A regional conference held in Fiji this week has put Pacific voices at the centre of an emerging global regime for the high seas, as island nations prepare for the first major implementation meeting of the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) Agreement in January 2027. Delegates and scientists urged that generational knowledge and local researchers be recognised as partners — not mere sources of samples — as the treaty moves from signature to application.
The United Nations-adopted BBNJ Agreement, finalised in 2023, entered into force in 2026 and governs the roughly 60 per cent of the ocean beyond national jurisdiction. Central to the treaty is how benefits from marine genetic resources are shared as researchers and companies explore applications ranging from cancer treatments to cosmetics. The Fiji workshop focused on practical ways those benefits can reach Pacific communities well before lengthy commercialisation timelines play out.
“We want to be part of the knowledge generation,” said Dr Katy Soapi, a chemist specialising in ocean organisms, at the conference. “We don’t want to be observers anymore. We want to be partners.” Participants warned of ongoing “helicopter research” practices — outsiders collecting samples and data while giving little credit or tangible benefit to local communities — and pressed for concrete safeguards under BBNJ’s benefit-sharing provisions.
Speakers stressed that the agreement differs from the Nagoya Protocol, which governs access and benefit-sharing for genetic resources within national waters. Both frameworks require Free, Prior and Informed Consent when traditional knowledge is used, conference delegates noted, but implementation and enforcement remain unresolved. Delegates emphasised the need to clearly distinguish government sovereign rights over resources from communities’ customary ownership of knowledge about them.
Solomon Islander Trevor Maeda highlighted the foundational role of generational knowledge in sustaining Pacific livelihoods, while Joape Ginigini, a biotechnology researcher at the University of the South Pacific, said Pacific Island scientists are crucial for “contextualising the research.” Conference discussions pushed for benefit-sharing that begins long before commercial returns — through training, access to data, publication credits and inclusion of young researchers — rather than waiting out 20–30 year drug-discovery timelines.
With the BBNJ treaty now active and the first major meeting less than two years away, Pacific delegates argued that a coordinated regional approach is necessary. “Instead of 14 national approaches,” they said, the region should present a unified strategy to shape rules and capacity support at the 2027 conference of parties. The urgency is practical: early decisions on monitoring, data access and capacity-building will determine whether Pacific communities influence research priorities and share in scientific and commercial benefits.
The Fiji workshop represents a latest push to translate legal commitments on paper into mechanisms that deliver for island communities. As implementation negotiations accelerate toward the January 2027 session, organisers and delegates say the region’s message is clear: traditional knowledge and Pacific scientists must be central to high-seas research and benefit-sharing, not sidelined by external actors.