Chapter 6
Considerations on Some Global
Institutional Challenges Within the Context
of the Conservation and Management
of Marine Living Resources
Fernando Correia Cardoso
Abstract This chapter highlights relevant aspects of some of the challenges that the
international community has recently dealt with and which will continue to have to
be present in the coming years within the context of the conservation and management of marine living resources, in particular in the field of fisheries. The following
governance related topics are the subject matter of analysis: the interplay between
instruments of a binding nature and instruments of ‘soft law’; the role of important
instruments that implement UNCLOS or which have been adopted to enable State
practise to be in conformity with the general frameworks; the fragmentation of
international law; the questions raised by the establishment of MPAs. A specific
reference is made to the UN Conference on the instrument on the conservation and
management of marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction and to
some specific issues related with this conference, namely the problematic raised by
the taking into consideration, in the negotiation of this instrument, of the genetic
marine resources. The chapter further contains an analysis of the importance of
international organizations in the conservation and management of fisheries
resources and of its relationship with other bodies responsible for the preservation
of the marine environment. Finally, the text refers to the action of ITLOS, in
particular in what concerns the application, in its jurisprudence, of a wide notion
of conservation of marine living resources.
F. C. Cardoso (*)
European Commission, Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (1986–2018),
Brussels, Belgium
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
M. C. Ribeiro et al. (eds.), Global Challenges and the Law of the Sea,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-42671-2_6
111
Considerations on Some Global
Institutional Challenges Within the Context
of the Conservation and Management
of Marine Living Resources
Fernando Correia Cardoso
Abstract This chapter highlights relevant aspects of some of the challenges that the
international community has recently dealt with and which will continue to have to
be present in the coming years within the context of the conservation and management of marine living resources, in particular in the field of fisheries. The following
governance related topics are the subject matter of analysis: the interplay between
instruments of a binding nature and instruments of ‘soft law’; the role of important
instruments that implement UNCLOS or which have been adopted to enable State
practise to be in conformity with the general frameworks; the fragmentation of
international law; the questions raised by the establishment of MPAs. A specific
reference is made to the UN Conference on the instrument on the conservation and
management of marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction and to
some specific issues related with this conference, namely the problematic raised by
the taking into consideration, in the negotiation of this instrument, of the genetic
marine resources. The chapter further contains an analysis of the importance of
international organizations in the conservation and management of fisheries
resources and of its relationship with other bodies responsible for the preservation
of the marine environment. Finally, the text refers to the action of ITLOS, in
particular in what concerns the application, in its jurisprudence, of a wide notion
of conservation of marine living resources.
F. C. Cardoso (*)
European Commission, Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (1986–2018),
Brussels, Belgium
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
M. C. Ribeiro et al. (eds.), Global Challenges and the Law of the Sea,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-42671-2_6
111