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BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Mar. Sci.
Sec. Marine Pollution
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmars.2025.1573396
This article is part of the Research Topic Advances in Marine Environmental Protection: Challenges, Solutions and Perspectives Volume II View all 3 articles
Optimizing the STB/BBNJ Arrangements: Based on Comparing Three STB
Provisionally accepted- China Institute of Boundary and Ocean Studies, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China
A Scientific and Technical Body (STB) is to be established under the BBNJ Agreement to provide high-quality assessments to support policy decisions. However, its terms of reference and modalities yet to be determined. Based on the three effectiveness factors of saliency, credibility and legitimacy, we classify the existing STB operational modalities into evaluation-oriented modality, recommendation-oriented modality, and decision-oriented modality. After comparing the three STB operational modalities, we conclude that the STB/BBNJ should be designed mainly based on a decision-oriented modality. Under this modality, the STB/BBNJ terms of reference may follow the principles of maintaining STB independence and preventing excessive powers. In accordance with the principles and to realise the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity, we suggest that the STB/BBNJ institutional arrangements should consider to include (1) a multidisciplinary expert involvement mechanism; (2) a transparent oversight mechanism; (3) dynamic adjustment mechanism; and (4) cooperation and coordination mechanism.
Keywords: Scientific and Technical Body (STB), BBNJ Agreement, Marine Biodiversity, operational modalities, Effectiveness factors, Decision-oriented modality, Terms of reference, Institutional arrangements
Received: 09 Feb 2025; Accepted: 01 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Li and Jiang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Xiaoyi Jiang, China Institute of Boundary and Ocean Studies, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China
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