Background

A Particularly Sensitive Sea Area (PSSA) is a designation assigned by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to recognize and protect specific marine areas that are of ecological, socio-economic, scientific, or cultural significance based on the best available scientific knowledge. The PSSA tool is an Area Based Management Tool (ABMT) within the international shipping sector regulated by all the legal framework of the International Maritime Organization.

Given that the purpose of designating a PSSA is to implement measures to mitigate potential risks and hazards posed by shipping activities in these sensitive areas, it is a very useful tool to avoid and prevent harm and increase conservation of the biodiversity and ecosystems of the high seas. The PSSA is an efficient tool for achieving a sustainable shipping activity and at the same time, conservation efforts and global biodiversity targets as the UN Convention on Migratory Species (CMS), the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework 30×30 goal), and 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 (BBNJ Agreement).

The event follows on the high level side event in Pre UNOC in Costa Rica in June 2024, and the  workshop on PPSAs on the High Seas, organized by the SARGADOM project in November 2023 to present how the PSSA tool is a very appropriate tool to protect and achieve the sustainable use of key and unique ecosystems in the high seas as the Thermal Dome in the Eastern Pacific Ocean.

Objective

The main objective of the event is to explore the role of Particularly Sensitive Sea Areas (PSSA) as a crucial tool of ecosystem integrated management to promote a deeper understanding on how PSSAs as area-based management tools (ABMTs) could contribute to the 30×30 conservation target and to advance Sustainable Development Goal 14 (SDG 14), as well in complementarity to the BBNJ Agreement. Also, the launch of the commitment by Honduras to lead a PSSA proposal for the Thermal Dome will take place during the event.

At the end of the event participants will have acquired increased awareness of the significance of PSSAs in achieving global conservation goals and understand the need to establish management measures for the shipping sector to maintain and protect the biological, and ecosystem connectivity that occurs within and beyond of national jurisdictions.