Management

The question of how to efficiently and effectively manage ocean resources in a sustainable way has reached the forefront of discussion at an international level, but women's contributions to this process have been underestimated or unrecognized. Inclusive management plays a major role in the effective creation, use and adoption of environmental governance, necessitating efforts to measure, monitor and advance inclusivity.

In 2018 the Council of the ICCA Consortium decided to develop a lexicon of meaningful, and at times complex, concepts and terms frequently used in its work, policies and relations with its Members and Partners. A few specific papers had been commissioned and prepared before, but no attempt had been made to collate working definitions of frequent use, while many felt a need for such a reference compendium. This document is the result of the Council’s decision. It is a rich beginning, expected to evolve and be further integrated and enriched in the years to come.

This paper reviews the provisions and efforts to implement the 1946 International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW) and the 1980 Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR). It illustrates progress and continuing challenges to stopping the over exploitation of living resources in high seas areas beyond national jurisdictions.

The Cook Islands (CI), South Pacific, has one of the highest ratios of ocean to land area of any ocean island state in the world. Within it's EEZ exist abundant resources of seabed manganese nodules, thought to be the fourth richest resource of its type in the world, with a potential theoretical monetary value of c. $10 trillion US. The largely hydrogenetic nodules are rich in Ti, REE, Mn, Co and Ni. Economic studies suggest that a single twenty year-long mining operation could generate c. 150 jobs directly supporting 15% (c. $43M US) of the CI GDP.

Good governance is fundamental to effective protected area (PA) design, planning, and management operations, and the degree to which these are equitable in terms of the recognition and engagement of key actors, and the distribution of benefits and costs/burdens. Achieving both effective and equitable PA management is central to international PA policy (ie Aichi target 11). Site-level PA governance assessment assesses the quality of the governance arrangements of a PA in relation to best practice which is defined in terms of a set of good governance principles.

The UN General Assembly has made a unanimous decision to start negotiations to establish an international, legally-binding instrument for the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity within Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (ABNJ). However, there has of yet been little discussion on the importance of this move to the ecosystem services provided by coastal zones in their downstream zone of influence.

This manual provides detailed guidance for assessing the governance quality of protected areas (PAs) and other conserved areas (CAs) and any related conservation and development activities. The manual describes the relatively low-cost Governance Assessment for Protected and Conserved Areas (GAPA) methodology, which is intended for use at site level. GAPA can be used with PAs and CAs of any kind. This includes PAs/CAs governed and managed by government agencies, communities and the private sector.

The high seas begin 200 nautical miles from coastal shores, beyond the jurisdiction of any country. Their vast expanse and distance from shore pose challenges for exploration and knowledge gathering. However, scientific expeditions in recent years have revealed that these areas, which make up nearly two-thirds of the world’s ocean, harbor an incredible array of species that provide essential services for life on Earth.

States at the United Nations have begun negotiating a new treaty to strengthen the legal regime for marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction. Failure to ensure the full scope of fish biodiversity is covered could result in thousands of species continuing to slip through the cracks of a fragmented global ocean governance framework.

Full Paper (Pdf)

A Guide to Support Community Decision-Making on Coastal Erosion and Flooding Issues