Implementation of Existing International Legal Instruments for Conservation and Sustainable Uses of Marine Biodiversity in Areas beyond National Jurisdiction: A Case Study of the OSPAR Convention
The states of the world face the new challenge of attempting to prevent the global loss of marine biodiversity by protecting the 64% of the surface area of the oceans that lies beyond national jurisdiction. With this aim, various regional agreements have been negotiated to commit states to set up representative networks of marine protected areas (MPAs). The aim of this note is to explain how it was possible to designate six MPAs in the high sea under the OSPAR Convention and some of the challenges this process raised.
Marine Protected Areas on the High Seas: Some Legal and Policy Considerations
The 2003 meeting of the United Nations Open-Ended Informal Consultative Process on Oceans and the Law of the Sea made a call to explore a range of tools for the protection and management of vulnerable and threatened marine ecosystems and biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction. To achieve this aim, the establishment of marine protected areas (MPAs) on the high seas not only fully complies with customary international law, but is also the subject-matter of specific obligations arising under a number of treaties (starting from UNCLOS Art. 194, para. 5). Today the time-honoured concept of freedom of the sea is to be understood in the context of the present range of marine activities and in relation to all the potentially conflicting uses and interests, such as the protection of the marine environment and the sound exploitation of marine living resources. The 1995 Protocol Concerning Specially Protected Areas and Biological Diversity in the Mediterranean is an interesting precedent on the issue of MPAs on the high seas.
Unregulated Deep-Sea Fisheries: A Need for a Multi-Level Approach
Many deep-sea fisheries share characteristics that distinguish them from other fisheries in a way which heightens sustainability and biodiversity concerns. Due to their depth of operation, many deep-sea fisheries occur in areas where the current international law of the sea gives coastal states no jurisdiction to regulate fisheries unilaterally. Whereas many international fisheries currently suffer from unregulated fishing under irresponsible flags of convenience, the concerns on deep-sea fisheries relate first of all to the absence of (international) regulation. The approach advocated in this article would be one where complementary action is taken simultaneously at the global, regional and national levels. As there may not be enough time for conceptually sound and holistic but incremental processes for regime building, the focus should first of all be on flexible short-term action.