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Marine and coastal management

Environmental indicators reported in this section:

Australia's three tiers of government (local, State and Commonwealth) are all involved in managing the coastal and marine environments. Government inquiries have long been advocating more integration in coastal zone planning and management (RAC 1993; Zann 1995). The management of the offshore marine environment includes both international dimensions and Commonwealth-State interactions.

This subsection seeks to summarise the management regimes and to highlight changes since 1996.

International agreements

There are some 80 international agreements relevant to Australia's Oceans Policy, of which about one-half are related directly to marine environmental and fisheries issues.

The most important international agreement is The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982 (UNCLOS) that allows coastal states to claim territorial seas (which extend 12 nm from the coastal baseline), a 200 nm Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), and a legally defined continental shelf (see Continental Shelf and Slope). On ratifying the UNCLOS Treaty, Australia took responsibility for one of the largest marine areas in the world: some 11 million km², and potentially as much as 16 million km², depending on the limits of claimable continental shelf that extends beyond the 200 nm EEZ.

The implications of Australia's proposal to extend its marine area on future marine management will be significant. UNCLOS requires coastal states to observe the following articles:

• Article 61, which imposes an obligation on member states to ensure that the living resources in their EEZs are not endangered by over-exploitation,
• Article 62, which requires states to promote optimum utilisation of the living resources of their EEZs,
• Article 192, which imposes a general obligation on states to protect and preserve the marine environment from pollution, and
• Article 193, which sets out the rights of states to exploit their natural resources pursuant to their environmental policies and in accordance with the duty of protection and preservation.

Australia is part-way through defining the limits of its extended seabed area beyond the EEZ (the extended continental shelf). There are at least eight separate areas requiring delimitation.

Some of the international agreements that influence the way in which Australia manages its marine environment are:

• the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources 1980 (CCAMLR),
• the Convention on Biological Diversity,
• the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships 1973/78 (MARPOL),
• the Convention on Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter 1972 (the London Convention) and its 1996 Protocol, and
• the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (World Heritage Convention) 1972.

An extensive list is provided in a background paper for the development of Australia's Oceans Policy (Herriman et al. 1997).

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