"Preface" [2014] ELECD 308; in Stephens, Tim; VanderZwaag, L. David (eds), "Polar Oceans Governance in an Era of Environmental Change" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2014) xv

Book Title: Polar Oceans Governance in an Era of Environmental Change

Editor(s): Stephens, Tim; VanderZwaag, L. David

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781781955444

Section Title: Preface

Number of pages: 6

Extract:

Preface
`Oceans governance' describes the array of norms, principles, institutions
and processes through which the international community is seeking to
manage ocean spaces in the twenty-first century as they come under
increasing pressure from human activities. The oceans governance narra-
tive dominates research and commentary on ocean affairs, and is widely
reflected in the practice of states as they deploy new approaches and
tools for cooperative marine management. Governments have recognized
the limitations of a zonal paradigm for oceans management, and the
necessity for an integrated, coordinated and systemic approach to address
contemporary oceans challenges across jurisdictional boundaries. It is an
approach compelled by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law
of the Sea, which acknowledges in its Preamble that `the problems of
ocean space are closely interrelated and need to be considered as a
whole'.
This book assesses how an oceans governance agenda is being
advanced in the dynamic ocean regions at the highest latitudes. Both the
Arctic and Southern Oceans are marine bioregions experiencing the rapid
and early effects of climate change and ocean acidification, are areas of
vital strategic interest, present significant potential for mineral resource
and fisheries exploitation, face increasing pressures from human visita-
tion, and have inestimable environmental, cultural and scientific value.
The polar oceans are therefore crucibles for testing how integrated,
eco-systemic governance frameworks can be developed to meet and
address volatile environmental, political and economic conditions in the
current geological era, the Anthropocene, in which human activities have
touched all ...