Systematic Conservation Planning: A Better Recipe for Managingthe High Seas for Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Use

摘要

At the UN Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio in June 2012, worldleaders committed to the conservation and sustainable use of marine biologicaldiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction (the high seas). Our analysis ofgaps in high seas management indicates that a paradigm shift to a more systematicapproach will be needed to safeguard high seas biodiversity from mountingthreats. Experience from terrestrial and coastal areas indicates that a systematicapproach to conservation planning and management can help to maintainecosystem health and productivity while enabling sustainable use. Our analysisfurther demonstrates that the current legal regime on the high seas isinsufficient to realize these objectives: management institutions have neitheran adequate mandate for integrated planning nor the ability to effectively coordinateacross multiple management regimes. We identify key elements forfuture high seas management and posit that a two-pronged approach is mostpromising: the development of an improved global legal regime that incorporatessystematic planning as well as the expansion of existing and new regionalagreements and mandates. This combined approach is most likely to achievethe required ecosystem-based, integrated and science-based management thatworld leaders at Rio acknowledged should underpin ocean management.