Management

The adoption of effective fisheries conservation and management measures (‘CMM’) represents a critical stage in the process of sustainably managing global fishing stocks. It represents the point at which scientific data is integrated with law and policy considerations to generate concrete rules designed to constrain the behaviour of fishers and other stakeholders in order to promote desired conservation goals within a fishery. This paper will examine the fisheries CMM process within the broader framework of international law and policy for marine resource governance.

The development of a new international legally binding instrument for the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ agreement) is in the final negotiation phase. Legal recognition of rights of nature is emerging worldwide as a fresh imperative to preserve ecological integrity, safeguard human wellbeing, broaden participation in decision-making, and give a voice to nature – but so far exclusively within national jurisdiction. In this paper, we consider how a Rights of Nature perspective might inform the BBNJ agreement.

The goals of the Jaluit Atoll Environmental Resource Management Plan (ERMP) are to provide all stakeholders with a framework to guide environmental resource management initiatives that will assist the community to maintain healthy marine and terrestrial environments for current and future generations. The options set forth in the ERMP are specifically designed to promote and empower all communities to actively participate in the protection of the atoll’s valuable resources, while allowing for sustainable use.

This Conservation and Management Plan was the culmination of a community-wide consultation undertaken to review the 20-year old ACMCA Management Plan first endorsed in 1994.The scope of this Plan is dictated by AMP’s status as an established and internationally recognized conservation program that has been operated for more than 20 years to date. With such operational status, this Plan is therefore tailored to meet legal requirements for declaration as a protected area under the new legal regime.

The United Nations are currently negotiating a new international legally-binding instrument to govern the global ocean commons, a vast area beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ) owned by everyone but not cared for by any single entity. Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPLCs) have been underrepresented in the debate about governance of ABNJ despite their internationally recognized rights and their role as custodians of many globally-significant migratory species that travel between coasts and high seas.

Local communities’ support for resource conservation projects are essential for their success. Nevertheless, in the Pacific Island countries, many community-based conservation (CBC) projects remain ineffective due to the lack of community members’ engagement. To better understand the motivations of local community members to support resource conservation projects; this research looks at the four community-based conservation sites in North Tarawa, Kiribati.

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.