Overlapping and Coordination in Ocean Governance

As the signing of the Agreement on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biodiversity in Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) is nearing completion, coordination with the International Seabed Authority (ISA) and regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs) is imminent. This paper investigates the problem of overlap and harmonization in ocean governance and finds that the BBNJ Agreement contains overlapping competencies with Instruments, Frameworks and Bodies (IFBs), which make it possible for them to have the same (or partially the same) rights in the same region. In the case of the ISA, there are already standards for environmental effect assessment as regards management of the international seabed area, which BBNJ also requires, potentially leading to duplicative assessments and regulatory gaps; In the case of RFMOs, their own conservation measures for biological resources are not uniform in different areas, and it is even more difficult for them to apply the new standards brought by the BBNJ as a matter of course, which may lead to conflicts with the Marine Protected Area (MPA) and other Area-Based Management Tools (ABMT) proposed by the BBNJ. However, the BBNJ's harmonization provisions do not address these issues in a satisfactory manner. This study highlights the hindering nature of these overlapping issues for the future implementation of BBNJ and makes corresponding recommendations to facilitate the cooperation between BBNJ and other organizations to achieve the conservation of marine living resources.