Rights of Nature – The NCLOS Blog

Introduction to the outcomes of the 2023 NCLOS Conference on “Ocean Commons”

By: Konstantinos Deligiannis-Virvos (UiT, Norwegian Centre for the Law of the Sea)

Matter commented on: NCLOS Conference on Ocean Commons, 1-3 November 2023, Tromsø, Norway.

Introduction:

The term “commons” usually brings into mind the problem of the tragedy of the commons: a concept in environmental science and economics that describes a situation in which individuals belonging to a group, acting out of self-interest, deplete shared resources, leading to the detriment of the entire group (Hardin, 1968). Within the law of the sea, the term “ocean commons” generally refers to marine areas beyond national jurisdiction, where no State holds sovereignty, sovereign rights, or exclusive jurisdiction. This designation aligns with the United Nations Convention for the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which distinguishes between maritime zones under national jurisdiction and areas beyond national jurisdiction.

The Convention on Migratory Species Agrees on Measures to Protect Cetacean Culture

By: Vito De Lucia

PDF Version: The Convention on Migratory Species Agrees on Measures to Protect Cetacean Culture

Matter commented on: CMS Resolution on the Conservation Implications of Cetacean Culture, UNEP/CMS/COP11/Doc.23.2.4

Introduction

The Conference of the Parties to the 1979 Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS), in its 11^th session held in Quito, Ecuador on November 4-9 has adopted a landmark resolution that aims to protect the culture of socially complex animals, and more specifically cetaceans. Parties to the CMS will henceforth have to consider relevant “units of culture” when deciding upon conservation measures, so as to protect behaviours that are passed on within particular groups of dolphins and whales, not through genetic information encoded in the animals’ DNA, but through social learning. This resolution has possibly far reaching implications. Some of these implications (but only some) will be raised in this post.