Recently, at the fifth session of Intergovernmental Conference on an international legally binding instrument 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 has ended, reaching agreement on the text of the instrument.
This is a historic milestone in the international community's efforts to protect the marine environment, in the context of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, especially Sustainable Development Goal 14 (SDG 14) on conservation and sustainable use of the sea and marine resources
The content of the document recognizes the fundamental principle that marine genetic resources are the common heritage of mankind, which is the basis for all benefits derived from marine genetic resources to be shared fairly with all countries. Notably, for the first time, "digitized sequence information about genetic resources" - considered as a "digital asset" associated with marine genetic resources and related benefits may be shared with all of humanity according to a mechanism defined by the document.
The document has important implications for regulating biodiversity-related activities across a wide range of oceans. In the context of the gap in access and exploitation of marine genetic resources between developed and developing countries, the document marks a compromise between groups of countries with different interests in promoting activities of conservation and sustainable exploitation of marine genetic resources outside national jurisdictions, capacity building and technology transfer, while ensuring equitable sharing of benefits from the exploitation and sustainable use of rich marine genetic resources.
At the Conference, the Vietnamese Delegation made many contributions for the common interests of developing countries in this historic agreement. Specifically, Viet Nam has proposed regulations related to capacity building and marine technology transfer, and at the same time promoted the contents of the draft document in accordance with the provisions of international law of the sea, protection rights and interests of Viet Nam