New Frontiers of Marine Governance in the Ocean Decade

The rise of new ocean science and technology in areas such as offshore renewable energies, aquaculture, deep-sea mining, and blue biotechnology, triggered a global rush for Blue Growth, particularly after the Rio+20 Conference. New drivers for ocean use are also embedded in the new decarbonization and renewables sustainable goals, especially in Europe. Together with the “old uses'', from fishing and shipping to oil and gas exploitation, the increasing competition for ocean space led to the need of new maritime and marine governance policies and instruments, such as: Integrated Maritime Policies, Ocean Strategies, Blue Growth Strategies and Maritime Spatial Planning. However, this new Ocean Economy increases the environmental pressure on the oceans, already threatened by the effects of climate change, pollution, overfishing and loss of biodiversity, leading to a general claim on an ecosystem approach to marine governance. Moreover, the ocean, by absorbing 93% of temperature increases, is essential for the survival of humanity. These are challenges to the governance of marine space and socio-ecological systems, where new boundaries can be political, ethical, social, economic, ecological, or biophysical, among others. They imply going beyond current discussions about the sharing of uses of the ocean and imagining new ways of managing the multitude of the existing and future ocean uses in a sustainable way. Governments, society and economic agents have to adapt institutional and legal frameworks to these new challenges, giving rise to new models of marine governance. We are probably facing the biggest change in marine and ocean governance since WWII and the entry into force of UNCLOS in 1994.

This rupture raises several questions to be addressed during the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, namely:
• The need for new marine governance frameworks at national, regional and global levels;
• The (un)sustainability of the economic exploration of the ocean;
• The need for ecosystem-based, integrated and adaptive management of the ocean, including large marine ecosystems (LME);
• The monitoring of marine social-ecological systems and blue economy with appropriate indicators;
• The spatial planning of abyssal funds and the expansion of marine conservation areas beyond national jurisdictions;
• The evolution of polar regimes considering the impacts of climate change.

Proposed topics
1. New frontiers in marine biodiversity conservation
• Protecting biodiversity for climate reasons: Compensation, carbone sink, climate refugia
• Governance of transboundary MPA’s
• Conservation of areas beyond national jurisdiction
• Ecosystem-based marine spatial planning
• Governance of Large Marine Ecosystems (LME)

2. The new blue deal: Political, social, institutional and legal challenges
• From green deal to blue deal.
• Blue economy: new political instruments and institutional frameworks
• Integrated Maritime policies, Blue growth and MSP: impacts on legal frameworks
• New frontiers in social equity and justice
• Impacts of the new stakeholders framework in the marine space
• Inclusion of local stakeholders and indigenous peoples
• The competition for maritime space
• Renewable ocean energy
• Mining and governance at deep sea
• Sustainability science and blue economy
• New science-policy interfaces

3. New frontiers of governance under a changing climate
• Polar regimes
• Climate change and adaptive management
• Adaptative ocean management
• Climate-smart marine spatial planning