International Marine Issues
Spider Crab
In considering international action to conserve marine and coastal biodiversity, it is generally understood that while the "marine realm provides a great abundance and diversity of foods, medicines and raw materials, and will undoubtedly provide important new ones as we learn more, … the wealth of the sea is finite." Obviously the risk to marine and coastal biodiversity is greatest in ecosystems where human activities are most intense, eg. estuaries and coastal waters adjacent to large population centres, however no place in the ocean is so remote that it has not been touched by human activities that have the potential to significantly degrade biodiversity.
In 1998-99, Australia began to promote Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) to the international community as a tool for marine biodiversity conservation. This work capitalised on Australia's significant practical experience in this area and included promoting the concept of a Global Representative System of Marine Protected Areas (GRSMPA) and MPAs on the high seas.
Recent work by the World Bank and IUCN-The World Conservation Union, shows that national and regional activity on MPAs is unevenly distributed. While organisations such as the World Bank and IUCN have been active in promoting MPAs, and national action has been endorsed though the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the establishment of a GRSMPA requires endorsement by the international community.
The CBD has embraced the concept of marine protected areas in Decision IV/5 'Conservation and sustainable use of marine and coastal ecosystems, including a programme of work', and it would seem a logical approach to build on this work to accelerate global action on marine protected areas.
Unfortunately, while the Jakarta Mandate to the CBD calls for a GRSMPA, there exists at the international level a widespread lack of understanding of the terms 'representative' and 'global.' Similarly, there exists considerable international opposition to the use of MPAs to achieve biodiversity conservation on the high seas.
Australia has much to offer in relation to establishing and managing MPAs and considerable progress can be made towards marine biodiversity conservation through the establishment of unilateral, bilateral and multilateral MPAs within the Exclusive Economic Zones of Australia's regional neighbours.
Marine Protected Areas are not necessarily no take. They can range from a highly protected category to one that provides for multiple uses.
For example, the largest MPA in the world, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, is subject to many and varied uses, including extensive fishing and tourism.
Crab, Department of the Environment and Heritage
While our knowledge of the biodiversity and resources of the high seas is limited, increasingly areas are being identified that would benefit from a conservation and sustainable use approach, or at least from a precautionary approach to their initial exploration and use. Examples include certain fisheries habitat, deep ocean trenches, seamounts and hydrothermal vents.
To prevent a 'tragedy of the commons', the international community should seek to better coordinate and integrate established multilateral bodies and legal mechanisms to identify areas suitable for collaborative management action, and to and reach agreement by consensus on regimes for their conservation and management.
The four volume report on the GRSMPA, prepared by the World Bank, IUCN and GBRMPA, states:
"It is usually not appropriate to designate large areas of the open ocean as highly protected areas because eliminating all or most uses over a large area is not likely to gain public or political support. However, large, multiple-use protected areas can be particularly effective in the sea because they allow a balance to be reached between conservation and use over a large area through integrated management of complete ecosystems. Such integrated or 'bioregional' management requires sharing and coordinating the values and interests of a broad range of stakeholders when conceiving and implementing policies and programs. The concept involves combining, coordinating or integrating at a number of scales, values, interests and goals, many of which are in competition."
For more information on high seas biodiversity conservation, click here.
