Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
The response to historic failures of marine governance that commen-
tators have called for, and that developed coastal states are now applying,
is to give responsibility for controlling all activities within de
ned areas
of the seas to a single body or, at least, to establish coherent decision-
making structures in which different actors collaborate in pursuing set
goals.
121
Many of these new governance arrangements have, on paper
at least, espoused an
to managing marine
activities, and have adopted the restoration of marine ecosystem health
as the principal objective of governance.
122
An ecosystem-based approach
entails that different sectors should be regulated by reference to how,
individually and collectively, they would affect ecosystem structure, func-
tioning and key processes, and that the common goal of regulation would
be to maintain these components of ecosystem health.
123
Proponents of an ecosystem-based approach call for units of gover-
nance to correspond, as far as possible, with identi
'
ecosystem-based approach
'
able ecosystems. The
aim is to minimise the
number of factors outside the boundaries of the
management system that need to be considered
'
.
124
This approach to
establishing a framework for governance would be more easily applied
than on land because large tracts of the seas fall under the jurisdiction
of coastal states. However, it is recognised that
'
nite
number of regional ecosystems that can become the foci of management
efforts will entail a compromise between our understanding of biological
populations and oceanographic processes and the established structure
of human institutions and political jurisdictions.
'
[d]elineating a
125
An obvious con-
straint is that the jurisdiction of states, unless special circumstances
apply, does not extend beyond 200 nautical miles from coastal baselines.
126
'
in adjacent marine areas (the continental shelf and the exclusive economic zone) over
which, to the extent laid down in the Convention, they have authority. See United
Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea, Montego Bay, 10 December 1982, in force 16
November 1994, 1833 UNTS 3, 21 ILM 1245 (1982).
121
J. S. Jones and S. Ganey,
in K. McLeod
and H. Leslie (eds) Ecosystem-based Management for the Oceans (Washington, DC:
Island Press, 2009), pp. 174
'
Building the Legal and Institutional Framework
'
-
7; see also in the same volume A. A. Rosenberg et al.,
'
Lessons from National-level Implementation Across the World
'
(
2009
), pp. 305
-
12
and K. McLeod and H. Leslie (
2009
)
'
Ways Forward
'
, pp. 349
-
50.
122
K. McLeod and H. Leslie,
in K. McLeod and
H. Leslie (eds) Ecosystem-based Management for the Oceans (Washington, DC: Island
Press, 2009), pp. 3
'
Why Ecosystem-based Management?
'
-
11; Rosenberg et al.,
'
Lessons from Implementation
'
,pp.294
-
313.
123
McLeod and Leslie,
'
Ecosystem-based Management
'
,pp.5
-
6.
124
Rosenberg and Sandifer,
,p.15.
125
Ibid
.
126
R. R. Churchill and A. V. Lowe, The Law of the Sea, 3rd edn (Manchester: Manchester
University Press, 1999), pp. 162
'
What do Managers Need?
'
-
3.
