Abstract

Cumulative human impacts on oceans have gradually resulted in increased attention directed to ocean governance. Principled ocean governance (POG) seeks to place generally accepted principles front and centre in the governance process. These principles are derived from fundamental values and our beliefs about how humans should behave. They attempt to encode how values should be expressed in both decision-making and actions. Principles often considered as ‘substantial’, such as sustainability, efficiency, rationality, inclusiveness, equity and precaution are general in nature, and thus give rise to more detailed subsets, including ‘procedural’ principles that help to guide day-to-day activities. Ecosystem-based management (EBM) comes in a variety of forms. At one end of the spectrum, it is focused largely on ecosystem conservation. At the other end, it also includes aspects of social justice such as equity, preservation of livelihoods, and food security. The prominent role for EBM in POG is evolving and will vary from situation to situation. It is for stakeholders to determine its role through examination, adoption and incorporation of the principles that will guide their particular ocean governance situation.

Introduction

Attention to the sustainable use of the living resources of the oceans has lagged behind that given to terrestrial resources. In the 18th century, the oceans were considered inexhaustible and impervious to human impact. That view gradually gave way in the early 1900s to a grudging acceptance that indeed fishery resources could indeed be overfished. By mid-century it became clear that in addition to stock depletion, fishing was causing both direct and indirect changes on the ecosystems in which it was taking place (FAO 1995). Furthermore, there was the additional realisation that humans were degrading the oceans in other ways as well: through non-extractive uses in coastal areas and land-based impacts on watersheds and coastal zones (World Bank 2004; GESAMP 2001).

This lag in addressing oceans was due to a unique set of issues that are linked to the subject of sustainability: issues of scale, accessibility, jurisdiction and ownership of resources. The advent of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) in 1982 was a major step forward in addressing jurisdictional issues and resulted in supplementary agreements regarding the deep seabed and highly migratory and straddling stocks (Rothwell and VanderZwaag 2006a).