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The high seas – the vast waters beyond national jurisdiction – cover nearly two-thirds of our planet. They are home to some of Earth’s most mysterious and vital ecosystems, from migratory whales to deep sea corals, and serve as a crucial regulator of the global climate by absorbing carbon and heat. Yet despite their importance, they remain largely unprotected, vulnerable to overfishing, deep-sea mining, plastic pollution, and the mounting impacts of climate change. 

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the Sea on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction (also known as the ‘BBNJ Agreement’)1 was agreed. This new international legally binding instrument is aimed at conserving and sustainably using the marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction. Once in force,2 the effective and timely implementation of the BBNJ Agreement will make crucial contributions toward addressing the triple planetary crisis of nature and biodiversity loss, pollution and climate change.

Global efforts to restore mangrove coverage face a growing but underexplored threat from a warming ocean, jeopardizing the future benefits mangroves provide. Using high-resolution global data across 1-degree grid cells, we assess how climatic and socioeconomic factors influence mangrove dynamics. We find that mangroves are depleted in lower-income regions, but eventually restored as income rises. Similarly, mangroves in cooler areas may benefit from warming temperatures up to a threshold beyond which damage occurs.

Measurements analyzed by an international research team led by ETH Zurich show that the global ocean absorbed significantly less CO₂ than anticipated during the unprecedented marine heat wave in 2023.  The world's oceans act as an important sink for carbon dioxide (CO₂). To date, they have absorbed around a quarter of human-induced CO₂ emissions from the atmosphere, thereby stabilizing the global climate system.

Fish and other marine organisms, though deeply affected by human activities, don’t respect human borders. The ranges of many commercially important species in fact straddle the borders of countries’ exclusive economic zones (EEZs) and international waters, known as the high seas. This arrangement, which makes fisheries management difficult, is set to get even more complicated as climate change continues to heat up the ocean, a new study says.

Coral reefs are in crisis. Rising ocean temperatures driven by climate change are pushing these ecosystems to the brink, with mass bleaching events becoming more frequent and severe.  But what if nature already holds part of the solution?

The R4N Guidebook Series provides an in-depth analysis of models across the globe that unlock private sector capital into nature restoration or protection, including nature-based solutions (NbS). Each Guidebook offers detailed insights into the development of these models, the enabling conditions that allowed them to succeed, along with key lessons learned.

This guidance suggests actionable ways fisheries managers can utilize the types of survey and monitoring data generally being collected in priority areas (i.e. areas with distinctive biodiversity attributes or features) to measure biodiversity outcomes and meet requirements of other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs) Criterion C. While there is no standard for documenting outcomes of areas reported to the Convention on Biological Diversity or World Database on Protected Areas, FAO recommends documenting all reported OECMs with enough information as possible.

Climate change is rapidly transforming ocean conditions. Rising temperatures and shifting currents are disrupting ecosystems and causing marine species to move in new and often unpredictable ways. Coastal communities are affected by changes to coastlines, weather patterns, and access to marine resources, among other impacts. Marine protected areas (MPAs) are already experiencing the effects of climate change and managers must prepare for ongoing and future changes.

As ocean temperatures set new heat records, coral reef scientists are on a mission to identify which species and reefs can tolerate heat stress the best. But how and why do some corals cope with heat extremes better than others?