Sustainability in Oceans Governance: Small Islands, Emerging Powers, and Connecting Regions
| Published date | 01 May 2017 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/1758-5899.12443 |
| Date | 01 May 2017 |
Sustainability in Oceans Governance: Small
Islands, Emerging Powers, and Connecting
Regions
Joris Larik
The Hague Institute for Global Justice and Leiden University
Abhijit Singh
The Observer Research Foundation
Abstract
As evidenced by Goal No. 14 of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, the importance of oceans governance as a matter
of global policy can hardly be overstated. The unsustainable uses of their resources could lead to serious consequences, not
only for coastal communities, but remote landlocked countries as well. This special section aims to take the international com-
munity’s clarion call for effective norms, institutions, and multi-stakeholder cooperation back to the oceans through three topi-
cal case studies. Each in its own way illustrates humanity’s high stakes in blue growth, offering recommendations on how
states and governments must craft coherent, effective, and actionable policies to make sustainable oceans governance a real-
ity. Claire van der Geest’s article opens the special section with a focus on the Indian Ocean and the need to redesign its fish-
eries governance. Hongzhou Zhang and Fengshi Wu subsequently investigate two of the most significant structural shifts of
China’s marine fisheries sector in the past decades, namely, going outward and focusing on high market value species. James
Malcolm concludes the special section by switching attention to small island developing states, arguing that sustainable
oceans governance for them represents not ‘only’an environmental or economic concern, but indeed a matter of national
security.
The importance of sustainable oceans governance as a mat-
ter of global policy can hardly be overstated. According to
the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization
(FAO), 17 per cent of animal protein in humanity’s diets is
produced by fisheries and aquaculture, supporting ‘the liveli-
hoods of some 12 percent of the world’s population’(FAO,
2016). Moreover, estimates by the World Bank indicate that
approximately 350 million jobs are linked to the oceans
through fishing, aquaculture, coastal and marine tourism
and other oceans-related activities, while many rapidly
growing coastal cities rely on desalinated seawater for their
freshwater supply (World Bank, 2014). Meanwhile, an ‘esti-
mated 40 percent of the carbon in the atmosphere that
becomes bound in natural systems is cycled into the oceans
and wetlands’(FAO, 2016). These are only some illustrations
of the key role oceans play is nurturing life. The unsustain-
able uses of their resources could lead to serious conse-
quences, not only for coastal communities, but remote
landlocked countries as well.
1
In 2012, delegates at the Rio+20 Conference recognized
the need for a marine complement to ‘green growth’,as
efforts intensified to shift the green model towards a ‘blue
economy’framework (United Nations, 2012). Three years
later, in September 2015, the role of oceans as an integral
part of the sustainable development agenda was recognized
in the Sustainable Developments Goals (SDGs). Regarding
Goal No. 14 –‘Conserve and sustainably use the oceans,
seas and marine resources for sustainable development’–
the 2016 progress report reiterates that oceans, ‘along
with coastal and marine resources, play an essential role
in human well-being and social and economic develop-
ment worldwide’, including the regulation of ‘the global
ecosystem by absorbing heat and carbon dioxide from
the atmosphere’(United Nations Economic and Social
Council, 2016).
Sustainable oceans governance has become a global
mandate, the fulfillment of which will require action and
reform at different levels of governance and include the
participation of a wide range of stakeholders. The SDGs
recognize that the multiple objectives concern diverse
substantive areas, which cannot be achieved without well-
functioning governance mechanisms and a global multi-
stakeholder partnership. Accordingly, Goal No. 16 calls for
‘effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all
levels’, while with a view to SDG No. 17, which calls for a
‘Global Partnership for Sustainable Development’, realiza-
tion of ‘the ambitious targets of the 2030 Agenda requires
a revitalized and enhanced global partnership that brings
together Governments, civil society, the private sector, the
United Nations system and other actors and mobilizes all
Global Policy (2017) 8:2 doi: 10.1111/1758-5899.12443 ©2017 University of Durham and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Global Policy Volume 8 . Issue 2 . May 2017 213
Special Section Article
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