11. Sharing our Oceans Fairly

Summary

The main challenge to governing ocean resources fairly is understanding international relations around ocean issues, the incentives to cooperate, and approaches to improve cooperation and achieve consensus. We aim to discuss the current and future international relations around ocean issues and also to include the concept of fairness in how we are sharing the ocean resources. The challenge uses the example of marine protected areas to highlight key issues in moving from “a business as usual” to “sustainable 2030” scenarios This paper will discuss/outline the strategies employed in governing the ocean resources and whether this is a fair system and explore the implementation or non-implementation of Marine Protected Areas as a way to conserve and sustainably manage the future ocean resources at state level, regional and global level. The pathway to achieving a sustainable future – our preferred 2030 scenario – builds on and extends the ‘business as usual’ practices. Current policy and regulatory settings provide the base of a “Sustainable 2030”; the Law of the Sea Convention, for example , The developing legally binding Instrument to address marine biodiversity conservation in areas beyond national jurisdiction is likely to further support such obligations.