Since 2010, the process under the Convention on Biological Diversity to facilitate the description of areas meeting the criteria for ecologically or biologically significant marine areas (EBSAs) has led to the description of 338 EBSAs around the world. This has been a key component of work on marine and coastal biodiversity under the CBD and has made important contributions to national and international efforts to improve the management of marine areas and to improving our understanding of the most important parts of the ocean.

At its 16^th meeting in 2024, the CBD COP adopted new modalities for the EBSA process, which is now based on submissions from eligible proponents and require that submissions to be included in the EBSA repository are required to be considered by SBSTTA and COP (decision 16/16). For more information on these modalities, you can consult decision 16/16, the Handbook for the EBSA process and the recording of a webinar convened in April 2025 to explain the modalities.

At its 28^th meeting, SBSTTA will consider 29 submissions from Angola, Côte d’Ivoire, Namibia and South Africa that address new descriptions of areas meeting the EBSA criteria as well as modifications to existing EBSA descriptions.

This side event provides an opportunity to hear more about these submissions from the proponents. 

Representatives of the CBD Secretariat will help to place this work in its historical context and outline the next steps in the process.