The meeting adopted the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and Benefit-sharing and adopted the Aichi Target, which includes the area of terrestrial biological resources reserves should reach 17% and the area of marine biological resources reserves should reach 10% by 2020. The United Nations Decade of Biodiversity was launched.

The South Orkney Islands South Shelf Marine Reserve was established, and China began the krill detection in the Southern Ocean in the same year.

The meeting officially launched a discussion on the CCAMLR marine protected area.

The Ad Hoc Open-ended Informal Working Group on the Study of Conservation and Sustainable Use of BBNJ was established by the United Nations General Assembly in its resolution 59/24 in 2004, which exchanged views on institutional coordination, the necessity of short-term measures, the handling of illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing (IUU) and destructive fishing methods, marine genetic resources (MGRs), marine scientific research (MSR) on marine biodiversity, marine protected areas and environmental impact assessments.

The meeting adopted the Plan of Implementation of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, and Article 30(c) of the plan sets out the global goal of establishing a representative marine protected area in 2012.

The United Nations Agreement for the Implementation of the Provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 10 December 1982 relating to the Conservation and Management of Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks (the United Nations Fish Stocks Agreement) takes effect on December 11, 2001.