A survey of the legal and policy framework for controlling,compensating and criminalizing ship-source pollution in Hong Kong

Hong Kong (HK) has enacted laws providing: (1) Regimes that address pollution prevention responsibilities for parties involved in shipping activities to ensure that ships used in HK waters comply with applicable rules and standards; (2) civil damages remedy for wrongful death, personal injury or property damage caused by an environmental incident; and (3) a system of penalties to address the rare cases where the behavior of the polluter is considered intolerable and must be punished as a criminal offence. Being acquainted with this legal and policy framework is of beneficial interest for the maritime industry in HK. This article first summarizes the existing general legal framework, and later presents the results of an empirical study to determine what repercussions there could be within the HK maritime industry as a result of these laws and policies being applied in cases that result in civil liability compensation and criminal charges. The empirical research demonstrates that the laws and policies are in general sufficient and effective, but that flaws still remain in the limitation of liability scheme, as well as uncertainties as to which particular kinds of environmental violations should result in either civil or criminal enforcement. To address these concerns, it is first suggested that HK should impose greater liability in areas where prior law provided insufficient liability, as this will act as a more potent deterrent; and second, that HK should clearly delineate an appropriate role for criminal enforcement in the environmental regulatory scheme, so as to lessen concerns about over-criminalization.     

Terms of reference towards an integrated management policy in the coastal zone of the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean

The ecological and socioeconomic importance of the Mexican coastal zone of the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean is analyzed and its main problems of pollution and environmental impact are described. Also, the legal, institutional, and technical framework that is applied to the coastal management of the region is analyzed. Finally, the definition and implementation of a Program of Integrated Management for the Coastal Zone of the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean, a Law for the Coastal Zone of the country, and adjustments to the main instruments of national environmental policy applied to the coastal zone of the region are proposed.     

The existing law and policy framework for ocean energy development in Ireland

This paper considers the existing law and policy framework for ocean energy development in Ireland. As a nation, Ireland proposes to have 75 MW of ocean energy connected by 2012 and a further 500 MW by 2020. This has been supported by various policy documents and Government initiatives in recent years. Despite the obvious Government support for offshore renewable energy, the existing legal framework presents a veritable barrier to development progress. This paper provides a succinct overview of the existing applicable legal regime focusing on licensing and planning aspects. Specifically it examines the realities of the Foreshore Acts, Electricity Regulation Act, Planning and Development Acts and associated Environmental Impact Assessment Regulations and their role in wave energy development. This sets the context for a review of the problems associated with the existing legal regime, including delay and uncertainty, before presenting possible measures which may help address them. The latter discussion is framed within the context of developing and forthcoming European and national initiatives such as the Integrated Maritime Policy, Maritime Spatial Planning, Integrated Coastal Zone Management and Strategic Environmental Assessment.     

生态命运共同体视角下完善海洋环境合作治理机制建设研究

为有效应对我国海洋环境污染和提高海洋环境治理现代化水平,文章以辽宁为例,在生态命运共同体理念的指导下分析海洋环境治理现状及其存在的问题,基于信息融合技术建立海洋环境合作治理机制并提出对策建议。研究结果表明：加强海洋环境治理是海洋经济高质量和可持续发展的重要保障,目前亟待解决的突出问题主要包括陆海联动和多元主体参与机制不...     

The emerging policy landscape for marine spatial planning in Europe

This paper provides an overview of the emerging policy landscape for marine spatial planning in the European Union, which consists of four main categories of policy drivers: environmental legislation, legislation on marine renewable energy, fisheries regulations and the Integrated Maritime Policy. The weak links between these categories of policy drivers, underpinned by a lack of clarity regarding the vision for sustainability, pose major challenges for the emergence of ecosystem-based and integrated marine spatial planning in Europe. In addition, there is still uncertainty arising from on-going reform of the Common Fisheries Policy, and discussions on the need for a new marine spatial planning directive. This paper concludes with the view that better integration of environmental concerns into the Common Fisheries Policy is needed to strengthen the link between environmental legislation and fisheries regulations, and that the existing policy landscape, particularly the Marine Strategic Framework Directive, already provides a legal framework for ecosystem-based marine spatial planning. Such a framework is consistent with the recognition that ecosystem conservation underpins other pillars of sustainable development and provides the foundation for cross-sectoral marine planning and management.     

A classification approach of cost effective management measures for the improvement of watershed quality

The purpose of this paper is to provide a classification of the literature concerning the application of the cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) to evaluate management measures for the improvement of watershed quality. This literature focuses on eutrophication from agricultural runoff and industrial activities. The knowledge of the cost-environmental effectiveness of a management practice/technique or of a market-based instrument (economic instruments, environmental agreements) as well as an understanding of which quantitative and qualitative data are needed for the application of CEA could be used as a tool, in the management processes, for the identification of the appropriate policy measures for each case study-watershed. From this classification effort results that according to the environmental target and the considered assumptions for the leaching of nutrients different management measures and different mix of these measures provide a cost-effective diminution of watershed pollution. The decrease of agricultural run-off water pollution is a priority and organic farming, new tillage practices, and catch crops are recommended. Moreover, wetlands restoration is described as a low-cost option. Tradable permits and environmental agreements under an appropriate management design are proposed for the decrease of pollutants caused by industrial activities. However, the positive interaction of these measures with stakeholders is the decisive factor for their application and effectiveness and also the least costly way.     

海水养殖污染与生态修复对策

随着我国海水养殖规模的不断扩大,海水养殖污染已成为不可忽视的环境问题。文章综述了海水养殖过程中产生的营养盐污染、有机质污染、重金属污染、抗生素污染问题及其生态影响和生态修复对策措施。对于海水养殖污染,单纯的物理化学修复方法制约较大,以生物修复为基础的生态浮床修复技术、大型藻类修复技术及人工湿地修复技术,是较为有效的海水养殖污染防治措施。在未来研究中,还应加强养殖污染源头的治理,加强海水综合养殖理论方法研究,以实现海水养殖经济效益和环境效益双赢。     

防治海洋工程建设项目对海洋环境的污染损害法律问题研究

近年来海洋工程建设项目随着海洋经济的繁荣日益增多,在带动海洋经济发展的同时也增加了危害海洋环境的可能性,过度的海洋开发活动加重了对海洋环境的污染及生态系统的破坏程度。我国虽在立法上制定了一系列法规政策、专门条例为海洋工程污染防治保驾护航,但是目前海洋工程污染防治并未引起法学界的过多关注和深入研究。在我国海洋工程污染防治中仍然存在如下问题亟待解决：海洋工程环境影响评价制度的程序及责任设定问题、海洋工程听证制度公众参与度不足、海洋工程环境高风险领域责任保险制度不够完善、监管力度不足、公民对海洋工程污染防治知情权的缺失等。通过对以上问题进行法律分析及原因分析,对相关条例、法律及政策进行总结评析,提出解决对策。通过完善环境影响评价制度,健全听证制度相关规定,加强环境污染责任保险制度建设,提升对海洋工程污染防治的监管力度,明确公民知情权等方式来解决所提出的问题,为海洋工程污染防治提供更多的法律助推力量。     

昌黎县海洋环境承载力评估研究

选取昌黎县海岸线人工化指数、海域开发资源效应指数、海水水质等指标构建昌黎县海洋资源环境承载力评价指标体系,采用专项评价和综合评价相结合的方法,对河北省昌黎县资源环境承载力进行评估研究。结果表明,受入海悬沙量变化和入海污染物的影响文昌鱼栖息地遭到严重破坏,海洋生态承载状况为严重超载,因此需要采取控制污染源,加强监管等手段来改善文昌鱼生长环境压力。     

International legal options for the control of biofouling on international vessels

Shipping represents a threat as a vector for the transfer of non-indigenous marine species through the discharge of ballast water and biofouling of vessels’ external structures and internal piping. While considerable attention has been given to the management of ballast water, there currently exists no international legal instrument with which to control biofouling.A number of existing legal mechanisms may be applicable in the context of coastal States’ rights under international law. However, existing mechanisms are insufficient to regulate all aspects of the biofouling problem to ensure comprehensive management of the issue. There is, therefore, a need for the development of a comprehensive international agreement to address this gap. The issue of biofouling on international vessels has now been included on the work programme of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO). As a contribution to discussions on how to address this particular issue at an international level, this article provides an analysis of the options available through the IMO to address this issue.Having defined the specific “threat scenario” with regard to hull fouling, the article will consider: (i) the international legal framework that has been established to regulate the harmful impacts of international shipping; (ii) the range of practical measures that are available to manage biofouling on vessels; and (iii) international legal options available to States to address the threat of biofouling posed by international shipping.     

Legal regulation of the shipbreaking industry in Bangladesh: The international regulatory framework and domestic implementation challenges

Shipbreaking is the process of dismantling an obsolete vessel for scrapping or disposal. This activity was not officially declared an industry in Bangladesh until 2006, even though the country is one of the biggest ship-breakers in the world. This industry has dramatically expanded in Bangladesh, at the cost of environmental degradation and severe labour exploitation. Despite environmental and human rights violations, the shipbreaking industry represents a vital source of income for the country and a livelihood for a significant portion of its population. Shipbreaking activities in Bangladesh present both opportunities and challenges for Bangladesh. This article examines the extent to which the existing regulatory framework for dealing with these issues in Bangladesh is congruent with international instruments. This article also examines relevant international instruments which prescribe the core principles for regulating the ship breaking industry and evaluates the legal regulation of the Bangladesh ship breaking industry against these international instruments. The underlying objective of this evaluation is to demonstrate that Bangladeshi instruments could incorporate the core of the international instruments to minimise the environmental damage caused by this industry. This article concludes that Bangladesh should either amend its laws or enact a new legislative scheme that is based on the core values of the Basel Convention. This change is vital if Bangladesh wants to ensure a long lasting industry that could serve its need for iron ore and engage its abundant labour force, without the cost of destroying its coastal line which is one of its most valuable natural assets.     

The international legal framework for the management of the global oceans social-ecological system

This paper evaluates the international agreements in place for the protection of the environment and the regulation of human activities taking place in world's oceans and seas. 500 multilateral agreements were reviewed against a framework of reference, grounded on the theoretical approaches of Adaptive Management and Transition Management. According to this framework, oceans complex systems management should: (1) consider the global oceans as a Social-Ecological System (SES); (2) aim to achieve or maintain their ecological resilience; and (3) implement iterative, learning-based management strategies, supported by science-based advice to policy and management. The results show that the present international legal framework for the global oceans does not require countries to adopt an adaptive, complex systems approach for global oceans ecological resilience. Instead, this study supports the perspective of a double fragmentation among international agreements. First, global agreements focus on issue-based objectives for determined human activities, ecological components or anthropogenic pressures. Second, regional agreements have a wider scope, but also a varying level of inclusion of ecological resilience considerations. There is the need to foster the inclusion of such an approach into existing and future international agreements and their implementation, including through soft-law, project-based initiatives at global and regional scales.     

Issues and challenges in spatio-temporal application of an ecosystem services framework to UK seas

The concepts of ecosystem services and human welfare provide strong integrative frameworks that can be used to inform marine policy and management decisions that support sustainable development. A theoretical framework has been developed and applied to create a model for UK seas to measure changes in final ecosystem services, in terms of human welfare. The model that has been developed is explicitly spatial and temporal to facilitate its use in supporting marine planning decisions. The development and application of this framework to UK seas necessarily requires many assumptions to be made. The paper describes the development and population of the framework and discusses the practical limitations and challenges in seeking to develop and apply such models. Significant differences in long-term values of different services were identified under the different scenarios. All scenarios highlight the projected decline in oil and gas revenues which provide particular intense values at sites of extraction. These values are partially replaced by revenues from offshore renewables in some of the scenarios. Values associated with carbon sequestration, maritime transport, tourism and pollution assimilation are also very significant but more spatially diffuse. The study has demonstrated that it is possible to develop spatio-temporal models to evaluate changes in final ecosystem service benefits using existing data, although the approach necessarily requires many assumptions to be made.     

胶州湾环境保护法律问题研究

胶州湾正面临着严重的环境问题,如湿地减少,海域面积不断缩小、纳潮量持续减小;水域污染严重,水质日益恶化;生物资源衰退等,针对这些问题,对涉及胶州湾的各级法律法规进行分析研究,找出了现行法律的欠缺之处:法律体系不完善、海洋执法水平较低、司法救济不足。立法方面,国家立法和地方立法不完善,尚未形成健全有效的胶州湾保护法律体系;执法方面,既往的执法工作取得了积极有效的成果,但执法能力仍然有待提高;司法方面,受制于我国司法体系,司法救济并没有真正到位。针对这些不足提出解决胶州湾法律问题的对策建议,主要有:健全海洋法律体系、提高海洋执法能力、健全司法救济制度。期望为青岛市整治胶州湾环境问题、合理开发利用胶州湾、保护胶州湾海洋环境提供参考。     

Outside the law? Analyzing policy gaps in addressing fishers’ migration in East Africa

Coastal areas, and their small-scale fisheries, are important targets for both internal and transboundary migration partly because high mobility is an inherent feature of many artisanal fisheries livelihoods. As climatic changes are forecast to occur, environmental changes may trigger increased flows of migrant fishers. Policies that seek to promote development in ways that do not extensively degrade natural resources will thus have to deal with likely increases in flows of people across administrative boundaries. However, to date little attention has been directed at this issue and little is known about how policies related to coastal resources and development address these issues. This paper addresses this knowledge gap by analyzing policies and legal documents related to coastal resource management and development to examine the extent to which they recognize and integrate fishers' migration in their provisions. Migrant well-being and vulnerabilities are also addressed by examining the extent to which existing policies dealing with socio-economic development and environmental management address migrants and their needs. The analysis shows that policies related to governance of marine resources and coastal development lack an acknowledgment of fishers' migration issues and suggests that this signals an important gap in policy. The implications of this are discussed. The paper also highlights the fact that the invisibility of the issue in policy means that institutions developed to deal with coastal management at the community level may not have sufficient support from legal and policy documents, and may not be developed or equipped to handle the possible conflicts and difficult trade-offs that need to be addressed as a result of current and potentially increasing fishers’ mobility.     

Indonesian legislative framework for coastal resources management: A critical review and recommendation

This paper addresses development and problems of the legislative framework for coastal and coral reef resources management in Indonesia. It describes the background to the legal framework of Indonesian coastal and coral reef legislation and proposes an appropriate legal framework for addressing Indonesian coastal and coral reef management. This paper outlines several major challenges faced by the Indonesian legislators. It reviews some of the justifications of creating an appropriate legal framework for coastal management.It argues that an adequate and appropriate legal framework will promote sustainable development and management of coastal and coral reef resources. It argues that, the complicated and inappropriate legal framework currently place in Indonesia has contributed to serious degradation of coastal and marine resources. It also argues that this degradation has been exacerbated by the lack of a national marine policy, severe weaknesses in law enforcement of natural resource including those of the fisheries laws and regulations in Indonesia. This paper suggests that there is a general malaise or lack of commitment to sustainable management and development of natural resources. This paper also focuses on the political aspects and their impacts on legislation for coastal and coral reef management at the national and selected regional levels.     

How supportive are existing national legal regimes for multi-use marine spatial planning?—The South African case

Over the past six years international interest in multi-use marine spatial planning (MSP), as a practical process to launch integrated coastal management (ICM), exploded. This paper explores the extent to which existing national legal frameworks can support this process, focusing on the coastal marine environment. First the characteristics of an appropriate legal regime for multi-use MSP are explored by interrogating secondary data sourced from literature reviews and case studies. Key paradigms are distilled as a means of dissecting this complex process into a suite of characteristic determinants that disclose the underpinning environmental management approaches or principles. These criteria are then used to assess the compatibility of national legal regimes for multi-use MSP—in this instance the South African legal framework. Although multi-use MSP has not been explicitly adopted as a process within South Africa's broader ICM implementation, existing legislation does reveal support. The department responsible for the environment is viewed as the most appropriate agency to house the statutory mechanism for multi-use MSP at national and provincial levels, but delegating local multi-use MSP processes to local government agencies. The political will to deploy and dedicate duties and resources to effective implementation of multi-use MSP, however, remains critical. Finally, the approach adopted here is proposed as a means to assess the compatibility of other national legal regimes for multi-use MSP, although the suite of characteristic determinants may need to be reviewed from time to time, as new learning emerges from practice.     

Monitoring and managing pollution load in Bohai Sea,PR China

Bohai Sea, China's only inland sea, became seriously polluted because of rapid economic development. The pollution monitoring system of Bohai Sea started in 1978, and has grown to have 215 monitoring stations today. The Chinese government recently increased efforts to improve the environmental quality of Bohai Sea in an effort to achieve the sustainable development of the Wider Bohai Sea Area. This paper presents the current pollution situation and its environmental impacts. It also discusses the existing pollution management mechanisms and pollution abatement programs for Bohai Sea.     

关于Remsey环境模型的研究

通常采用征收庇古税的方法来解决环境污染的外部性问题 ,以弥补社会成本与私人成本的差额 ,但是不能与实际的减污效果相联系。本文将征收的环境税用于环保产业以减少污染 ,以此为出发点建立了推广的 Remsey环境模型 ,并讨论其解的稳定性及在环境政策上的应用。     

The role of marine spatial planning in sea use management: The Belgian case

The expansion of offshore activities and the increasing need to meet international and national commitments to biodiversity conservation have led to an enhanced interest in marine spatial planning (MSP) as a tool for sea use management. Several European countries, on their own initiative or driven by European legislation and policy, have taken global leadership in implementing MSP. This article will discuss the Belgian experiences with MSP. It will give a short historical overview based on legal developments and review the implementation process of a ‘Master Plan’ as a spatial management policy for the Belgian Part of the North Sea. Additionally, this article will reflect on the research that has been done in Belgium to apply a land-use planning approach to the marine environment. The MSP process in Belgium shows that a spatial approach to sea use management is possible despite the lack of a legal zoning framework. However, it concludes that a legal basis for MSP, in addition to the current permit system, would provide a more strategic and integrated framework for ecosystem-based, sea use management.