the negotiations an international legally binding instrument for the conservation and sustainable development of marine biological diversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction, which are scheduled to begin in September 2018 and continue until 2020.