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Marine Biodiversity: Opportunities for Global Governance and Management Coherence

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Handbook on Marine Environment Protection

Abstract

Marine biodiversity has been declining globally due to overexploitation, habitat destruction and alteration, pollution, increased pressures from climate change and ocean acidification. A number of legal instruments are in place to address marine biodiversity pressures through appropriate conservation and management measures, with the most notable ones being the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). This chapter provides a brief overview of the relationship between UNCLOS and the CBD with respect to marine biodiversity management through the lens of a promising integrative and emerging tool—the CBD ecologically or biologically significant marine areas (EBSAs). It argues that the EBSA process—a global exercise to describe marine areas of ecological importance—can inform decision-making and assist in the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity. In this connection, the categorisation of EBSAs can provide a first step towards the identification of management options, which can be further developed through the use of cumulative impact assessments of biodiversity pressures for each EBSA and respective EBSA features.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Decision X/2, CBD (2010).

  2. 2.

    It would be reasonable to assume that article 4 (b) confers legitimacy to CBD parties to adopt management measures for activities under the jurisdiction or control of any state in areas beyond national jurisdiction. However, parties have taken a political decision to not establish those measures in ABNJ, but have recognised the scientific and technical role of the CBD in assisting the implementation of UNCLOS.

  3. 3.

    Impacts of ocean acidification include: reduced growth rates and damage to calcium carbonate in species, including shellfish, specific species of corals, etc., affecting the structure and function of the ecosystems where these species occur.

  4. 4.

    This level should be calculated in accordance with article 6 of the Fish Stocks Agreement on the precautionary approach. See Diz (2013).

  5. 5.

    E.g. Johannesburg Plan of Implementation (2002); The Future We Want (2012); Decision VII/11, CBD.

  6. 6.

    Such as Important Bird Areas, Ramsar Convention wetland criteria, Particularly Sensitive Sea Areas (PSSAs), vulnerable marine ecosystems (VMEs), and the Canadian criteria to identify ecologically and biologically significant areas.

  7. 7.

    E.g. threats of shipping collision, pollution or underwater noise on cetacean habitats contained in the EBSA description could be assessed to determine the adoption of new PSSAs.

  8. 8.

    See Chap. 7.6 of the current publication on MPAs.

  9. 9.

    EBSA repository, online: < https://www.cbd.int/ebsa/>

  10. 10.

    See Decisions, IX/20; X/29; XI/17, XII/22, CBD.

  11. 11.

    This understanding is consistent the CBD Voluntary EIA Guidelines (2012), as seen above.

  12. 12.

    See Chap. 46 of this publication.

  13. 13.

    In this context technology transfer and capacity building would most likely be needed.

  14. 14.

    See Chaps. 11 and 44 on deep seabed mining of the current publication.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Strathclyde, School of Law, Glasgow, UK

    Daniela Diz

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  1. Daniela Diz
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Correspondence to Daniela Diz .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. German Advisory Council on the Environment, Berlin, Germany

    Markus Salomon

  2. University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany

    Till Markus

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Diz, D. (2018). Marine Biodiversity: Opportunities for Global Governance and Management Coherence. In: Salomon, M., Markus, T. (eds) Handbook on Marine Environment Protection . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60156-4_45

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