This written submission complements the oral evidence provided by Prof Elisa Morgera,
Director of the One Ocean Hub, to the UK House of Commons Environmental Audit
Committee on 22 October 2020, for an inquiry into biodiversity and ecosystems and the
upcoming international negotiations on a global post-2020 biodiversity framework. This brief
provides further details on what would make a successful Biodiversity Conference in China
in 2021 (CBD COP) and how the UK’s negotiating position and other action (diplomatic
activities, funding, etc) can contribute to that success.
The brief explores the following themes:
1. the need to integrate the inter-dependencies of human rights and biodiversity;
2. the benefits of marine protected areas (MPAs) and Indigenous and Community
Conserved Areas, as well as the need to conserve biodiversity beyond MPAs;
3. the need for partnership-based approaches to fair and equitable benefit-sharing from
genetic resources and digital sequence information (DSI), including in the context of the
UN negotiations of a new legally binding instrument on marine biodiversity of areas
beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ); and
4. the integration of the nexus between the ocean, climate change, biodiversity and human
rights across all relevant international processes.