Pre-collection notification under article 12, paragraph 2, of the BBNJ Agreement
The Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea of the Office of Legal Affairs of the United Nations, in carrying out the secretariat functions under the Agreement 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 (the BBNJ Agreement) until such time as the secretariat established thereunder commences its functions, has the honour of referring to article 12, paragraph 2, of the BBNJ Agreement, which sets out the information to be notified to the clearing-house mechanism established under the Agreement prior to the collection in situ of marine genetic resources of areas beyond national jurisdiction.
It is recalled that, as noted in Notification 2026-001 dated 10 February 2026, until such time as the clearing-house mechanism established under the Agreement is operational, notifications and information submitted pursuant to the relevant provisions of the BBNJ Agreement are to be sent to the Division at doalos@un.org, which will circulate such notifications and information, as appropriate, and make them available on the website of the Agreement.
In this regard, the Division wishes to inform Parties to the BBNJ Agreement that a pre-collection notification pursuant to article 12, paragraph 2, of the Agreement has been received from the Permanent Mission of Ireland to the United Nations on 16 July 2026. Pending the generation, by the clearing-house mechanism once operational, of a “BBNJ” standardized batch identifier, the following interim reference number has been assigned upon this pre-collection notification: BBNJ-MGR-TEMP-2026-001.
The information contained in this pre-collection notification is available on the website of the Agreement under the tab entitled “Information-sharing under the Agreement”, sub-tab “Marine genetic resources”.