Author Archives: Kristine Gu

About Kristine Gu

Kristine Gu is an LL.M. student at the Faculty of Law at the University of Calgary. She is currently a research assistant funded by Professor Anna-Maria Hubert (University of Calgary) and Professor Neil Craik’s (University of Waterloo) SSHRC project, The International Law of the Commons: Towards a Global Constitutional Framework. She holds a J.D. degree from the University of Calgary and a B.Com. degree from the University of Alberta. Kristine is a member of the Ontario Bar.

Assessing the Role of Strategic Environmental Assessments in the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction

By: Kristine Gu

PDF Version: Assessing the Role of Strategic Environmental Assessments in the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction

Matter Commented On: President’s aid to negotiations on the international legally binding instrument under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction, A/Conf.232/2019/1.

The year 2020 will be a milestone year for the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and an opportunity to reflect on the progress made, and the hurdles still ahead, in attaining these goals. SDG 14 addresses the conservation and sustainable use of the oceans, seas, and marine resources. It sets out to tackle several issues by 2020 that plague the marine environment, including overfishing and ocean acidification, and to manage marine ecosystems to avoid significant adverse impacts (Targets 14.2–14.4). SDG 14 points to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (LOSC) as the legal framework for the conservation and sustainable use of the ocean and marine resources (Target 14.C).

2020 also coincides with the final substantive session of the intergovernmental conference (IGC) on an international legally binding agreement (ILBI) under LOSC on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ). Key elements of the ILBI will not only uphold LOSC mandates but also provide the tools essential to achieving the targets under SDG 14.

The first session of the IGC convened in September of last year. Discussions were centered around the four key elements of the “package deal” agreed upon in 2011, including environmental impact assessments (EIAs). An overview of the history and objectives of the IGC and the ILBI are provided for in the JCLOS blog posts of 17 August 2015 by Anna-Maria Hubert and 21 October 2016 by Christian Prip.

Delegates will gather again in New York at the end of this month for the second session of the IGC, with a focus on the Zero-Draft contained in the IGC President’s Aid to Negotiations (A/Conf.232/2019/1). Options to treaty text in the Zero-Draft take into consideration discussions from the first session, as well as the Preparatory Committee’s (PrepCom) recommendations in its 2017 report (A/AC.287/2017/PC.4/2), to reflect the general trend in the current dialogue.

This blog post focuses on the treatment of strategic environmental assessments (SEAs) by the IGC within the ambit of the EIA Working Group with a view to demonstrating the role of SEAs in pursuing SDG 14 and in the good governance of marine biodiversity. The post first lays out the nature and purpose of SEAs, and their use in existing environmental agreements. It then reviews delegate positions from the first session and as reflected in the Zero-Draft to uncover the ways in which SEAs may be developed in the ILBI.

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