In Vanga, on Kenya’s south coast, the results of regional ocean cooperation are already visible. Fishers are reporting increased fish abundance around anchored Fish Aggregating Devices introduced through a partnership between the Nairobi Convention and the South West Indian Ocean Fisheries Commission . The project is also improving how fish are handled after they are caught. Solar-powered cold storage facilities and freezers are helping reduce post-harvest losses, maintain fish quality, and improve returns for fishing communities.
The benefits extend beyond fisheries. Through research and technical support from the Nairobi Convention, partners brought an additional 455 hectares of mangrove forest under community conservation, protecting fish breeding grounds and creating new opportunities through blue carbon.
“These interventions are improving our work, our earnings and our confidence in the future,”
Representative of the Vanga and Jimbo Beach Management Units
The partnership between the Nairobi Convention and the South West Indian Ocean Fisheries Commission illustrates the type of cross-sectoral cooperation that the Sustainable Ocean Initiative Global Dialogue (SOI) seeks to strengthen.
That spirit of collaboration will be at the centre of the Fifth Meeting of the Sustainable Ocean Initiative Global Dialogue, which opens in Seoul on 30 June 2026. After a decade, the Dialogue has become an important platform for bringing together representatives of regional seas organizations (RSOs), regional fishery bodies (RFBs), other global and regional organizations, national governments, non-governmental organizations and the private sector to address shared ocean challenges.
The fifth meeting will review progress over the past decade and identify practical ways to strengthen cooperation in support of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the Agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ Agreement) . Together, these agreements aim to strengthen the conservation and sustainable management of marine biodiversity, from coastal waters to areas beyond national jurisdiction. They also support the global 30×30 target to conserve and effectively manage at least 30 per cent of marine and coastal areas by 2030. With the BBNJ Agreement now in force and preparations underway for its first Conference of the Parties in 2027, attention is shifting from negotiation to implementation.
The meeting is convened by the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) , the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) , and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) , and co-chaired by Chris Corbin, Coordinator of the Cartagena Convention Secretariat/UNEP Caribbean Environment Programme , and Stefán Ásmundsson of the Government of Iceland.
Against this backdrop, the Sustainable Ocean Initiative Global Dialogue provides one of the few global platforms where Regional Seas Organizations and Regional Fishery Bodies exchange experience, strengthen partnerships, and address shared challenges. For Regional Seas Programme , the meeting is a chance to show how regional cooperation is already helping countries implement global ocean and biodiversity commitments, while identifying where more collaboration is needed.
Why Regional Seas Matter
UNEP Regional Seas Programme , comprising 18 Regional Seas Conventions and Action Plans covering more than 146 countries, brings more than 50 years of experience in regional ocean governance through legal frameworks, scientific cooperation, and partnerships. It provides countries with practical mechanisms for protecting and sustainably managing shared marine ecosystems while supporting countries in putting global ocean agreements into practice. Achieving the objectives of both agreements requires collaboration among the institutions responsible for biodiversity conservation, fisheries management, scientific research, and sustainable development.
This makes Regional Seas particularly well positioned to support implementation of the BBNJ Agreement. Of the 89 Parties to the BBNJ Agreement, 76 are already Parties to one or more Regional Seas.
Through area-based management tools, marine spatial planning, science-policy exchange, capacity building, and technical cooperation, Regional Seas support countries in translating global commitments into regional and national action.
Several Regional Seas have already incorporated these commitments into their frameworks. The Abidjan Convention adopted Decision CP14.5 (2025), while the Barcelona Convention adopted the Portorož Declaration (2023) and Cairo Declaration (2025). The Nairobi Convention has been developing its BBNJ framework since 2015 through four successive COP decisions: CP8/10 (2015), CP9/10 (2018), CP10/5 (2021), and CP11/3 (2024). This work has continued through a Legal and Technical Working Group convened in October 2025 and will continue with consideration of a Biodiversity Protocol amendment at COP12 in October 2026.
Beyond legal commitments, Regional Seas are also supporting progress towards the 30×30 target. The 2025 Regional Seas Programme assessments found that all Regional Seas reviewed have integrated Target 3 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework on Marine Protected Areas and Other Effective Area-Based Conservation Measures into their regional policies, while 14 Regional Seas have operational monitoring plans.
In April 2026, the world reached a major conservation milestone, with 10.01 per cent of the ocean officially designated as protected and conserved areas. The Protected Planet Report 2024 found that only 1.3 per cent of the global marine and coastal area is covered by protected and conserved areas where management effectiveness has been assessed and reported, underscoring the importance of moving beyond designation to effective management.
Effective management also depends on consistent monitoring and reporting. In 2025, the Regional Seas Programme adopted a common framework of 22 indicators , giving Regional Seas a shared basis for assessing ocean health and reporting progress towards global biodiversity and ocean commitments. By using comparable indicators and coordinated scientific assessments, countries can better identify trends, target action where it is needed most, and contribute regional evidence to global ocean assessments, including the United Nations World Ocean Assessment .
From Policy to Practice
Regional Seas have also shown that ocean protection can extend beyond national waters. In the North-East Atlantic, areas beyond national jurisdiction account for approximately 40 per cent of the OSPAR maritime area. Since establishing the world’s first network of high seas marine protected areas in 2010, OSPAR has designated 11 marine protected areas in areas beyond national jurisdiction and expanded its maritime area to include Macaronesia in 2025. In the Southern Ocean, the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) has established two marine protected areas in areas beyond national jurisdiction.
Within national waters, the work is equally important. In the Mediterranean, the Barcelona Convention has strengthened management effectiveness throughout its network of 39 Specially Protected Areas of Mediterranean Importance . In 2026 , an assessment found average management effectiveness of 80.5 per cent, while 16 sites achieved transformative levels of co-management involving local communities in decision-making. In the Baltic Sea, the Helsinki Convention (HELCOM) has mapped more than 2,800 marine protected areas covering 18.4 per cent of the region’s marine area, giving governments the evidence needed to identify remaining conservation gaps and guide progress towards the 30x30 target.
Not all conservation happens inside formal protected areas. In the East Asian Seas, Coordinating Body on the Seas of East Asia (COBSEA) is helping countries identify and recognise Other Effective Area-Based Conservation Measures (OECMs). Community-managed mangrove forests and coral reef spawning grounds are among the sites recognized for their contribution to marine biodiversity. In August 2025, countries and experts met to develop regional guidance on OECMs, with a toolkit due for release soon. On World Oceans Day 2026, COBSEA also released a video explaining how OECMs can help protect marine biodiversity and contribute to the global 30×30 target.
Where ecosystems are already degraded, Regional Seas are also supporting restoration. In the Wider Caribbean, community divers and marine biologists have restored 3,000 coral fragments at five degraded reef sites in Cuba through the Cartagena Convention’s Specially Protected Areas and Wildlife (SPAW) Regional Activity Centre (RAC) .
“Coral restoration is not simply about growing corals. Every fragment we maintain and outplant represents an investment in the future health of our reefs, the biodiversity they support, and the communities that depend on them,”
Dr. Dorka Cobian Rojas, Head of Research and Monitoring at Guanahacabibes National Park
Regional legal frameworks continue to evolve. In the Western Indian Ocean, Nairobi Convention is preparing an amended Biodiversity Protocol , expected to be considered at COP12 in October 2026, to further align regional legal frameworks with the BBNJ Agreement. Together with practical initiatives such as those in Vanga, these efforts demonstrate how regional legal frameworks and local action reinforce one another.
The outcomes in Vanga, from healthier fisheries to protected mangroves and carbon revenues, are exactly the kind of results that regional partnerships are designed to achieve.
The success of global ocean agreements will ultimately be measured far from the conference room, through the outcomes achieved in coastal communities and marine ecosystems around the world. In places like Vanga, where healthier fisheries, protected mangroves, and stronger livelihoods show what regional cooperation can achieve, global ocean agreements become real
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