Supplementary file 4_Implementing the BBNJ Agreement: shaping and being shaped through institutional interaction with RFMOs.docx

The analysis reveals that the Agreement provides a generally supportive legal basis for coordination and cooperation. However, its interaction mechanisms do not by themselves ensure constructive interaction in practice. Such interaction requires clear operational rules, careful management of overlapping regulatory roles, early and meaningful RFMO participation and proper evaluation of RFMO input.

It will also depend on whether RFMOs give practical effect to the relevant decisions, recommendations and standards adopted under the Agreement through their own decision-making. States participating in both regimes will be central to this process. They will carry BBNJ outputs into RFMO processes, while RFMO knowledge, practices and institutional responses will shape how the Agreement is applied to high seas fisheries.

Implementation will therefore be a reciprocal process in which each regime shapes and is shaped by the other. Readiness on both sides will be essential if this relationship is to support more coherent and integrated ocean governance.</p>