Marine Areas Beyond the National Jurisdiction (ABNJ) occupy approximately 64 per cent of the surface of the Earth’s ocean (Global Ocean Commission, 2014) and 95 per cent of its volume (Katona, 2014).  ABNJ comprise the “High Seas”, the water column beyond Exclusive Economic Zones and the seabed “Area” beyond extended continental shelves (Wright & Rochette, 2016). ABNJ hold highly diverse ecosystems, which provide a wide range of marine ecosystem services that support human society, health and economy. Nearly half of biological productivity of the global oceans and more than 10 per cent of annual world fish catches by weight, including commercially valuable species, are produced in areas beyond national jurisdiction (Rogers et al., 2014; Sumaila et al., 2015). The Area supports ecosystems such as hydrothermal vent and cold seep communities, and deep sea coral reefs (Rogers et al., 2015), which can host ecologically and evolutionally unique assemblages of organisms of conservation interest (Davies et al., 2007).  Until the mid-20th Century, the remoteness and challenging conditions within ABNJ offered deep sea ecosystems some degree of protection from pressures created by human activities. However, increasing demand for marine resources and technological innovations, combined with a regulatory framework focused on freedoms rather than protections, has resulted in increased human activities in ANBJ (Merrie et al., 2014). Activities taking place in, or are planned for ANBJ include, fishing (e.g. illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing), seabed mining, cable deployment, shipping, waste dumping, bioprospecting, energy generation and marine scientific research. In addition, global pressures such as climate change, ocean warming and ocean acidification affect areas beyond national jurisdiction. 

This project develops a practical set of Legal Options to support those involved in the dialogue around the protection and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ). The conservation and sustainable use of BBNJ is a critical conservation and political issue for which there is broad UN-led international consensus supporting the development of a new legally binding instrument. However, there is limited agreement concerning the pressures likely to affect BBNJ and therefore uncertainty over what measures should be included within the proposed new legal instrument and how it should be framed (Houghton, 2014). This project has undertaken a horizon scan of pressures on BBNJ, and a review of legal options for the conservation and sustainable use of BBNJ, to generate a foundation analysis of BBNJ issues. This foundation analysis provided a basis for discussion at a specially convened, high-level international deliberative workshop attended by invited marine conservation and legal experts. During the workshop, the building blocks of a prioritised conservation agenda were developed.  This document explores selected key anthropogenic pressures to BBNJ through a Horizon Scan. Horizon scanning is “the systematic search for, and examination of, potentially significant medium- to longterm threats and opportunities within a given field or discipline” (Sutherland et al., 2015). This scan will focus on identifying:

• Selected human activities that may affect BBNJ;
• Review of the evidence related to the effects of the selected pressures on BBNJ;
• The future trends of the effects of human activities on BBNJ.