Building ecologically representative and well-connected High Seas ABMT networks: A joint GOBI-HSSG workshop on BBNJ implementation
12-14 March 2025
Duke University, USA
Workshop overview
This three-day workshop will address various essential and interlinked themes for advancing the effective implementation of Part III of the BBNJ Agreement: measures such as Area-Based Management Tools, including Marine Protected Areas. Participants will focus on conceptual and methodological frameworks for establishing an ecologically representative and well-connected network of area-based management tools, reflecting particularly on the principles laid out in Annex II of the CBD EBSA Decision (UNEP/CBD/COP/DEC/IX/20). Discussions will review scientific progress to support these network criteria since their publication in 2008, as well as their relevance/application to BBNJ Agreement implementation, including innovative planning approaches to ensure robust and representative marine protection. Attention will then turn to refinement of draft definitions and indicators for BBNJ Annex I criteria and best practices for understanding and using bioregionalisation in areas beyond national jurisdiction – critical for guiding consistent, transparent, and science-based identification of these management measures, including under a changing climate, and ensuring their ecological representativity. By integrating these discussions, the workshop aims to contribute to more collaborative, coherent, effective, and forward-looking ocean governance.
This workshop is an in-person event; participation is by invitation only.
Workshop logistics and travel information
The workshop is kindly hosted by our colleagues at the Duke University Marine Geospatial Ecology Lab. We will be located on the Duke University main campus in Durham, North Carolina, USA.
The nearest airport is Raleigh-Durham International Airport (airport code RDU), approximately 20 minutes’ drive from the Duke campus. Public transport from the airport to the hotel/University is limited; we advise taking a taxi. Uber and Lyft operate in Durham. We are aware of everyone’s arrival details and will connect people who are arriving on the same flights or at similar times so you can share transport to the hotel.
The workshop will take place in the Field Auditorium (Room 1112) in Grainger Hall on the Duke main campus – see map for location below, or use this link to view it on Google maps. The dotted red line on the map below shows the 10-minute walking route from the workshop hotel (details below) to Grainger Hall.
Accommodation for workshop participants is organised via a group booking at the AC Hotel Durham, 2800 Erwin Rd, Durham, NC 27705. The hotel is a 10-minute walk to the workshop venue on campus. Breakfast is included with your accommodation and you will receive individual confirmation of your room reservation in due course. If you are travelling by car and require parking at the hotel, this is available free of charge – please contact Vikki Gunn to book a space.
Lunch and coffee break refreshments will be provided during the workshop. Please let us know well in advance if you have any special dietary requirements.
Workshop programme
An outline workshop programme is shown below – the final programme is available to download here. All times shown are local Eastern Daylight Time (GMT -4).
Wednesday 12 March 2025
09:00 – 17:15
- Welcome and introduction
- Scientific foundations for ABMT/MPA networks:
- Biodiversity criteria development
- Review and discussion of the CBD IX/20 Annex II network criteria
- Synergies between EBSA Annex II criteria and BBNJ Annex I indicative criteria
Thursday 13 March 2025
09:00 – 17:30
- BBNJ indicative criteria definitions & indicators:
- Presentation and discussion of white paper
- Breakout group discussions
- Stocktake of bioregionalisation efforts and best practices:
- Presentations and breakout group discussion
- Workshop dinner (TBC)
Friday 14 March 2025
09:00 – 15:00
- Best practices and roadmap for BBNJ bioregionalisation
- Exploring methodologies for network design in ABNJ
- Implications of workshop outcomes
- Workshop wrap-up: actions and next steps
Background documents and pre-workshop reading
- CBD Decision IX/20 – including Annex II (the EBSA network criteria)
- CBD EBSA Azores workshop report, 2007
- CBD expert workshop on ecological criteria and biogeographic classification systems for marine areas in need of protection – report, 2009
- BBNJ Agreement + Annex I indicative criteria
- Workshop white paper on BBNJ Annex I indicative criteria (confidential to the workshop)
- Workshop white paper on concepts, methods and examples of bioregionalisation (confidential to the workshop)
- Report of the GOBI workshop on EBSAs in ABNJ (Santa Cruz, Nov 2022)
- Report of the GOBI workshop on the EBSA portfolio as a potential starting point for scoping ABMT/MPA proposals for BBNJ (online, Sept 2024)
Questions?
Please address any questions to Vikki Gunn at the GOBI Secretariat, email vikki.gunn[at]seascapeconsultants.co.uk
