IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature

“10 Principles” for improving governance of the high seas – have your say!

15 September 2008 | News story

The Forum of the World Conservation Congress will host what promises to be an exciting and challenging debate on how to overcome barriers to effective governance of half the surface of our planet: the high seas.

Governance of the high seas and its natural resources suffers from a multitude of gaps and inconsistent mandates. Many human activities remain unregulated, ecosystem considerations are seldom taken into account and scientific information is often ignored. 

IUCN and its members have a long-standing commitment to achieving effective protection, restoration and sustainable use of biological diversity and ecosystem processes on the high seas (including the water column and seabed). At the 2004 IUCN World Conservation Congress, IUCN members called for consideration of additional mechanisms, tools and approaches for the effective governance, protection, restoration and sustainable management of marine biological diversity and productivity in the high seas.

At the forum, IUCN would like to advance the debate on how we can improve the governance system in the high seas. The attached document outlines 10 principles that are commonly called for and often used in natural resource management and but that are rarely in the high seas.

The session will debate the challenges and reasons hindering the applications of these principles in areas beyond national jurisdiction and how to overcome these. We invite you to read the document and provide your comments and have your say in the debate.

Please click here to review the Principles

Please click here to send your comments

We also invite you to take part in the session itself:
Safeguarding the high seas: a roadmap to protection for Earth’s final frontier. Tuesday, October 7, at 09:30.