Part 3 of the Act relates to the implementation of Part III of the BBNJ Agreement. Part III of the Agreement establishes a regime by which ABMTs can be established and managed for the purpose of protecting the marine environment in ABNJ. ABMTs are defined in the BBNJ Agreement as "a tool, including a marine protected area, for a geographically defined area through which one or several sectors or activities are managed with the aim of achieving particular conservation and sustainable use objectives in accordance with this Agreement".
	Although not specified in the Agreement, measures to implement ABMTs are likely to require control or restriction of activities within a geographic area for the purposes of meeting conservation or sustainable use objectives (for example, restrictions on high seas energy generation infrastructure to conserve an MPA feature). The Act enables the Secretary of State to make regulations to restrict or control an activity as required in ABNJ. This includes emergency measures, which may be adopted under Article 24 of the Agreement. These measures are to be applied on an emergency basis when a natural phenomenon or human-caused disaster has caused, or is likely to cause, serious or irreversible harm to marine biological diversity to ensure that the serious or irreversible harm is not exacerbated.
	In addition, the Act includes a power for the Secretary of State to issue a direction, without the need for secondary legislation, where emergency measures adopted under Article 24 of the Agreement require an immediate intervention to control or restrict activities of UK craft.
	The Act also provides Scottish Ministers and the Northern Ireland Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs with concurrent powers to make regulations within devolved competence corresponding to the power to make provision granted to the Secretary of Stage under section 14 of the Act. In addition, it places an obligation on the Secretary of State to consult Scottish Ministers and the Northern Ireland Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs before exercising powers under section 14 where regulations contain provision that fall within their respective legislative competence, except for the purposes of implementing emergency measures adopted under Article 24(1) of the BBNJ Agreement.
Part 1 and Part 2 – Introduction and Marine Genetic Resources Part 3 - Area-Based Management Tools (ABMTs)