The oceans cover over 70% of our planet. They are host to a biodiversity of tremendous wealth. Its preservation is now a global priority featuring in several international conventions and a confirmed objective of European policies and national strategies. Understanding the dynamics and the uses of the marine biodiversity is a genuine scientific challenge. Fourteen international experts have got together and identified five priority research themes to address the problem, based on analysing the state of knowledge.

This collection of essays commemorates the Thirtieth Anniversary of the 1972 Stockholm Declaration on the Human Environment. The opening presentation is by the distinguished former Foreign Minister of Sweden, Dr. Hans Blix, a primary author of the Stockholm Declaration. A second keynote abstract is by Professor Bjorn Lomborg, the renowned author of The Skeptical Environmentalist. The third keynote essay is by the United Nations Under Secretary-General of Legal Affairs, Hans Correl. The remainder of the volume includes contributions by six judges from the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, the Secretary-General of the International Seabed Authority, senior representatives from the Food and Agriculture Organization, International Maritime Organization, World Bank, Swedish Foreign Ministry and United States Department of State along with 25 professors and environmental law experts from 15 countries. The collection provides a comprehensive, in-depth review of the historic achievement as well as current relevance of the 1972 Stockholm Declaration as a landmark achievement in international environmental law.

This volume provides a reference textbook and comprehensive compilation of multifaceted perspectives on the legal issues arising from the conservation and exploitation of non-human biological resources. Contributors include leading academics, policy-makers and practitioners reviewing a range of socio-legal issues concerning the relationships between humankind and the natural world. The Routledge Handbook of Biodiversity and the Law includes chapters on fundamental and cutting-edge issues, including discussion of major legal instruments such as the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Nagoya Protocol. The book is divided into six distinct parts based around the major objectives which have emerged from legal frameworks concerned with protecting biodiversity. Following introductory chapters, Part II examines issues relating to conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, with Part III focusing on access and benefit-sharing. Part IV discusses legal issues associated with the protection of traditional knowledge, cultural heritage and indigenous human rights. Parts V and VI focus on a selection of intellectual property issues connected to the commercial exploitation of biological resources, and analyse ethical issues, including viewpoints from economic, ethnobotanical, pharmaceutical and other scientific industry perspectives.

The International Legal Regime Relating to Marine Protected Areas in Areas beyond National Jurisdiction identifies the ‘participatory’, ‘competence’ and ‘geographical’ gaps in the international legal regime relating to marine protected areas (MPAs) in areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ) and provides insight into how to address these gaps. The book concludes that the gaps can be addressed only to a limited extent under the current international legal framework; however, the prospective international legally binding instrument (ILBI) on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ) might well make further contributions.

Our oceans need a strong and effective environmental rule of law to protect them against increased pressures and demands, including climate change, pollution, fisheries, shipping and more. The environmental rule of law for oceans requires the existence of a set of rules and policies at multiple governance levels that appropriately regulate human activities at sea and ensure that pressures on the marine ecosystem are tackled effectively. Adhering to the rule of law through clear, predictable, coherent, and legitimate rules, and their implementation and enforcement, is timely and urgent. In this book, we are searching for ways to improve, strengthen and further develop the environmental rule of law for oceans. The book provides future-oriented perspectives on how law should evolve to better preserve the oceans. All chapters incorporate novel insights and ideas for legal solutions that might inspire scholars, actors, authorities, citizens and communities around the globe. This title is Open Access.

The 1982 Law of the Sea Convention at 30: Successes, Challenges and New Agendas offers twenty essays by renowned Law of the Sea scholars, published to mark the 30th Anniversary of the adoption of the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. The book highlights some of the strengths of the legal regime established by the Convention, and reviews some of the more significant lacunae in the Convention regime. Recognizing the significant changes that have taken place in scientific knowledge and political agendas in the thirty years since 1982, it reviews the challenges that these new agendas pose to the Convention regime.

This is the thirteenth report from the Environmental Audit Committee of the 2007-08 session (HCP 743, ISBN 9780215524843). The Committee states, that the Government will fail to meet the 2010 traget to halt biodiversity loss, although the target might have been unrealistic. The Committee does see some progress, with 80% of Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSIs) in a favourable condition, with a number of rare species having recovered. In general though, biodiversity loss continues in the wider countryside with many species and habitats facing severe declines and local extinctions. The Committee does believe though that with leadership and effective policies, biodiversity loss could in fact be reversed, and states the Government should adopt a new target to halt the loss. Biodiversity policies need to be cross-departmental, and the Government's ecosystem assessment is a way forward, by encouraging such an approach and promoting biodiversity protection at the regional and local scales. The Committee further states that the Government could make a large contribution in preventing biodiversity loss through more support for the UK Overseas Territories.

This book provides a blueprint for an International Legally Binding Instrument (ILBI) for the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ). The development of an ILBI could signify a pivotal turning point in the law of the sea by addressing regulatory, governance and institutional gaps and deficiencies in the existing international law framework for BBNJ. This book analyses the essential components an ILBI will require to effectively conserve and sustainably use BBNJ, focusing on marine genetic resources, areabased management tools, environmental impact assessments, capacity-building and marine technology transfer. It investigates potential areas of compromise, as the success of an ILBI will rely upon the support of a powerful bloc of maritime States, principally the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, the Netherlands, France and Japan. The participation of major maritime powers will be critical as it is their nationals, corporations and flag vessels that have the financial and technical wherewithal to undertake activities beyond national jurisdiction. This bloc of States has historically been the strongest proponent of the Grotian doctrine of ‘freedom of the seas’ as it aligns with their predominant interest to preserve navigational freedom for their merchant and military fleets. Accordingly, this book assesses the extent to which the Grotian doctrine continues to exert influence on the development of the law of the sea and the development of an ILBI. Providing a comprehensive overview of this important development in international law, this book will be of interest to students, lecturers and academics of law of the sea, international environmental law and biodiversity law.