The OSPAR NEAFC Collective Arrangement and Ocean Governance: Regional Seas Organisations as the Setters of Conservation Standards in ABNJ?

What is it about?

The article discusses a potentially new development in ocean governance in which regional seas organizations (RSOs) would set the standards for the conservation of marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ), that is the high seas and the ocean bottom. Organizations that regulate human activities in ABNJ, such as regional fisheries management organisations (RFMOs) or global organisations, such as the International Maritime Organizations, regulating shipping, would then regulate human activities within the conservation standards set by RSOs. This manner of proceeding is proposed by what is known as the 2014 Collective Arrangement, concluded between an RSO, the OSPAR Commission for the Protection of the Marine Environment in the North-East Atlantic (OSPAR), and an RFMO, the North-East Atlantic Fisheries Commission (NEAFC). This initiative is part of a wider development in which area-based management measures have been adopted in ABNJ and is intimately related to the ongoing negotiations for a new agreement on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of ABNJ. The article concludes that the model that the Collective Arrangement suggests presents both opportunities and challenges but might not be transplantable to all ocean areas in ABNJ.

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