With 70% of the Earth covered by the ocean, and given the importance of the ocean as the life support system of Planet Earth, now is the time for UNCSD to pay due attention to the needs of the ocean, and to the hundreds of millions of people who depend on healthy ocean ecosystems for their very survival.

GESDPE: sustainable development and poverty eradication

UNCSD should ensure that the principles of the Rio Declaration and the commitments contained in Rio, Agenda 21, and the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation (JPOI), which are still sound today, are operationalized in a time-bound and effective final outcome, which must be bold, visionary and effective. Sustainability is at the heart of UNCSD, as it was at the heart of Rio and WSSD, but it has been the casualty of ineffective international frameworks and organizations and national implementation over the last 20 years.

With regard to the world‘s oceans, if humanity is to avoid continuing destructive fishing methods and practices (including but not limited to overfishing), habitat destruction, climate change, pollution and other abuse of the ocean, UNCSD must ensure that environmental sustainability is implemented with no further delay, using the precautionary principle and ecosystem approach as guiding principles.

With the majority of human settlements located on or near the coasts, and hundreds of millions of people dependent on the quality of the marine environment and the availability of living marine resources for their well-being, sound and comprehensive policies and action for the protection of the marine environment must be a high priority for sustainable development and poverty eradication.

Many of the tools and goals for the ocean are well known. We recommend that the international community:

Identify, establish, and effectively manage protected areas in the ocean. Together with other organizations and some governments, the Pew Environment Group has called for 20% of the world‘s ocean to be protected by 2020. The CBD Nagoya goal of creating Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in 10% of the ocean by 2020 is insufficient, even though today only around 1% of the world‘s oceans is currently protected;

Stop overfishing, including by addressing overcapacity, subsidies, illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing, following scientific advice, and assessing sustainable catches and allocating catches equitably and effectively;

• Stop overfishing, including by addressing overcapacity, subsidies, illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing, following scientific advice, and assessing sustainable catches and allocating catches equitably and effectively;
  
  

• End destructive fishing practices, including the need to prevent damage to vulnerable marine ecosystems through bottom trawling and other destructive fishing gear and practices, and end the current depletion of shark species through unmanaged fisheries, finning and other unsustainable practices;
  

• Advance sustainable fishing practices in developing States, including through capacity building, technology transfer and financial assistance, and through fair, equitable and sustainable fisheries access agreements;
  
  
• Implement prior environmental impact assessments and strategic environmental assessments to prevent or minimize anthropogenic impacts on the ocean for new and emerging activities as well as for fishing activities;
  
  

• Implement effective conservation and management measures regionally and globally, assessing all environmental factors and trends, including climate change and ocean acidification, using the precautionary principle and ecosystem approach when undertaking management activities, using modern environmental principles and tools, for all marine species, and particularly in areas requiring new management techniques such as the Arctic Ocean, due to the changes brought about by climate change;
  
  

• Implement effective and comprehensive monitoring, control, surveillance, compliance and enforcement (MCSCE) to ensure that conservation and management measures are implemented, and to prevent IUU fishing, including through effective flag State, port State, national and market measures; and

• Take steps to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and reduce carbon dioxide emissions to lessen the impacts of climate change and ocean acidification on the ocean, and implement measures to build resilience and ensure adaptation in the face of climate impacts that are unavoidable.

IFSD: the institutional framework for sustainable development

Modern environmental governance has advanced considerably since UNCED took place in Rio in 1992, but it is far from being implemented broadly and effectively. Furthermore, the year 2012, when UNCSD will take place, also marks the 30th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS, Montego Bay, December, 1982).

In order for GESDPE measures to be relevant and effective for the ocean, international environmental governance must be overhauled in critical areas pertaining to the marine environment. This is particularly pertinent with regards to the ocean, where governance measures for this global commons are either insufficient to deal with the realities of the 21st Century, or have not yet been adequately implemented.

To strengthen the institutional framework, our recommendations include:

• Ensuring that international environmental governance mechanisms are in place to implement the GESDPE measures, including reforms such as an implementing agreement under UNCLOS, providing a clear mandate to conserve and protect biodiversity on the high seas, based on the precautionary principle and the ecosystem approach to biodiversity conservation;

• Reforming regional ocean governance, to ensure that either existing organizations are reformed to meet contemporary challenges or new organizations are put in place such that organizations have the mandate, operational ability and flexibility to implement and enforce the GESDPE reforms. Fisheries management organizations should urgently be reformed to become ocean management organizations (OMO), with a broad ecosystem conservation focus such as that currently operationalized by the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) and the OSPAR Convention for the Protection of the North East Atlantic; and

• Securing transparency and accountability and international best practice within all Regional Fisheries Management Organizations and Agreements (RFMO/As) and other relevant organizations such as, inter alia, the International Whaling Commission (IWC), and to the international community through specific provisions for oversight by the UN General Assembly.
  

About the Pew Environment Group

The Pew Environment Group is the conservation arm of the Pew Charitable Trusts, a non-governmental organization that applies a rigorous, analytical approach to improving public policy, informing the public and stimulating civic life. The full report “Bringing the Ocean back into the Earth Summit” is available at:

http://www.pewtrusts.org/uploadedFiles/wwwpewtrustsorg/Reports/Protecting_ocean_life/Pew_Rio20_brief.pdf 

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