Considerations on Some Global Institutional Challenges Within the Context of the Conservation and Management of Marine Living Resources

Abstract

This chapter highlights relevant aspects of some of the challenges that the international community has recently dealt with and which will continue to have to be present in the coming years within the context of the conservation and management of marine living resources, in particular in the field of fisheries. The following governance related topics are the subject matter of analysis: the interplay between instruments of a binding nature and instruments of ‘soft law’; the role of important instruments that implement UNCLOS or which have been adopted to enable State practise to be in conformity with the general frameworks; the fragmentation of international law; the questions raised by the establishment of MPAs. A specific reference is made to the UN Conference on the instrument on the conservation and management of marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction and to some specific issues related with this conference, namely the problematic raised by the taking into consideration, in the negotiation of this instrument, of the genetic marine resources. The chapter further contains an analysis of the importance of international organizations in the conservation and management of fisheries resources and of its relationship with other bodies responsible for the preservation of the marine environment. Finally, the text refers to the action of ITLOS, in particular in what concerns the application, in its jurisprudence, of a wide notion of conservation of marine living resources.