[Kasalikasan] Historic treaty protecting high seas kicks off 2026

A new year is upon us, and with it comes a piece of good news in a sector often beleaguered by problems of all kinds: a historic global treaty to safeguard biodiversity in the high seas came into effect last January 17.

Known as the Agreement on Marine Biological Diversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ Agreement), it provides a legally binding global framework for the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in the high seas, contributing to a separate global commitment to protect 30% of the world’s biodiversity by 2030. As of this writing, only 9.61% of it is protected.

Archipelagic Philippines is a signatory to the BBNJ Agreement and ratified it last September. Back in 2024, during an international conference in Athens, the country also mentioned an initial roadmap that projected an area coverage of 18.5% of terrestrial and 16% of marine protected areas.

But why does this high seas treaty matter? Amy Swift and Tom Pickerell of the World Resources Institute wrote: “Without a binding global treaty, the high seas have been governed patchwork style through regional fisheries agreements, shipping conventions, and scattered marine protected areas which cover less than 1% of the high seas. This leaves critical gaps in protecting marine biodiversity and ensuring that developing countries also benefit from discoveries made in international waters.”

In short, the treaty paves the way for establishing marine protected areas in international waters and for fair and equitable benefit-sharing among nations.

It’s a welcome development, especially at a time when protected areas are under siege — in the United States, which “helped shape the text” but hasn’t ratified the high seas treaty, and has even withdrawn from the UN Oceans; and in the Philippines, where protected areas are not spared from unchecked developments.

Speaking of unchecked developments, if you missed Iya Gozum’s story last December on how a luxury resort in pristine Siargao with links to a local political clan reclaimed land in a protected area, there’s an update: this month, the Philippine Reclamation Authority said it will investigate the reclamation. We wait with bated breath, knowing how much damage reclamations have caused in different parts of the country.

Another story (or video) you may have missed during the holidays from our cluster: John Sitchon’s documentary on the twin disasters that plagued Cebu province in the last few months of 2025. John is covering another disaster in Cebu City, this time, man-made: the deadly landfill collapse in Barangay Binaliw that killed at least 36 people, many of them waste workers. The city is now under a state of calamity.

And then there’s the Mayon unrest, which has displaced thousands of residents living within the volcano’s six-kilometer permanent danger zone. Reinnard Balonzo is monitoring updates from the ground.

2026 has been off to an eventful start, to say the least.

Here are other stories from our cluster that you shouldn’t miss:

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Bakit may nakatira pa rin sa Mayon danger zone?

Refuge or harvest? Albay farmers torn between safety, saving crops amid Mayon ashfall

Even before the landslide, controversies haunted Cebu’s Binaliw landfill

Leviste’s solar firm fined P24 billion over stalled contracts

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– Rappler.com

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