BBNJ CHM Prototype

The UN Agreement on Marine Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) (better known as the High Seas Treaty) aims to better conserve and sustainably use the roughly two-thirds of the ocean that belongs to no one state. It entered into force in January 2026, more than 100 states have ratified it, and the first Conference of the Parties will take place in January 2027.

The Clearing-House Mechanism is the Treaty’s open-access platform for sharing information. It’s where notifications about marine genetic resources (MGRs), environmental impact assessments (EIA), capacity-building requests and proposals for marine protected areas (MPAs) are supposed to land.

So far the official Clearing-House Mechanism is mostly a noticeboard of documents, meetings and contacts. But the Agreement also needs a desk where things are submitted, reviewed, published, notified and audited.

This prototype provides an example of how this could work.

Intake can be a form or a spreadsheet. Identifiers are issued in order. Roles are enforced. Confidentiality settings follow every list and export. There’s no public host; you run it yourself. It’s MIT-licensed and without prejudice to COP1.

The prototype is open source on GitHub, so you can try it out for yourself. If you need help setting it up or want a live walk-through, get in touch.