Submarine Telecommunication Cables and a Biodiversity Agreement in abnj: Finding New Routes for Cooperation

2017 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Friedman
Keyword(s):  
Marine Protected Areas ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Sustainable Use ◽  
Management Tools ◽  
Cable Industry ◽  
Environmental Impact Assessments ◽  
New Instrument ◽  
Preparatory Committee ◽  
National Jurisdiction ◽  
Submarine Cables

In 2016, countries began meeting at the United Nations (un) to prepare for negotiations to develop an international legally binding instrument on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction (abnj). How the instrument will relate to submarine cables, if at all, remains to be decided. The preparatory committee will address a “package” of issues, among them the application of area-based management tools, including marine protected areas (mpas) and environmental impact assessments (eias) to activities in abnj. eias and mpas already affect submarine cable operations in national jurisdictions. In abnj, a new instrument should formalize a cooperative framework with the cable industry to provide limited environmental management where necessary without over-burdening cable operations. This approach would be consistent with the un Convention on the Law of the Sea and could also inform governance with respect to other activities likely to be benign in abnj.

scholarly journals Unity or Fragmentation in the Deep Blue: Choices in Institutional Design for Marine Biological Diversity in Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
David S. Berry
Keyword(s):  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Institutional Design ◽  
Sustainable Use ◽  
Institutional Structure ◽  
Global Ocean ◽  
Management Tools ◽  
Marine Biological ◽  
Deep Blue ◽  
Environmental Impact Assessments ◽  
National Jurisdiction

Delegations are in the final stages of negotiating the proposed Agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ Agreement or Agreement). The Agreement will have tremendous scope. Geographically it covers all ocean areas beyond national jurisdiction, meaning approximately 60 percent of the earth’s surface. Substantively it deals with a range of complex topics necessary for the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction, including marine genetic resources, sharing of benefits, measures such as area-based management tools, including marine protected areas, environmental impact assessments and capacity-building and the transfer of marine technology. Existing scholarship primarily explores the substantive choices for the Agreement; little examines its proposed institutional structure. This article critically assesses the competing positions advanced during negotiations for the Agreement’s institutional structure – the ‘global’ and ‘regional’ positions – and reviews the middle, or ‘compromise’ position adopted by the draft text. It suggests that both global and regional actors will be necessary to conserve and sustainably use marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction, and that some form of coordinating mechanism is required to allocate responsibility for particular tasks. Two principles are proposed for use in combination to provide a mechanism to help coordinate Agreement organs (global) and regional or sectoral bodies, namely, the principles of subsidiarity and cooperation. These principles are found in existing international and regional structures but are advanced here in dynamic forms, allowing for temporary or quasi-permanent allocation of competences, which can change or evolve over time. This position is also grounded in the international law of treaties and furthers dynamic views of regional and global ocean governance by offering practical coordinating principles that work with the existing Agreement text.

Part III Marine Biodiversity Conservation and Global Ocean Governance, 8 Marine Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction: Securing a Sound Law of the Sea Instrument

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Millicay Fernanda
Keyword(s):  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Sustainable Use ◽  
Global Ocean ◽  
Law Of The Sea ◽  
Marine Biodiversity ◽  
Ocean Governance ◽  
Preparatory Committee ◽  
National Jurisdiction ◽  
Un General Assembly ◽  
United Nations Convention

This chapter examines the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ). It first provides an overview of the Preparatory Committee (PrepCom), convened by the UN General Assembly to make recommendations on the elements for a possible future multilateral agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The material scope of the PrepCom is constituted by ‘the package’ agreed upon in 2011 and includes the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction. The chapter discusses the challenges of the package, focusing on two interlinked dimensions of the package plus the big issue that underlies it. It also considers two main tasks facing PrepCom: the first is to clearly identify all elements of each substantive set of issues composing the package, and the second task is to understand the implications of each element of these three substantive sets of issues and the inter-linkages between them.

scholarly journals Managing Biodiversity in Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction

2007 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik Molenaar
Keyword(s):  
Marine Protected Areas ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Traditional Approach ◽  
Sustainable Use ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Marine Biodiversity ◽  
Economic Interests ◽  
Fish Stocks ◽  
National Jurisdiction ◽  
Rate Loss

AbstractThe global loss of biological diversity (biodiversity), both terrestrial and marine, occurs currently at an alarming and probably unprecedented rate. The main purpose of this article—which focuses in particular on marine capture fisheries—is to identify shortcomings in the international legal framework relating to the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ) and possible solutions for selected shortcomings. The latter relate to discrete high seas fish stocks, deep-sea species and fisheries, integrated marine protected areas (MPAs) in ABNJ and, finally, to existing and new rights to conserve marine biodiversity. The main argument on this last topic is that in view of the current rate loss of marine biodiversity, reform should not just be limited to the traditional approach of strengthening, deepening and broadening obligations but should be balanced with optimizing use of existing rights and/or granting new rights to ensure that the overarching balance between socio-economic interests and the interests of marine biodiversity of present and future generations is archived.

scholarly journals The High Seas Freedom to Lay Submarine Cables and the Protection of the Marine Environment: Challenges in High Seas Governance

AJIL Unbound ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 112 ◽  
pp. 139-143
Author(s):  
Tara Davenport
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Marine Environment ◽  
Law Of The Sea ◽  
Management Tools ◽  
Environmental Impact Assessments ◽  
National Jurisdiction ◽  
The Law ◽  
Uncertain Future ◽  
Submarine Cables ◽  
High Seas

The freedom to lay submarine cables and pipelines, one of the most venerated high seas freedoms under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), faces an uncertain future under the new international legally binding instrument (ILBI) being negotiated in the United Nations. UN General Assembly Resolution 72/249, authorizing the intergovernmental conference for the new ILBI, does not expressly mention submarine cables or pipelines but states that “the work and results of the conference should be fully consistent with the provisions of” UNCLOS. The issues in a new ILBI that are likely to have an impact on the freedom to lay submarine cables and pipelines in areas beyond national jurisdiction are (1) area-based management tools, and (2) environmental impact assessments (EIAs), which are mechanisms used to protect and preserve the marine environment and biodiversity. The challenge for high seas governance (and indeed, the perennial challenge for the law of the sea) is how to balance these two ostensibly competing, but equally valuable, interests: the protection of the marine environment and biodiversity and the high seas freedom to lay submarine cables in areas beyond national jurisdiction.

Implementing the Duty to Cooperate under the 1982 UNCLOS for the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Biodiversity in Areas beyond National Jurisdiction under a New BBNJ Agreement

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 174-195
Author(s):  
Nilufer Oral
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Marine Environment ◽  
Sustainable Use ◽  
Law Of The Sea ◽  
Management Tools ◽  
Environmental Impact Assessments ◽  
National Jurisdiction ◽  
United Nations Convention ◽  
Marine Technology ◽  
Broad Framework

Abstract This article examines the duty to cooperate under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) in relation to the obligations of States to protect and preserve the marine environment and in relation to the protection of the marine environment in areas beyond national jurisdiction. It demonstrates that the new Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) Agreement plays an important role in creating the necessary mechanisms for cooperation, thereby fulfilling the multiple obligations that States have under UNCLOS to cooperate regarding the protection and preservation of areas beyond national jurisdiction. Additionally, the BBNJ Agreement provides an important opportunity for States to effectively operationalize the UNCLOS provisions for marine scientific research, as well as the development and transfer of marine technology and capacity building. This article further analyses the duty to cooperate in relation to area-based management tools and environmental impact assessments, which are also key components of a broad framework of global cooperation under the BBNJ Agreement.

NEGOTIATING CONSERVATION AND SUSTAINABLE USE OF MARINE BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY IN AREAS BEYOND NATIONAL JURISDICTION: PROSPECTS AND CHALLENGES

2015 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-93
Author(s):  
Tullio Scovazzi
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Genetic Resources ◽  
Protected Areas ◽  
Marine Protected Areas ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Sustainable Use ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Marine Biological ◽  
National Jurisdiction ◽  
The United Nations

Negotiations will start at the United Nations in order to draft an agreement on conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity beyond national jurisdiction. It will address, together and as a whole, marine genetic resources, including questions on the sharing of benefits, area-based management tools, including marine protected areas, environmental impact assessments, capacity building and transfer of marine technology. The new agreement would fill certain gaps currently existing in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. It could include provisions for strategic impact assessment of activities affecting the environment, the creation of a network of high seas marine protected areas of world importance and the establishment of a new regime for the exploitation of genetic resources. The question is open whether such a new regime should be based on the principle of the freedom of the seas, and in this case the very need of such a regime becomes questionable, or rather on the principle of common heritage of mankind. A third possibility involves a pragmatic approach, as proposed by the European Union and its Member States, an approach that however is still to be defined in its concrete elements.

Marine Protected Areas beyond National Jurisdiction: Some Practical Perspectives for Moving Ahead

2012 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 351-373 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristina M. Gjerde ◽  
Anna Rulska-Domino
Keyword(s):  
Protected Areas ◽  
Marine Protected Areas ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Sustainable Use ◽  
Marine Conservation ◽  
Marine Biodiversity ◽  
National Jurisdiction ◽  
Political Commitments ◽  
High Seas

Abstract Despite strong legal duties and political commitments for marine conservation and ecosystem-based management, biodiversity in the high seas and the Area (jointly referred to as areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ)) is under increasing threat. One important tool for enhancing conservation and multi-sectoral cooperation is the establishment and maintenance of representative networks of marine protected areas (MPAs). This commentary reviews potential avenues for accelerating progress towards representative MPA networks as part of a larger-scale effort towards improving the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction. It builds on the report by Petra Drankier, Marine Protected Areas in Areas beyond National Jurisdiction, Report on Research Question 2 of the Study on ‘Biological Diversity and Governance of the High Seas’ (2011), which describes the applicable global and regional conventions by discussing the strengths and weaknesses of proposed avenues for progress, including a possible multilateral agreement under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (LOSC). The commentary concludes with some observations for a pragmatic path ahead.

Preliminary Thoughts on Marine Spatial Planning in Areas beyond National Jurisdiction

2017 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 570-588 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vasco Becker-Weinberg
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Planning ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Sustainable Use ◽  
Management Tool ◽  
Law Of The Sea ◽  
Marine Spatial Planning ◽  
Management Tools ◽  
National Jurisdiction ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Many

Abstract The conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction is one of the most controversial issues facing the law of the sea, and one that will probably be the scope of a new implementing agreement of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (losc). The agreement will address a set of challenges not on the agenda at the time losc was drafted, constituting an opportunity for addressing innovative notions, but also to question established ones as States attempt to ensure the compatibility between the former and the latter. One of the many challenges and a key aspect is the adoption of area-based management tools such as marine spatial planning. This article examines the existing legal gap regarding the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction and the use of marine spatial planning as an essential area-based management tool.

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