This research addresses one of the most pressing issues the international law of the sea has been dealing with in recent times, i.e the creation of marine protected areas (MPAs) in areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ).
Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), no State can unilaterally designate MPAs in ABNJ. Indeed, the existing ones have been established through the regional or sectoral legal frameworks already in force. While helpful in fostering the protection and conservation of the biodiversity in ABNJ, these measures suffer from two drawbacks. Firstly, they are only binding for parties to those treaties; secondly the current MPAs only protect the water column or the sea-bed from some specific sources of pollution.
The necessity to designate MPAs which overcome the rigid zonal scheme of the UNCLOS and apply an integrated approach, thus ensuring the comprehensive protection of the water column and the seabed alike, has been voiced often times.
In 2017, an Intergovernmental conference on the conservation of marine biodiversity in ABNJ was convened under the auspices of the UN to define a proper legal framework and a global mechanism for the establishment of MPAs.
Despite a general agreement on the importance of coordination among existing international bodies to that end, no provision of the negotiating text operationalises this principle.
This project aims at identifying and analysing areas of possible overlapping uses of the marine areas, to highlight the relevance of a coordinated effort in the establishment of MPAs.
Dealing with three case studies, the research will serve as a proof test for the new agreement. It will touch upon the most appropriate institutional approach for the creation of MPAs, namely a global or a regional one. Based on practical instances taken from the current and expected uses of the ocean space, it will identify the key-players in the establishment of MPAs and support options that are viable for States.
As it deals with an open issue for the international community currently addressed by an Intergovernmental conference, the outcome of this research project on MPAs in ABNJ will be, by definition, possibly instrumental to the advancement of the doctrinal and policy debates.
The main innovative element of this research lies in the interdisciplinary approach it takes to the topic. Indeed, because of the technicality of the issues at stake, the existing literature is dominated by limited interaction among scholars from different backgrounds. With the support of leading experts in the related fields, this research project aims at merging the available knowledge in a complimentary way, so as to ensure that scientifically appropriate options are also legally feasible and viceversa.
Moreover, the available studies do not display a real integrated approach to the issue, in that the analysis of the establishment of MPAs in ABNJ tends to remain anchored to only some specific human activities. In this last regard, even the most recent contributions published in leading journals focus on the interrelations among no more than two anthropogenic activities, generally deep-sea mining and fisheries, thus missing the more comprehensive picture of the human pressures on regional ecosystems, both in the water column and the seabed.
Additionally, because of the frequent lack of an analytical legal component, these contributions confine themselves to observe and register the possible conflicting interests at stake, without proposing platforms for cooperation. This does not seem coherent with the objective, supported by the civil society and the scientific community alike, of achieving a cross-sectoral approach to MPAs with the support of the existing competent organisations.
This research project will aim at operationalizing the vague principle of coordination which has been included in the draft agreement since the beginning of its negotiations.
In so-doing, the added value of the present research also lies in building arguments and providing suggestions on the way forward based on practical instances taken from the current and expected uses of the ocean space. By identifying the key-players in the establishment of MPAs in ABNJ, the research will not provide merely academic venues for coordination among relevant actors, possibly resulting in a sterile doctrinal exercise, but will make sure that the identified options are viable and appropriate in the light of the State practice.
This is pivotal to reach the goal of an open-access contribution which can really foster the international scholarly and diplomatic debate.