The Earth’s oceans are vast and complex ecosystems, and the legal framework for protecting them is similarly intricate, involving numerous international agreements. To support understanding of oceanic conservation mechanisms, InforMEA, a project of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Information and Knowledge Management Initiative, has created an e-course focusing on the international legal framework on marine pollution. It helps users to wade through a complicated governance “oceanscape” through the lens of agreements on marine pollution.

This policy update reveals how the e-course creates clarity and understanding of oceanic conservation with regard to pollution, and explores how improved understanding of the international framework for marine pollution supports the conservation and protection of marine ecosystems.

The e-course sets the stage with the example of the vessel the ‘Torrey Canyon’ in 1967. The ship was owned by an American company, registered in Liberia, chartered to a British company, and operated by an Italian crew when it sailed from Kuwait, leaking 1.3 million gallons of oil in the English Channel between the UK and France. The example illustrates the many countries that are routinely involved in a single voyage, and the additional countries that can become involved if there is an incident along the way. The course shows how the transboundary nature of both shipping and pollution complicates efforts to govern marine pollution and protect the seas.

The e-course is helpfully structured around the sources of marine pollution. By mass, the sources of marine pollution are: land-based (82%), vessel-based (9%), dumping of waste at sea (8%), and off-shore activity (1%). For each marine pollution source, the e-course highlights the key provisions of the relevant global and regional legally-binding and non-legally binding agreements or conventions. Together, these agreements form the international legal framework for marine pollution.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, this framework is a complex of global agreements, overlapping and informing one another. The e-course serves as a useful map to help those involved in treaty implementation to navigate these agreements. For each convention, and the e-course includes nearly 30 agreements. There is a summary of its place in the international legal framework, its objectives and its provisions. In some cases, the provisions vary for flag and port states or for different regions, and the e-course explains the similarities between provisions, as well as key differences.

The e-course is an initial primer for an implementer to understand what conventions apply to a given source of marine pollution. There is also a brief discussion on how the management of some issues has changed over time. For example, the Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and other Matter (the London Convention) originally took the approach that dumping at sea can occur, with exception of those items that are prohibited by the “black list” or where permits are required by a “grey list.” As of 1996, as the e-course explains, the Protocol to the London Convention prohibits all dumping at sea with the exception of those wastes on the “reverse list,” which can be dumped subject to a permit. These analytical history lessons help inform current efforts to strengthen the rules and implementation of other international and regional agreements.

The Regional Seas Agreements are a key part of the patchwork of agreements comprising the legal framework for marine pollution. The e-course devotes an entire unit to the Regional Seas Agreements, which is an excellent example of dialogue and learning between agreements, and which can be supplemented through efforts such as the e-course. The course outlines the 13 regional framework agreements developed through the UNEP Regional Seas Programme, involving 143 coastal countries and territories. The Regional Seas Programme is developing an action plan to protect the marine environment that includes targets, regional cooperation and capacity building to facilitate pollution control. Some of the regional agreements are backed by legally-binding conventions and protocols. These regional agreements routinely interface on common issues through global meetings. Thus, improved and available knowledge of the regional agreements helps improve learning between regions and the effectiveness of their actions. [1]

The Regional Seas approach, involving action plan development and focusing on implementation of the action plan regardless of whether it is supported by a legally-binding agreement, is unique in many ways. The efficacy of the Regional Seas Programme has been explored and noted by those working in other environmental issues. Experts discussing the future of the Intergovernmental Arrangement for Forests, for instance, referenced the Regional Seas Programme as a way to enhance implementation, regardless of legal form of the agreement, in a way that has global similarities and respects regional differences. [2]

The influence of the international legal framework for marine pollution is evidently far and wide, as shown by the numerous organizations and implementing agencies working to enact the many provisions of the various agreements. The marine environment, like the legal one set up to protect and manage it, is vast and in need of further study. The unique approaches and successes of the different agreements, and their ability to collaborate and communicate in the future, are aided by efforts, such as this e-course, to improve the understanding of this complex legal environment.

[1] IISD Reporting Services: Summary of the Sixteenth Global Meeting of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Regional Seas Conventions and Actions Plans (RSCAPs)

[2] IISD Reporting Services: Summary of the Second Meeting of the Open-ended Intergovernmental Ad Hoc Expert Group on the International Arrangement on Forests (AHEG2) of the UN Forum on Forests (UNFF)