Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Group to study issues related to the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological
diversity beyond areas of national jurisdiction (the UN Working Group); and the Regular
Process for Global Reporting and Assessment of the State of the Marine Environment, in-
cluding Socio-economic Aspects (Regular Process) Working Group.
The UN Working Group was established by the UNGA in 2004, and presently a num-
ber of governments are calling for an implementing agreement under UNCLOS for the
conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction. This
would address a package of five issues: (1) area-based management measures, including
marine protected areas (MPAs); (2) environmental impact assessments; (3) marine genetic
resources, including questions related to sharing of benefits; (4) capacity-building; and (5)
technology transfer (Gjerde,
2012
).
The UN Fish Stocks Agreement
The UN Fish Stocks Agreement is an implementing agreement of UNCLOS, which was
adoptedon4August1995bytheUnitedNationsConferenceonStraddlingFishStocksand
Highly Migratory Fish Stocks (24 July-4 August), and entered into force on 11 December
2001. It is to be interpreted and applied in the context of, and consistently with, UNCLOS
(cf.
Chapter 10
)
.
ory fish stocks. The objective of the Agreement is to ensure the long-term conservation
and sustainable use of these stocks. It elaborates on the relevant provisions of UNCLOS
by requiring fisheries management to be based on the precautionary and ecosystem ap-
proaches, and provides for monitoring, control, and surveillance. It also includes detailed
provisions on enforcement and international cooperation, especially at the regional level
(Kimball,
2005
). To ensure effective implementation of the Convention a requirement was
included for the establishment of regional and subregional fisheries management organiza-
