Regional Ocean Governance of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction: Lessons Learnt and Ways Forward

This report provides an overview of a range of ongoing initiatives to improve governance of ABNJ at the regional level, including: novel modalities, such as the “Collective Arrangement for the North-East Atlantic”, whereby the OSPAR Commission and the North East Atlantic Fisheries Commission (NEAFC) seek to strengthen cooperation between organisations with a management mandate in the region; coalition-based initiatives, such as the Sargasso Sea Commission and the Pelagos Sanctuary for Mediterranean Marine Mammals; and the international legal framework of the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS), under which parties have agreed to develop a representative system of MPAs and have designated the world’s largest MPA in the Ross Sea.