Harriet Harden-Davies was one of five international experts invited to attend a high-level dialogue at the Nobel Institute in Oslo, 20-21 January 2020. The participants discussed marine genetic resources and benefit sharing, a current challenging issue in areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ).

In light on the new UN ocean treaty, Nereus member Harriet Harden-Davies and other co-authors highlight the need to address questions about capacity building as a key part of the development of new legal instruments under the BBNJ Agreement (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea).

Harriet Harden-Davies is lead author with Marjo Vierros and others on a new study published in Marine Policy, “Rights of Nature: Perspective for Global Ocean Stewardship.” In it, they discuss the inherent (and legally recognized) rights of nature and ecosystems, and how this perspective can be applied to global ocean governance.

Harriet Harden-Davies co-authored an analysis of the current draft text of the UN treaty concerning the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ). The final round of treaty negotiations based on revised draft text are planned for March at the UN headquarters in New York City.

At the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Harriet Harden-Davies participated in discussions about the development of a historic new treaty for marine biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ).

Nereus research fellow Harriet Harden-Davies (University of Wollongong/ANCORS) is a co-author on a new paper published in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science. In it, the authors discuss scientific best practices and accessibility to marine genetic resources (MGR), and how benefit sharing can be strengthened through a new Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) agreement.

Research fellows Harriet Harden-Davies (University of Wollongong/ANCORS) and Guillermo Ortuño Crespo (Duke University) with Daniel Dunn (Duke University) are co-authors on a policy brief published by IDDRI that aims to strengthen the current high seas management and governance framework to improve marine conservation and sustainability.

Nereus research fellow Harriet Harden-Davies (University of Wollongong/ANCORS) and Rashid Sumaila (UBC) are co-authors on a new paper published in Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems that identifies necessary measures to restore ocean health for future generations.

Nereus research fellow Harriet Harden-Davies (Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security (ANCORS), University of Wollongong) recently published a short article in the special Oceans edition (Spring 2019) of The Geographer, entitled ‘Sharing benefits from genetic resources and sustaining the high seas’.

Nereus Fellow Zoë Kitchel (Rutgers University) writes about fellows Katy Seto, Julia Mason, Tiff-Annie Kenny, Becca Selden and Harriet Harden-Davies discussing critically important themes concerning equity and interdisciplinarity in relation to how the ocean is studied at the United Nations building, during an Open-ended Informal Consultative Process on Oceans and the Law of the Sea.

Nereus Fellow Guillermo Ortuño Crespo (Duke University) writes about the first Global Planning Meeting of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development that he, fellow Harriet Harden-Davies (ANCORS, University of Wollongong) and policy director Yoshitaka Ota (University of Washington) attended in Copenhagen, Denmark on May 13-15th.

Nereus fellows Robert Blasiak (Stockholm Resilience Center) and Harriet Harden-Davies (University of Wollongong) both appear in The New York Times article ‘What 13,000 Patents Involving the DNA of Sea Life Tell Us About the Future’. Both fellows attended the United Nations debate earlier in September, about the future global legal framework for genetic resources on the high seas, and were interviewed for the article.