The LSE based Ocean Biodiversity Collective organised the first of a two-part workshop on the Oceans Treaty in collaboration with Dr Muriel Rabone and other experts from the Natural History Museum on July 13th 2024 on 'The Standardised Batch Identifier in the BBNJ Agreement: Function, Attributes and Outcome'. The Ocean Biodiversity Collective was set up last year with funding from LSE's Knowledge Exchange and Impact Fund to help State Party efforts at ratification and eventual implementation of the Ocean Treaty.
"It was very good to get stuck into the nitty gritty of a key 'fix' to biodiversity governance in the Treaty - 'The Standardised Batch Identifier' - machine and human readable identifier that will link genetic resources from the high seas with digital sequence information and enable reporting of benefits generated from the use of those resources", says Dr Siva Thambisetty, lead partner of the initiative. 'When capital-based experts are considering implementation challenges, these sorts of discussions between scientists, database organisers and the private sector will be critical for legal certainty.'
The second part of the workshop will focus on private sector obligations. To find out more about Dr Thambisetty's work see the following:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0o9UvhJA-M
https://www.lse.ac.uk/research/research-for-the-world/sustainability/protecting-the-high-seas
https://www.lse.ac.uk/Events/2024/02/202402061830/treaty
In-person participants in front of the sculpture by Mark Wallinger ‘The World Turned Upside Down’ on LSE campus showing the landmass in the southern hemisphere. It provokes a different world view, ‘familiar, strange and subject to change’ (Mark Wallinger)