The Ecosystem Approach and the Search for An Objective and Content for the Concept of Holistic Ocean Governance

摘要

Although the need for holistic ocean governance has been widely accepted and some implementation efforts have been undertaken, there is still a significant lack of understanding or agreement as to its content, or primary objective(s). While both principled and process-based approaches have been proposed as providing objectives or content for the holistic approach, both have flaws. In this article, an approach that combines both principle and process-the ecosystem approach-is assessed and the degree to which it can provide and does already provide such content and objective(s) is explored.