UNITED NATIONS: A multinational treaty to protect vast expanses of the world’s oceans is finally set to become law in January, with environmentalists hailing its enactment on Friday as crucial to safeguarding the marine ecosystems.

The move by Morocco and Sierra Leone to join the UN treaty on the high seas clinched the threshold of 60 ratifications needed to enact it as international law.

The law aims to protect biodiverse areas in waters worldwide that lie in waters beyond countries’ exclusive economic zones.

Teeming with plant and animal life, the oceans are responsible for creating half of the globe’s oxygen supply and are vital to combatting climate change, conservationists say.

But those same waters are threatened by pollution and overfishing. They also face growing challenges from deep-sea mining, with an emerging industry plumbing previously untouched seabeds for commodities including nickel, cobalt and copper.

“Covering more than two-thirds of the ocean, the agreement sets binding rules to conserve and sustainably use marine biodiversity,” United Nati­ons Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.

The law aims to protect international waters that make up around 60 percent of the oceans. Until now, only one percent of high seas waters have had such legal safeguards.

Fragile marine areas

Environmentalists say marine ecosystems in the high seas must be protected because they are sources of oxygen and limit global warming by absorbing a significant portion of carbon dioxide emitted through human activities.

Once the treaty becomes law, a decision-making body will have to work with a patchwork of regional and global organizations already overseeing different aspects of the oceans.

Published in Dawn, September 20th, 2025