The ocean and international environmental law: swimming,sinking, and treading water at the millennium

Various images help capture the status and trends of international law and policy efforts to protect the ocean environment. While “treading water” and “sinking” partly describe legal conditions at the millennium, this paper examines seven challenges in the international environmental law field which at the very least promise to make for a “hard swim” in coming decades. Those challenges include: coping with the proliferation of negotiated instruments; overcoming political opposition to environmental commitments; clarifying the jurisprudential underpinnings of international environmental law; sorting out the relation of environmental ethics, science and the rule of law; fleshing out the principles of sustainable development; addressing practical problems of implementing international responsibilities; and visioning future paths of ocean governance.     

设立南极海洋保护区的法律困境与出路:兼谈中国的应对

为促进中国对南极事务的深入参与以及贯彻落实海洋强国战略,文章概述现有两大南极海洋保护区设立谈判与制度建设中的各项法律争议,分析设立南极海洋保护区的法律困境及其影响因素,并提出突破路径以及中国参与设立南极海洋保护区的对策建议。研究结果表明:法律依据的不足、科学证据的匮乏、具体规章制度的短缺以及对《南极海洋生物资源养护公约》第二条权威解释的欠缺是设立南极海洋保护区所面临的主要法律困境,而导致以上困境出现的关键因素涉及政治立场、经济利益、国际法理论和全球公海保护区实践;进一步深化国家管辖范围外区域海洋生物多样性国际协定与南极治理机制的协调适用以及全方位促进南极海洋保护区养护措施的实施和完善是突破困境的核心策略;中国作为《南极条约》协商国,应积极推动国内南极立法、加强南极海洋生态环境等领域的科学研究以及鼓励国内非政府组织加入设立南极海洋保护区的国际议程,积极参与讨论并明确表达立场与主张,进一步融入南极治理的非政府联盟,提高中国在南极海洋保护区设立中的国际话语权,更好地维护国家权益。     

Commercial scale invertebrate fisheries enhancement in Australia: Experiences,challenges and opportunities

Stock enhancement or “assisted recruitment” for fisheries management in Australia is at an experimental R&D phase. Development of the science has focused largely on finfish targeted by the recreational sector; however it is considered that high value invertebrates will be the best candidates for commercial scale fisheries enhancement. Three main ingredients are required; technical capacity, governance capability, and the ‘correct’ species. The technical capacity needed is in the area of hatchery production and wild release methodologies, whilst the governance capability needed is informed policy that accounts for the complexities and interdisciplinary nature of stock enhancement. In particular, the appropriate articulation of policy to support economic development and integration into wild fisheries is currently lacking. If successful stock enhancement is implemented, the nature of fisheries management changes because the recruitment side of the fisheries equation is under substantial control, rather than just the production side. Management responses will require significant innovation, with a renewed emphasis on understanding the stock, rather than policing the fishers. By way of illustration, recent initiatives and key challenges encountered in Australian invertebrate fisheries are investigated through case studies. An example of a commercially-viable enhancement fishery that reflects solutions to the key challenges is also presented. The review ends with an argument to re-establish the context of stock enhancement in the discipline of ecological enhancement. This is a crucial and positive step forward for it recognises that, in principle, any renewable aquatic ecosystem has the potential to be enhanced instead of just depleted.     

欧盟及其成员国海洋塑料垃圾政策及对我国的启示

海洋垃圾已经逐渐成为一个全球性的新兴话题,尤其是塑料垃圾对于海洋环境具有破坏性的影响。我国目前还缺少海洋塑料垃圾的统一管理机制,对海洋塑料垃圾的防治还未有专门的战略规划,使得目前的污染防治成效不甚乐观,因此,整合 各部门力量和资源,对海洋塑料垃圾防治进行统一规划、统一管理是关键。本文在对欧盟及其成员国的海洋塑料垃圾政策搜集和梳理分析的基础上,从塑料的生产和使用、入海塑料垃圾的处理、海洋中已有垃圾的处置三方面与我国进行了对比,并从海洋塑料垃圾的法律体系、行动计划、全过程管控、监测防治技术、宣传教育手段和全球治理等方面为我国加强海洋塑料垃圾污染防治提出了建议。     

Understanding influences in policy landscapes for sustainable coastal livelihoods

Ensuring sustainability of livelihoods for communities residing in coastal environments of the Global South has gained considerable attention across policy making, practice and research fields. Livelihood enhancement programs commonly strategize around developing people's resilience by diversification of income and subsistence activities, but are criticised for inadequate appreciation of local contexts. This in part results from the application of theoretical approaches in practice which are informed disproportionately by dominant science-based narratives and utilised by actors in higher level political arenas. This leads to the prioritization of objectives that do not necessarily reflect local livelihood conditions. There is an urgent need to address the multiple challenges that limit the possibility for sustainable livelihoods in spatially and temporally dynamic environments. This paper presents an analysis of the policy landscape in which intervention strategies for sustainable coastal livelihoods emerge. It examines how livelihood improvement approaches take shape in the context of conservation, rural development, and regional resource governance. Drawing from analyses of broader regional policies and an extensive literature review, a conceptual framework is presented. It details various influences that can flow up or down multi-scaled governance structures to affect policy and management - from agenda-setting narratives of policy makers to the dynamic and changeable nature of livelihoods. Case studies from the Arafura and Timor Seas region are introduced to illustrate some of these trends. The discussion highlights challenges encountered in the pursuit of sustainability for coastal and marine-based livelihoods, and suggests directions for more effective long term policy, management and strategic interventions.     

The South East Regional Marine Plan: Implementing Australia's Oceans Policy

In 1998, the Australian Government released Australia's Oceans Policy (AOP), a world first policy initiative focused on providing a framework for integrated ecosystem-based management of Australia's vast marine domain. The South East Regional Marine Plan, the first regional marine plan to be implemented under AOP, was released on 21 May 2004. This paper argues that although full integration across sectors and jurisdictions has not occurred, new AOP initiatives, institutions and governance processes have considerably increased sectoral and jurisdictional coordination in the South East region.     

Towards climate adaptation and coastal governance in Ireland: Integrated architecture for effective management?

Coastal environments are susceptible to a range of impacts arising from medium and long-term climate change. However, as Ireland's population and industrial centres are concentrated in coastal locations, Ireland's coastal communities will be particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Therefore, making the best use of existing knowledge to inform the establishment of governance structures capable of facilitating the measures and actions which may soon be required is a national imperative. Coastal communities worldwide have turned to integrated coastal zone management (ICZM) as a process to deliver sustainable development. This paper explores how experience gained from ICZM implementation can be harnessed to inform the development and implementation of climate adaptation policies, with a particular focus on the coastal zone. Using the principles and conceptual basis of Earth System Governance – an emerging approach to analyse complexity of governance under global environmental change – the paper maps the architecture of ICZM and climate governance in Ireland. The research identifies the main barriers to, and opportunities for, integrated application of the two policy domains. Barriers include the fragmentation of governance structures and responsibilities of key stakeholders, a lack of coordinated support for ICZM implementation at the national level, and a relatively weak awareness of the specifics of adaptation at the local level. Opportunities include the availability of expertise gathered from phases of ICZM implementation in Ireland, which encompasses mechanisms for science-policy integration, and invaluable experience of stakeholder participation and interaction. Current political and scientific support at national and EU levels give an additional impetus to climate research and actions which may bring additional opportunities and resources to coastal governance in Ireland.     

Institutional challenges for policy-making and fisheries advice to move to a full EAFM approach within the current governance structures for marine policies

The European Union is aiming to implement an Ecosystem Approach for the management of all human activities in the marine environment, hereunder the fisheries sector. Since the last reform of the Common Fisheries Policy in 2013, several analyses have highlighted the barriers and challenges to this aim. Despite the claim that much of the framework to support the implementation of an EAFM in Europe is in place, the findings point out to deterrent features within the governance system. Beyond the overall policy framework, this paper explores the implementation of the multiannual multispecies management plans as one of the real moves towards Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries Management. This is carried out on the basis of two case studies that address the design of multiannual multispecies management plans for the Baltic Sea and for the Atlantic Pelagic fisheries. The analyses strengthen with empirical evidences our understanding of the challenges ahead including, among others, an institutional gap between fisheries and environmental policy frameworks resulting in a limited integration of broader environmental concerns in one of the proposed plan and the standoff between decision-makers that delays the adoption and use of proposed management plans and creates frustration for the involved agencies.     

Values,images, and principles: What they represent and how they may improve fisheries governance

Natural resource governance is expected to respond effectively and timely to dynamic environmental conditions, also in a manner that reflects social and political complexity of the system that it aims to govern. Values, images and principles that resource users and governing actors hold about how the world works represent a fundamental part of that complexity. These elements have indefinite form and meaning, may be incommensurable, competing and incompatible, and they often go unnoticed in governance discourse. This paper examines how values, images and principles are represented in a fisheries setting, and explores their diversity and ubiquity as well as the potential differences in the way they are conceived by various stakeholders. These characteristics are shown to give rise to the difficulties in policy planning and implementation, and create implications to power relations and overall governability of a fisheries system. The paper posits that governance challenges could be lessened if stakeholders' values, images, and principles are made explicit, understood, and articulated into the policy and decision-making process. It concludes with suggestions about future research steps.     

国外南极旅游研究综述

南极旅游是近些年的热点研究问题,日益引起国外学术界和有关国家南极战略决策者的重视。文章在搜集分析相关文献的基础上,比较分析了南极旅游概念与内涵,对主要研究领域进行梳理,发现国外研究内容主要集中在下述领域：南极游客行为分析,包括南极旅游分布特征及其原因、核心吸引力的构成和环保意识等;南极旅游环境影响研究,包括旅游开发与环保两者关系的代表观点、环境影响的具体形式与评估;南极旅游全球治理机制分析,覆盖《南极条约》框架下的治理特征与困境、国际南极旅游组织协会主导的行业自治特征与挑战,以及实施全面旅游管理的探讨。最后探讨了国外研究对国内研究的启示,以期为国内相关研究提供些许参考。     

中国水产养殖产业演化影响因素研究

水产养殖业在我国渔业产业结构中占据重要地位,在促进我国渔业经济发展中发挥着重要作用。当前渔业正处于由要素驱动向创新驱动转型的新旧动能转换时期,这也对水产养殖业的转型升级提出了更高要求。文章根据产业演化路径及其运行机理,从资源、技术、市场、制度4个方面构建指标体系,采用1998—2019年的指标数据,通过灰色关联分析和岭回归分析,探索影响产业演化的因素,探讨不同影响因素对水产养殖业演化发展的影响程度,以期为促进中国水产养殖产业的发展,增强水产养殖业的竞争力提供理论支撑。结果表明,城镇居民人均水产品消费量对中国水产养殖产业演化影响程度最大,GDP及单位面积产量的影响显著,水产技术推广经费支出影响最小。基于此,为促进我国水产养殖业的转型升级提出做好水产品消费需求引领与管理、拓展国内国际消费市场;增加科技投入,发展养殖技术;加大资源保护力度,推进绿色发展;着力解决养殖水产品质量安全问题等相应对策建议。     

The development of ship registration policy in China: Response to flags of convenience

In order to expand registered fleet tonnage and strengthen ship management, China began to introduce a special tax-free ship registration (STFSR) policy in July 2007. However, more than eight years following its implementation, the policy ended in complete failure at the end of 2015. This paper comprehensively evaluates the main content and implementation process of the Chinese STFSR policy, analyzes the effects of the policy, and summarizes the concrete reasons for the policy's failure and lessons to be learnt. A new governance framework is being designed and future directions are being developed to explore how the government can implement a successful ship registry policy. This research is intended to provide new ideas and information to the Chinese shipping industry's policymakers and stakeholders in order to handle the “flagging out” problem, thereby mitigating the current adverse situation of ship flagging overseas while strengthening the management of ship operation.     

Australian maritime boundaries: the Australian Antarctic Territory

Australia will include the Australian Antarctic Territory in its November 2004 submission to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf. It is the first Claimant State to attempt delimitation of an extended continental shelf zone there. This paper investigates the complexity of Australia's Antarctic maritime boundaries from political, legal and practical perspectives that have hitherto been purely hypothetical. It concludes that the practical component is achievable, though complex, and will serve as a precedent for other Antarctic Claimant States. Irrespective of whether or not the submission succeeds, it will serve as a valuable lesson, legally and politically.     

“See you in court!”: Whaling as a two level game in Australian politics and foreign policy

Until recently, successive Japanese and Australian governments have contained disputes over whaling within the International Whaling Commission. Domestic political circumstances and the national interest imperatives of the Japan–Australia relationship clearly have played an important role in shaping Australia's anti-whaling policy from its inception, and Australian policy makers traditionally have sought to balance both sets of interests in the implementation of this bi-partisan policy position. But in 2010 the Australian government launched international legal action against one its oldest and most important regional partners and allies, thereby abandoning the long-held “agree to disagree” approach between Australia and Japan to managing the whaling issue within the broader bi-lateral relationship. This paper explains this dramatic shift by characterising whaling policy in Australia as a two level game in which the then Kevin Rudd-led Labor government exploited the strong and stable nature of Australia's bi-lateral relations with Japan to manage several important electoral and political challenges it faced domestically.     

The development of world oceans & coasts and concepts of sustainability

The current phase of technological development and expansion in the world economy is leading to greater human activity and development offshore. Some have described this as the colonisation of the oceans, one phase in the wider history of world industrialisation. This study empirically tests notions of ‘industrialisation’ and ‘colonisation’ in the oceans for the first time. It finds that human activity in the oceans has increased by multiple factors in the most recent long term wave of economic development. The methods include the combined use of Raster and R! to overcome methodological challenges to analyse large spatial datasets which map the footprint of human activity. In response to increasing human activity in the oceans, nations and supranational institutions are developing new governance regimes. These regimes are characterised by policy integration and a commitment to sustainability. Sustainable development is a central tenet of most national and international policies for the world's oceans. An analysis of sustainable development terminology within coastal and ocean policy is provided for seven major maritime governance regimes: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, EU, South Africa, UK and the US. The results show that sustainability is highly differentiated in the context of ‘the blue planet’ (oceans and coasts). The diverse interpretations of sustainability present an impasse to measuring progress in the field. Therefore the paper concludes by offering a framework for explanation and interpretation of sustainable development, by linking it to foundational assumptions held by systems of thought or philosophical traditions.     

Confronting coastal poverty: Building sustainable coastal livelihoods in South Africa

This is the second of two articles exploring coastal management in South Africa. It focuses on the adoption of the Sustainable Livelihoods approach that has underpinned recent policy implementation efforts. This approach complements prevailing coastal management thinking and practice by focusing attention on the strategies that poor people use to access coastal resources, mediated by governance institutions and social relations, in the pursuit of desired livelihood outcomes. South Africa's efforts to adopt this approach help to better understand coastal livelihood opportunities and challenges, identify priority interventions for improving livelihood prospects, and reveal imperatives for building sustainable coastal livelihoods.     

Fishing for the future: An overview of challenges and opportunities

This paper surveys the current state and major trends in global fisheries; the environmental and social dimensions of fisheries; and explains how the international community has tried to meet the policy challenges associated with oceans and fisheries. The ocean and the freshwater ecosystems of the world make significant contributions to people's well-being via the many vital social and environmental services they provide (for example, food and nutrition, employment and incomes, carbon cycling and sequestration). The impact that the increase in fishing since the 1950s has had on wild fish stocks, and the significant increase in aquaculture production in the 20th century, have resulted in severe environmental impacts. This has significant effects on marine ecosystems and the health of oceans. The erosion of the resource undermines communities' long-term interests, including food security, employment, and income. Attempts by the global community to address challenges of sustainable production by improving the governance and management of fisheries resources range from national management of fisheries resources, to regional fisheries management organisations (RFMOs) for international fisheries stocks. These attempts have not always successfully met the challenge of balancing current and future use of fisheries.     

Applying the large marine ecosystem (LME) governance framework in the Wider Caribbean Region

The large marine ecosystem (LME) governance framework was developed to address the complexity inherent within the Wider Caribbean Region with respect to the region's shared living marine resources. The framework is adaptable to all multi-scale living marine resource situations and provides a basis for incremental implementation of interventions. Parts of the overall governance framework can be targeted for sub-framework development and strengthening through institutional reforms and capacity building. Three examples, the Eastern Caribbean flyingfish fishery, marine protected area (MPA) management and the Eastern Caribbean tuna fishery, are used to illustrate the application of the framework in facilitating and assessing governance effectiveness in the Caribbean. In each case, the purpose is to show the different governance questions that must be addressed at policy, strategy and action levels to make up a complete governance arrangement and how these are distributed among several levels on the institutional scale that typically occur in regional marine resource governance.     

Ocean governance in the South Pacific region: Progress and plans for action

The Pacific Island Regional Ocean Policy (PIROP), which was released in 2002, provided the framework for ocean governance in the Pacific region. Since then there have been a myriad of policy documents and institutional arrangements that have been developed to address ocean governance issues, however, little progress has occurred with regard to the actual implementation of PIROP. This paper examines the region's progress in establishing integrated oceans management, and how this fits with the use of marine spatial planning and area based management tools, such as marine protected areas. It argues that policy making in this region encounters the usual difficulties with integrated policy approaches experienced elsewhere but that these difficulties are further accentuated when applied to developing nations that are highly dependent on external support. It suggests a way forward for the future with development of action plans, implementation and the practical application of those plans including a regional contextualisation/analysis of progress against regional objectives.     

International,regional and national commitments meet local implementation: A case study of marine conservation in Northern Ireland

It is increasingly accepted that humanity’s unsustainable use of the marine environment is causing the degradation of the very marine ecosystems it relies upon. This awareness had led to the generation of a significant number of international agreements and conventions aimed at improving marine management and conserving marine ecosystems. In the European Union, this has resulted in the evolution of an extensive array of environmental legislation and policy. In addition, the United Kingdom and its devolved regions have been developing their own policies and legislative tools to advance marine conservation and management. Party to all of these tiers of governance, Northern Ireland has made numerous international, regional and national commitments to protecting and restoring marine ecosystems. Here those commitments are explored in terms of the local political, administrative and governance reality in Northern Ireland. A complex governance structure and lack of interdepartmental co-operation is shown to severely hinder Northern Ireland’s ability to meet stated commitments. Underfunding and lack of political will also seriously hamper conservation efforts. Findings indicate that the integration of all marine management functions into a single marine management organisation would greatly facilitate Northern Ireland’s progress and that the development of an ecologically coherent network of marine protected areas would go a long way towards fulfilling its conservation commitments. This case study demonstrates some of the hurdles small nations face in meeting their responsibilities under regional and international agreements and highlights the gap between a nations conservation commitments and its successful implementation of policy to fulfil them.