Legal agreements relating to the marine
environment
Global
Regional
National
International law, particularly the formulation of legal
agreements between nations with commonly shared resources,
provide a powerful tool for regulating access to those resources
and for controlling activities with potentially destructive
impacts on the environment.
There are several international agreements and a series
of regional and national agreements which are directly relevant
to the conservation of marine biodiversity.
These include agreements to regulate pollution resulting
from maritime activity, control trade in endangered marine
species, curb the hunting of endangered whales, protect
coastal sites of universal value, trace the effects of climate
change on marine ecosystems, and deal with pollution from
land-based activities.
In addition, there are currently ten UNEP
Regional Seas Conventions and four partner conventions
with their attendant protocols which address marine issues
of particular regional importance.
Global agreements
Agreement
on Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks
Convention
Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural
Heritage
[World
Heritage website]
Convention for the Establishment
of an Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission
Convention on Biological Diversity;
including the Jakarta Mandate of the Convention on Biological
Diversity on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine
and Coastal Biological Diversity [CBD
website]
Convention
on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna
and Flora (CITES) [CITES
website]
Convention
on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals
(CMS or Bonn Convention) [CMS
website]
Convention
on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes
and Other Matters (London Dumping Convention) and
other IMO conventions on the pollution of the marine environment
[LDC website]
Convention on the Transboundary
Movement of Hazardous Wastes (Basel Convention) [Basel
Convention website]
Convention on Wetlands of
International Importance especially as Waterfowl Habitat
(Ramsar Convention) [Ramsar
website]
International Convention for
the Regulation of Whaling (IWC) [IWC website]
United Nations Convention on
the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) [UN
LOS website)
United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
[UNFCCC website]
Regional agreements
African Convention on the Conservation
of Nature and Natural Resources
Antarctic Treaty System, including
–Convention on the Conservation
of Antarctic Seals (CCAS)
–Convention on the Conservation
of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR)
–Protocol on Environmental
Protection to the Antarctic Treaty
Convention
for the Prohibition of Fishing with Long Driftnets in the
South Pacific (Wellington
Convention) [full
text]
Convention on the Conservation
of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats (Bern Convention)
[Bern
Convention website]
National agreements
The Australian Whale Protection
Act
The Marine Mammal Protection
Act of the United States
More information on these and other environmental treaties
is available from ECOLEX,
a new source of information on international and national
environmental law sponsored by UNEP and IUCN [ECOLEX
website]
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