Staking Their Claims: The Management of Marine Resources in the Exclusive Economic Zones of the Pacific Islands

Abstract

The 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (LOSC) was tailor-made for Pacific Island. These islands consist of 22 self-governing nations on about 500,000 square kilometers of land scattered across about thirty million square kilometers of the Pacific Ocean. The Pacific Island countries have declared their Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) and Extended Fisheries Zones (EFZs) and are cooperating with each other to stake their claims. The countries are sharing limited expertise, experience, facilities, infrastructure, resources and markets but are achieving admirable success in effectively acting upon their rights within their EEZ and EFZ and are setting the pace in influencing international events and practice. Pacific Island countries have formulated international management arrangements that safeguard the EEZ and EFZ and the marine resources within. The countries are using the EEZ and EFZ provisions to effectively stake their claims and are providing a good model for regional cooperation and collaboration based on the equitable pursuit of common economic goals, the peaceful use of ocean resources and the effective management of the marine environment. In addition, the Pacific Island states are working with distant water fishing nations (DWFN) to establish management regimes covering the EEZs and EFZs and the high seas as promoted by the 1995 UN Fish Stocks Agreement. The 1982 LOSC has gained widespread acceptance among the Pacific Islands. The small island developing states in the Pacific saw in the LOSC the opportunity to formalize a system for the use and management of the region’s most important resource base, fisheries. The Pacific Islands countries were united in their support. In 1982, one of its members, Fiji became the first country in the world to sign and ratify the LOSC. By 2002, all of the 13 Pacific Island member-countries of the South Pacific Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA), the regional fishery organization for the coastal States of the western and central Pacific Ocean, had ratified the LOSC. In addition, these countries