Vanessa Ferreira Lopes

The urgent need for the conservation and sustainable use of the ocean has come into focus as an international concern over the last decade, prompting negotiations for a new legally binding instrument under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea to conserve and sustainably use marine biodiversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction: the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) Agreement. After almost 15 years of debate, the BBNJ Agreement was concluded in March 2023. This paper is an opinion piece that showcases our perspectives as two early career ocean professionals from developing countries (Brazil and Cabo Verde) who participated as observers in the Fifth Intergovernmental Conference for the development of the BBNJ Agreement, held in 2022 and 2023. We identified factors that affected the equitable participation of professionals from developing countries in the BBNJ Agreement process. We offer our reflections on the underrepresentation of some countries in negotiations, as well as in science, and the factors hindering capacity to express their own needs and concerns. We present three suggestions for creating more equitable participation of countries in such negotiations and enabling the future implementation of the BBNJ Agreement by developing countries: (1) Increase professional opportunities and develop capacity of early researchers from developing countries; (2) fair participation in implementation of BBNJ Agreement; and (3) enabling capacity in developing countries to be sustained in the long term.