EG41CH02-Campbell ARI 22 June 2016 10:35 V I E Review in Advance first posted online E W on July 6, 2016. (Changes may R S still occur before final publication online and in print.) I E N C N A D V A Global Oceans Governance: New and Emerging Issues Lisa M. Campbell,1 Noella J. Gray,2 Luke Fairbanks,1 Jennifer J. Silver,2 Rebecca L. Gruby,3 Bradford A. Dubik,1 and Xavier Basurto1 1Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University Marine Lab, Beaufort, North Carolina 28516; email: [email protected] 2Department of Geography, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario NIG 2W1, Canada 3Department of Human Dimensions of Natural Resources, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado 80523 Annu. Rev. Environ. Resour. 2016. 41:2.1–2.27 Keywords The Annual Review of Environment and Resources is Access provided by Duke University on 08/08/16. For personal use only. food production, industrialization, biodiversity conservation, global online at environ.annualreviews.org environmental change, pollution Annu. Rev. Environ. Resour. 2016.41. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org This article’s doi: 10.1146/annurev-environ-102014-021121 Abstract Copyright c 2016 by Annual Reviews. Increased interest in oceans is leading to new and renewed global governance All rights reserved efforts directed toward ocean issues in areas of food production, biodiversity conservation, industrialization, global environmental change, and pollution. Global oceans governance efforts face challenges and opportunities related to the nature of oceans and to actors involved in, the scale of, and knowl- edge informing their governance. We review these topics generally and in relation to nine new and emerging issues: small-scale fisheries (SSFs), aqua- culture, biodiversity conservation on the high seas, large marine protected areas (LMPAs), tuna fisheries, deep-sea mining, ocean acidification (OA), blue carbon (BC), and plastics pollution. 2.1 Changes may still occur before final publication online and in print EG41CH02-Campbell ARI 22 June 2016 10:35 Contents INTRODUCTION . 2.2 ENVIRONMENTALGOVERNANCE........................................... 2.4 Actors.......................................................................... 2.4 Scale........................................................................... 2.6 Knowledge..................................................................... 2.7 NEW AND EMERGING ISSUES . 2.7 Food Production . 2.8 Industrialization................................................................ 2.10 Biodiversity Conservation ....................................................... 2.12 Global Environmental Change . 2.15 Pollution . 2.17 CONCLUSIONS................................................................. 2.19 INTRODUCTION NGO: A review of new and emerging issues in global oceans governance is timely given contemporary Nongovernmental interest in oceans by government, scientists, the private sector, nongovernmental organizations organization (NGOs), and philanthropic foundations (see Sidebar: Oceans on the Agenda). Interest is driven by OA: Ocean both recognition of the economic potential of oceans—oceans as a development opportunity—and acidification concern about the health of ocean ecosystems and their role in global environmental processes— oceans as a conservation concern (1–3). Governance interventions to support development and/or conservation (4) will confront a series of challenges based on the biophysical, political, and social nature of oceans. Biophysically, oceans are vast, varied, complex, fluid, and three-dimensional. For humans, ocean environments are difficult to see beyond their surfaces, and underwater environments are hostile to and remote from habitation. As a result, many scientific unknowns remain (5). In just the past several decades, critical basic discoveries have been made, e.g., the existence of Prochlorococcus, a single-cell marine cyanobacteria that plays a major role in the global carbon cycle (6). Scien- tific understanding of new environmental concerns, e.g., ocean acidification (OA), are emerging Access provided by Duke University on 08/08/16. For personal use only. (7). Some ocean spaces are frontiers, being explored (and exploited) for the first time. Deep-sea Annu. Rev. Environ. Resour. 2016.41. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org OCEANS ON THE AGENDA Increased interest in oceans governance is reflected in the rapid proliferation of international meetings over the past decade. These include the Global Ocean Forum on Oceans, Coasts, and Islands, held five times, beginning in 2001; the International Marine Protected Areas Congress, held three times, beginning in 2005; the Society for Conservation Biology’s International Marine Conservation Congress, held every two years, beginning in 2009; the World Small-Scale Fisheries Congress, held twice, in 2010 and 2014; the World Ocean Summit, held three times, beginning in 2010; and the Our Oceans Conference, hosted by the US Department of State in 2014 and by the Government of Chile in 2015. These meetings reflect scientific, government, nongovernment, and private sector interests in oceans governance generally and in relation to specific ocean activities. 2.2 Campbell et al. Changes may still occur before final publication online and in print EG41CH02-Campbell ARI 22 June 2016 10:35 hydrothermal vents—with biotic communities of interest to scientists and mineral deposits of interest to the mining sector—continue to be discovered (8). Politically, existing national and multinational oceans governance is a product of post–World United Nations War II constructions of the nation state and of the international order established by the United Convention on the Nations (UN). The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) provides the Law of the Sea overarching legal framework for protection and management of globally shared ocean resources (UNCLOS): the legal in areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ). Existing measures implemented through UNCLOS framework for are issue specific; for example, Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMOs) address protection and management of ocean fisheries in ABNJ. UN governance of ABNJ is often described as inadequate and incomplete, with resources gaps related to specific issues (9) such as biodiversity conservation (10). UNCLOS also guides Areas beyond signatory states in exercising authority within a 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ). national jurisdiction State authority over the seabed can extend beyond 200 miles to the extent of the continental shelf. (ABNJ): include the In many states, ocean resources are conceptualized as public goods [e.g., under the Public Trust water column (the Doctrine in the United States (11)] and extracted under a variety of access regimes, including open highs seas) and the access. With some exceptions, governments lease or license spaces and resources to individuals seabed the area) or firms rather than transfer them to private ownership, but communities and resource users also RFMO: Regional claim access by other means (12). Fisheries Management Organization Socially, dominant Western constructions of oceans portray them as “unpeopled” spaces of nature, but not society (13, 14), and the biophysical features described above support such con- Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ): structions. For most of Western industrial history, human interactions have been considered designates the extent predominantly economic, with oceans providing resources and a smooth surface for ship-based of state authority over trade and military movement (14). By reviewing alternative historical and cultural understandings adjacent oceans of oceans, Steinberg (15, p. 2092) illustrates how social constructions create “the cultural and ISA: International political environment in which certain interventions are deemed desirable and others deemed Seabed Authority unattainable.” Efforts to develop new or modify existing oceans governance regimes are situated Small-scale fisheries within, or alternatively challenge, such constructions. (SSFs): are difficult to Oceans governance regimes reflect the combined biophysical, political, and social features define (as detailed by of oceans. Western constructions of oceans as unpeopled support a commitment to freedom of the FAO; see http://www.fao.org/ the seas (14). In the post–World War II era, nationalized spaces of the EEZ and UN measures fishery/ssf/en) but are for ABNJ reflected evolving understanding of biophysical features and changing political and generally contrasted to social commitments (9, 14, 16, 17). For example, the inaccessibility of seabed minerals in ABNJ, industrial, highly recognition of their potential value, and the concept of an ocean commons combined such that commercialized seabed minerals were designated as the “common heritage of mankind” by UNCLOS (14, 17). fisheries Since then, technological developments have increased mineral accessibility, and new rules to Large marine Access provided by Duke University on 08/08/16. For personal use only. control access, minimize environmental impacts, and distribute benefits of seabed mining are protected areas Annu. Rev. Environ. Resour. 2016.41. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org (LMPAs): larger than being negotiated in the International Seabed Authority (ISA). These rules may or may not uphold 30,000–250,000 km2 the common heritage principle; social and political ideas about ocean resources and governance Blue carbon (BC): processes have also changed. the carbon stored, In this review, we