Developing hybrid governance to protect and manage special areas of the high seas

Because of their ecosystems and shifting positions, the Sargasso Sea and the Thermal Dome are both unique locations on the high seas. To contribute to protecting their biodiversity, this FFEM-supported project seeks to offer possible models for effective regional and international coordination.

Context

The Thermal Dome (tropical Eastern Pacific) and the Sargasso Sea (North-West Atlantic) are two emblematic locations in the diversity and importance of the high seas ecosystems. Located for the most part outside national jurisdictions, these shifting formations may nonetheless impinge upon the exclusive economic zones that fall under state sovereignty.

This makes it crucial to develop new hybrid (regional/international) governance that favours the conservation and sustainable utilisation of the marine biodiversity in these areas of the high seas. Which is precisely what this FFEM-supported project aims to promote.

Description

The project has four components:

Implementing effective project coordination and steering through a dedicated committee, a panel of scientific and legal experts supporting the activities and the teams delivering these across the two project sites.

Producing diagnostic analyses of the socio-ecosystems through engagement and consultation with the stakeholders.

Proposing governance models for ecosystem-driven management, following participative and multi-sector discussions, to support the new agreement on biodiversity outside national jurisdictions.

Strengthening capabilities and disseminating knowledge on governance and conservation on the high seas outside the directly-involved stakeholders.

Impacts

Producing reports on physical data, bio-chemical, ecological, socio-economic and gap analyses across both project sites.

Establishing a dialogue with the economic sectors and institutions on the conservation and sustainable utilisation of the high seas across both sites.

Making available the resources to support sustainable strengthening of capabilities.

Publication of recommendations for the identification of area-based management tools (ABMTs) on the high seas, including nomination of the Thermal Dome as a UNESCO World Heritage site - a first for such a location.

Exemplary and innovative characteristic

This FFEM-supported project is innovative in that only very few examples of effective ecosystemic governance approaches currently exist on the high seas, bar some regional treaties.

The Thermal Dome site is the first attempt globally to establish governance of a seasonal and moving high seas ecosystem. In addition, the Sargasso Sea Commission is a novel system in that it brings together ten governments and an expert commission to promote the conservation of a high seas ecosystem, without a treaty regime. In both cases, the project hopes to ally global and regional governance, so giving birth to a new hybrid model.

The evolution of low-cost satellite surveillance systems and greater public accessibility to this information are opening up new ways to monitor and manage fishing activity and maritime traffic.

Download the project sheet

01/09/2021

Project start date

28/02/2026

Project end date

18/12/2020

Project grant date

5 years

Duration of funding

Aquatic ecosystems,

Biodiversity

Sectors