The high seas offer opportunities for fishing, scientific research and the discovery of valuable marine resources.
But with countries having different levels of access to technology and expertise, questions remain about how these waters should be protected and who benefits from what they offer.
International cooperation on ocean protection is guided by legal frameworks that define countries' rights and responsibilities at sea. One of these is the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, known as UNCLOS, under which the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Agreement was developed.
Dr Carol !Garus-Oas, Chairperson of the Technical Committee on Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction and Namibia's National Focal Point for the BBNJ Agreement, explains the importance of an international framework for protecting these shared waters.
"It's basically an overarching constitutional framework that deals with ocean governance. And then we have the BBNJ, which is basically an agreement under the UNCLOS, which looks specifically at marine conservation protection, or marine resource protection, and of course also regulates human activities in the high seas."
The agreement addresses the impact of human activities on international waters, where access to marine resources remains unequal.
"So anyone can go there if they have the means to do fishing, navigation, or exploration. Would one even assume exploitation because there are no rules or regulations guiding it? Hence now the nations negotiated on a treaty, on an agreement called the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction that is ideally customised and designed to protect the marine environment and the resources and, of course, regulate human activities."
Migratory fish species like tuna cross maritime boundaries, making international cooperation essential to protecting Namibia's marine resources.
"Everything has a ripple effect. We have struggling fish species, like the tunas, for example, that if we don't set some type of instrument in place to protect the struggling stocks, it will have an impact on us to access the struggling stocks, for example."
The BBNJ Agreement also creates opportunities for countries to strengthen their scientific capacity, access marine technology and participate in decisions about protecting ecologically important areas.
Dr !Garus-Oas warns that developing countries may lack the resources and technology needed to benefit from high-seas research and discoveries.
"The high seas is free for all, but until when? And for whom is it free? Developing countries do not have the capacity to go out there and find a very unique resource that could be propagated into something very valuable."
The agreement aims to strengthen global cooperation in marine biodiversity conservation and equitable benefit-sharing.
Namibia has established a technical committee to assess its readiness to join and identify necessary legal and institutional reforms.