Implementing International Law as Reflected in UNCLOS - Question 1
What are the challenges faced in your community, country or region in achieving Target 14.c, aimed at enhancing the conservation and sustainable use of oceans and their resources by implementing international law as reflected in UNCLOS?
Mathew Markides said:
A lack of capacity to both implement and enforce national laws in accordance with UNCLOS has been an issue that FISH-i Africa members have been working to address. However, an important issue that has been emerging throughout this process is the failure of flag States to comply with their responsibilities as set forth in UNCLOS.
This has been the failing point of a number of cases and has seen beneficial owners of illegal fishing vessels go unpunished. As a result the high economic rewards of illegal fishing are reaped despite the vessel being caught. This mass failing can be explained by a number of factors, ranging from corruption to an honest inability/lack of capacity.
A recurring issue is the inability to take action as a flag State, regardless of intentions to do so. This is not to say that the flag State is incapable, rather the options open to the flag State are limited, perhaps because they have limited links to the owners, who have no assets or real link to the flag State. This draws attention to the lack of requirements or criteria set out by a country to flag a vessel and the lack of foresight to consider how they would enforce sanctions if required.
Omoyemen Lucia ... said:
-Legal provisions which provides that international laws need to be domesticated before implementation in Nigeria.
-Obsolete National Legislation and Absence of a National Action Plan to be developed needed to implement International Laws at national and local level.
-There is still a lot to be done in terms of setting the pace for proper legal, regulatory, institutional and financial framework and stakeholder engagement in the process.
-Inability to articulate the interlinkages between international laws protecting the oceans, seas and human rights laws.
-Abscence of a gender perspective
The effect of the above is evident in:
-ocean and marine degradation and alteration of flora, fauna and ocean ecosystem.
-destruction of aquatic life
-thermal pollution resulting in paired growth and reproduction of aquatic species
-obstruction of their natural locomotive pattern
-eutrophication' (over fertilization)
-Depletion of dissolved oxygen in water resulting in massive fish kills, contaminating seafood with toxins and altering ecosystems.
-Damage to the exoteric values of beaches resulting in closure of recreation beaches and oceans and loss of economic resources
-Deadly Effects on health of marine animals
-Destruction of oceans and marines through oil spills
David SIMMONS said:
One of the outstanding features of UNCLOS was the creation of the 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) which sought to assign to Coastal States, sovereign rights for “exploring and exploiting, conserving and managing the natural resources, whether living or non-living” in that zone; and for the “economic exploitation and exploration of the zone”. In that regard, the Convention has explicitly delineated regimes for the exploration, exploitation and management of various living resources (e.g., fisheries) and non-living resources (hydrocarbon), some of the more commonly exploited living and non-living resources found in the oceans.
Among the many direct and indirect economic resources and services provided by the oceans are fisheries, oil and gas, shipping and transportation, as well as ecosystem support services. In the Caribbean, apart from fishing, and exploration for fossil fuel, the most recognisable use of waters of the EEZ is as a source of recreation for cruise tourism. However, unlike fisheries and oil and gas exploration, over which the coastal state has sovereign rights to explore, exploit and manage, for their own economic benefit, cruise tourism is not similarly prescribed. In fact, the Convention is totally silent on this issue of cruise tourism, giving rise to questions as to whether it is an economic activity, and if so, should the management of cruise tourism in the EEZ be the responsibility of coastal states in whose waters cruise tourism takes place?
Not only is the Caribbean heavily dependent on tourism, but it is also the most tourism‐dependent region in the world and a key generator of foreign exchange and employment as well as a contributor to sustainable development. The 2015 World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) report noted that of the twelve regions of the world for which data was collected by the WTTC, the Caribbean ranked first in terms of tourism’s contribution to GDP (14.6%), employment (13%), total capital investment (12.2%), and total exports (17.8%); third in terms of direct contribution to GDP (4.0%), and sixth in terms of contribution to direct employment (WTTC 2015).
Given the high dependence on cruise tourism by several Caribbean States, and given the huge amounts of revenues generated by that industry, very little of which reaches or remains in the coastal State, is this an opportunity for the international community, particularly the upcoming Oceans Conference (June 2017), to examine UNCLOS, and consider whether there is a need for the Convention to provide some clearer definition of what constitutes an economic activity, and establishing the appropriate mechanisms for governing the use of ocean space as it relates to the use of shared resources?
Rudolf H Dorah said:
As clearly highlighted by Alice, for PICs like Solomon Islands the critical element in enhancing the conservation and sustainable use of oceans and their resources is COOPERATION. Our well developed regional approach to tuna development, management and conservation for example is serving our nations well today due to the inherent Cooperative mechanism and infrastructure in place today. In order to respond effetcively to these challenges, which are TRANSBOUNDARY in nature, the responsibility of tuna devemopment, management and conservation is therefore divided among various regional organisations and member states can then collaborate and cooperate at the regional level to tackle challenges of IUU fishing, new tuna access regime for Foreign Registered Fishing Vessels etc which are best managed at the regional level. At the moment, at the regionalo level the Pacific FFA members are quite effective in developing and managing our tuna resources. The Key lesson from the regional set up is Shared Costs and Shared Responsibility to meet regional challenges.
Our biggest challange however is at the local country level. At the rural level, 80% of rural artisanal fisheries are being operated under a mixture of tradtional,customary, and legal frameworks and to this day our fisheries laws does not yet cohesively tailored to meet this reality. The approach to fisheries assumes that only the ministry of fisheries is responsible for managing tuna and other fisheries but is not concerned about the overall ocean environment. There is an-going infighting between the ministry of fisheries and ministry of envronment for for that matter which renders weak local implementation. I strongly believe that without a framework that includes the customary and tradtional fisheries tenure systems into mainstream legal policy frameworks it will never be effective in managing and conserving the ocean and fisheries resources from the local and rural levels.
The UNCLOS whilst boasted as the "constitution of the oceans" it must be understood it is more to do with Man's actions towards the ocean and its resources. For that matter, greater responsibilty rests on national govts and multinational fishing companies who are the primary beneficiaries on the harvets of the most valuable fish stocks. The UNCLOS thus place a greater responsibility on these actors to take more active roles in supporting the management of fish stocks with both the govt and other organisations working in those regions. To prove this point, if wewould shut down tuna fisheries for only 6 months world over who will be affected most are not the 80% rural populations but the big businesses that depends on them for profits and govt for taxes. For these reasons UNCLOS calls on all member states to cooperate and support LDCs in enhancing their technical capacities in fullfilling their UNCLOS mandates.
Navigating The ... said:
Lack of good data for measuring progress and implementation and that means disaggregated data as far as possible
Target number:
14.c
Indicator Number and
Name:
14.c.1 Number of countries making progress in ratifying, accepting
and implementing through legal, policy and institutional frameworks, ocean
-
related instruments that
implement international law, as reflected in the United Nation Convention on the La
w of the Sea, for
the conservation and sustainable use of the oceans and their resources
Agency:
IMO
https://stg-uneplive.unep.org/media/docs/projects/SDG_Indicators_UNEP_as...
https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/files/metadata-compilation/Metadata-Goal-14.pdf
Navigating The ... said:
Lack of good data for measuring progress and implementation and that means disaggeregated data in as far as possible not as a bypass proxy 14.c.1 Number of countries making progress in may lead to tautologies howver information described above already exist at IMO.
https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/files/meetings/iaeg-sdgs-meeting-04/Tier%20I...
https://stg-uneplive.unep.org/media/docs/projects/SDG_Indicators_UNEP_as...
https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/files/metadata-compilation/Metadata-Goal-14.pdf
Alice Hicuburundi said:
“Welcome to the online forum on enhancing the conservation and sustainable use of oceans and their resources by implementing international law as reflected in the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) (SDG14.c) in advance of The Ocean Conference.
We are very pleased to be moderating this discussion and looking forward to hearing from you. In particular, we are interested in receiving contributions about the challenges relating to the implementation of UNCLOS and other instruments relating to the conservation and sustainable use of the oceans, seas and marine resources, and your views on how they could be addressed.
Let us start the discussion by stressing the importance of conserving and sustainably using oceans and seas and their resources and of protecting marine biodiversity for the achievement of sustainable development. In that regard, effective implementation of international law as reflected in UNCLOS is key.
Together with its implementing agreements UNCLOS provides the legal framework within which all activities on the oceans and seas must be carried out. UNCLOS is considered to be the “constitution for the oceans”. It recognizes that all problems concerning oceans are closely inter-related and should be dealt with in a cohesive and holistic manner. Its provisions integrate the three pillars of sustainable development: the environmental, social and economic. The Convention thus provides a common basis for integrated and holistic global action. In addition to UNCLOS and its implementing agreements, the international legal framework for oceans includes a number of other international instruments at the global and regional levels relevant to the conservation and sustainable use of the oceans, seas and their resources. Together, these instruments provide an integrated and adaptive framework to address on-going and emerging issues, including challenges related to the impacts of climate change on oceans.
This international framework contains important obligations for States which relate, inter alia, to the conservation and sustainable use of the oceans and its resources, protection and preservation of the marine environment, marine scientific research and the safety and security of persons at sea. If fully and effectively implemented, it would contribute substantially to the achievement of all of the targets of Goal 14, and more broadly to sustainable development, global stability and prosperity for present and future generations.
However, the full and effective implementation of this legal framework presents challenges that need to be addressed in order to achieve Goal 14 and sustainable development. Many steps can be taken at the global, regional and local levels to promote such implementation, including awareness-raising and knowledge-sharing, increasing capacity-building and technical assistance, deepening scientific knowledge of the oceans, developing sustainable financing mechanisms to support implementation, promoting cooperation and coordination at all levels, and mainstreaming oceans into the broader development agenda.
For example addressing capacity development needs is an essential building block of successful sustainable development, to ensure that States, especially developing countries, in particular the least developed countries and small island developing States as well as African coastal States, are able to fully implement UNCLOS and related instruments and benefit from the sustainable development of the oceans and seas, as well as participate fully in global and regional forums on ocean affairs and the law of the sea.
Considering the complexity of effective implementation of the existing legal framework in a pluri-disciplinary, cross-sectoral and integrated manner, partnerships to address issues relating to capacity, such as the United Nations - The Nippon Foundation of Japan Fellowship Programme: Human Resources Development and Advancement of the Legal Order of the World's Oceans have proved invaluable.
What more could and should be done? What role can you play?
We look forward to a useful discussion.”