High Seas Treaty Arctic Birthday Party

a Rap Up

by Baba Brinkman

Baba Brinkman creates a 'rap up' recap of the virtual arctic birthday party hosted by WWF Global Arctic Programme, which was created to celebrate the impact of the one-year-old UN High Seas Treaty on Arctic biodiversity and conservation initiatives.

Happy birthday, happy birthday, happy birthday

It’s a party, it’s a birthday greeting

It’s a celebration, plus a public policy meeting

One year after adoption, it wasn’t easy

But we made it, hey!

We got a High Seas Treaty

It’s a birthday bash, a blowout; it’s a party

It’s a celebration of the treaty for the global Arctic

It took a lot to get here, a road full of hardship

But we made it this far, so let’s get the party started

It’s the BBNJ, baby, so learn the diction

Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction

The building of an international coalition

Arctic marine protection as a global mission

And how better to celebrate that than with rap music?

Inspired by Jan Dusik, catalyzing the movement

To bring the global nations together, and protect the rights

Of Arctic ecosystems and people, let’s get it ratified

Jan had it right, the treaty is for the Arctic

Right now it’s been signed by the seven nation army

But we need sixty ratifications, so let’s do this

All the parties are called on to sign, take it from Kirsten Schuijt

It’s a movement, this baby’s taking it’s first steps

It’s got seven parents already nurturing, yes

But we gotta prepare to bring implementation action in

You hear it from OSPAR, from Dominic Pattinson

The treaty is a toddler, but also a teenager

It’s been around for decades, the process has been major

The protection of marine environments should not be this hard

OSPAR is not the global marine cop car

It doesn’t have a mandate to cover fishing or mining

That’s why there’s a clause attached: “not undermining”

So many treaties involved, from CAFF to NEAFC

To CAOFA, to Sustainable Ocean Initiatives

That just happened in Korea

IMO, the ArcNet Priority Areas, OSPAR

Can you help us sort it out please, Erik Molenaar?!

The treaty’s full of benefits

That what we’re all gonna sea

The third version of the UNCLOS

That’s the UN Convention on the Laws of the Sea

With brand new capacity-building tools in the bag

Even if some are covered by IMO

Take it from Fredrik Haag

The High Seas Treaty has the full support of Fredrik

He was like “Yeah, ’cause we’ve got like fifty

Conventions already, so what’s one more?”

Fredrik is one of the grandparents

This baby will thrive with a little bit of burden-sharing

And a multilateral mindset, that’s how we go big

With Indigenous participation, big-up Sarah Olsvig

From the Inuit Circumpolar Council

Is it fully integrated yet? Sarah was doubtful

But also hopeful, that we can align beautifully

If we stop conflating ‘Indigenous’ with ‘local communities’

Cooperation and sharing is key, is that too hard?

No more unregulated fishing either, said Nadia Bouffard

Unsustainable fisheries are the type that collapse

So it’s essential to restore the Arctic fish biomass

Don’t give a cranky baby treaty a nap

Give it a birthday present, an interactive map

That shows how the treaties overlap, resolve it

With a killer data visualizer from Vicki Lee Wallgren

The Arctic Executive Steering Committee has got this

The White House is with it, we heard it from Dave Balton

And that’s how we go from the first step to the first hop

To the full-on sprint ratification, and the first COP

That ratification mission, that’s an active decision

To engage in the dialogue, take it from Katrine Nissen

At PAME, the regimes, they can have a frame

But the common vision

THAT makes our missions the same

There’s no need to reinvent the wheel in the first place

The wheel is turning, and this here is its first birthday

And now I think you’ve got the point

So give a shout out to all the speakers here who joined

‘Cause it’s the BBNJ, baby, we gotta learn the diction

Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction

The building of an international coalition

Arctic marine protection, that’s the global mission

It’s a party, y’all, it’s a birthday greeting