Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Common-pool resources and ocean environmental issues
Most environmental issues pertaining to the ocean are common-pool resource (CPR)
problems. In game-theoretic terms, CPRs have two central characteristics. First, they are
non-excludable, meaning that access to the resource in question is open to anyone.
Second, they are rival (also called subtractable), which means that the use of a resource
by one actor can diminish the availability or quality of that resource for other actors
(Barkin and Shambaugh,1999). Take ocean pollution as an example. The ocean is non-
excludable because it can be di
cult, legally or practically, to prevent a given actor from
polluting the oceans. And it is rival because each additional amount of pollution put into
the oceans diminishes their use for others.
Common-pool resources are di
ning
characteristics. Since the resource in question is rival, all actors that could impact the
resource need to be involved in its management. Any actor that does not contribute to
addressing the problem can actively prevent it from being successfully addressed: if most
states prohibit their ships from dumping toxic waste at sea, the one or two that still allow
it can cause su
cult to manage successfully because of their de
fi
t from the
majority of states that refrained. But because the resource is non-excludable, these actors
that are unwilling to cooperate envionmentally cannot be kept from access to the resource
if they refuse to participate.
For this reason, common-pool resources, unlike more standard public goods, cannot
be adequately protected or provided by a sub-group of committed actors who, for self-
interested or altruistic reasons, want to undertake more than their share of the responsi-
bility. In order to truly protect the oceans, methods must be found to ensure the
participation of the vast majority of states, or the ships registered in them, in regulatory
e
cient damage to ocean ecosystems to overcome any bene
fi
orts. In the context of international agreements that must voluntarily be taken on by
states, open registries that can gain ship registrations by not taking on those rules, and
ship owners that bene
ff
t from keeping environmental standards low, environmental pro-
tection on the oceans can be especially hard to accomplish.
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The International Maritime Organization and environmental regulation
Although there are a number of international regulations that address the ocean envi-
ronment that are negotiated as stand-alone environmental agreements, the institution
with primary responsibility for the intersection of shipping and environmental protection
is the International Maritime Organization. The IMO was founded in 1948 by the major
maritime states to coordinate international policy relating to issues of shipping. The orga-
nization is a
liated with, but operates independently of, the United Nations. It has a
decision-making structure that includes an assembly and a council, along with a number
of committees that focus on such issues as maritime safety, maritime environmental pro-
tection, and legal and technical questions. Through this decision-making process it issues
recommendations as well as codes (or guidelines) to its members.
More important are the intergovernmental negotiations it coordinates to reach the
major international agreements pertaining to maritime safety and environmental protec-
tion. The resulting agreements operate as any standard international agreement, binding
only those states that ratify (and requiring a certain number of rati
fi
cations - and, slightly
more innovatively - rati
cation by states accounting for a certain percentage of registered
shipping). The IMO also then serves as the secretariat for these agreements.
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