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Introduction The concept of marine biodiversity was introduced in chapter fifteen , and the harm to marine biodiversity from human activities was outlined at the beginning of that chapter. In this chapter we examine the considerable number of treaties and other instruments that the international community has adopted to address increasing concerns about such harm
The law of the sea is an up-to-date and comprehensive treatment of this branch of public international law. It begins by tracing the historical origins of the law of the sea and explaining its sources, notably the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. This is followed by chapters examining the various maritime zones into which the sea is legally divided, namely internal waters, the territorial sea, archipelagic waters, the contiguous zone, the continental shelf, the exclusive economic zone, the high seas and the International Seabed Area. In each case the legal nature of the zone and its physical dimensions are analysed. Separate chapters deal with the baselines from which the breadths of most maritime zones are delineated and the law governing the delimitation of boundaries between overlapping maritime zones. Later chapters discuss how international law regulates the safety of navigation, fisheries and scientific research, and provides for protection of the marine environment from pollution and biodiversity loss. The penultimate chapter addresses the question of landlocked States and the sea. The final chapter outlines the various ways in which maritime disputes may be settled. Throughout the book detailed reference is made not only to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, but also to other relevant instruments, the burgeoning case law of international courts and tribunals, and the academic literature.
point of view of law and policy, protection of the marine environment has two principal elements: the prevention of marine pollution and the conservation of marine biodiversity. The two are not, however, entirely distinct since pollution usually harms biodiversity. Chapter sixteen discusses the numerous ways in which international law seeks to prevent and control marine pollution; while chapter
’s vocabulary. Thus, the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 14.a calls on States to ‘increase scientific knowledge, develop research capacity and transfer marine technology, taking into account [the IOC’s Criteria and Guidelines], in order to improve ocean health and to enhance the contribution of marine biodiversity to the development of developing countries’, 29 while the 2019 Draft Agreement on the Conservation and Sustainable
wrote it because of the sheer urgency to tackle the carbon emissions of shipping. It is far from the only issue that plagues the oceans in the Anthropocene, which include rapidly diminishing marine biodiversity, enormous patches of drifting plastic, ocean acidification as the water absorbs carbon dioxide from the air, and melting sea ice that reduces the reflective capacity of the planet’s surface, triggering further warming. These issues are urgent too, and many more could be added to the list. But in this book, I primarily
endemic species including several Yucatan birds, island lizards, several fishes, tunicates, and sponges, making it an area with one of the highest levels of marine biodiversity in the Atlantic. During our research in Belize, we travelled to Bacalar Chico National Park and Marine Reserve, Blue Hole Natural Monument, Half Moon Caye Natural Monument, Glover’s Reef Marine Reserve and Laughing Bird Caye National Park, and interviewed two dozen people. In all of those places the coral, we were
marine biodiversity, including coral reef destruction, have all occurred. ( UNESCO , 2006 ) We focus on these sorts of global concerns especially in Chapter 8 ’s discussion of the Global Anti-Golf Movement and protests that directly address the impacts of golf-related tourism around the world. Of course, it is not only activists and organizations such as UNESCO that have recognized the significance of golf’s heavy consumption of water. A key theme of this book is
’ will generally be used in this wider sense. It does not, however, include marine mammals: they are discussed in chapter seventeen on the conservation of marine biodiversity. In addition to fish, about 32.4 million tonnes of seaweeds and other aquatic plants were harvested in 2018 (up from 10.6 tonnes in 2000) and used as food for humans, in the manufacture of cosmetics and fertilisers, processed to
the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in ABNJ in 2004, the General Assembly established an Ad Hoc Open-Ended Informal Working Group to study the subject. 82 The annual cycle of review ends with the adoption of a resolution on ‘oceans and the law of the sea’ by the General Assembly. 83 The resolutions, which are extremely lengthy, not only review UNCLOS and
regulations as they relate to the prevention of pollution from activities in the Area, see chapter sixteen . Regarding their provisions as they relate more directly to the conservation of marine biodiversity, see chapter seventeen . As regards EIAs, see chapter fifteen . 161 ISBA/25/LTC/6/Rev.1