ABSTRACT

To understand Consideration should be centred on

The prospects for global ocean governance

The political and scientific approaches

The differences between the modern and post-modern approaches

The implementation of ocean uses

What frameworks have been created to enable rational and sustainable resource exploitation

The role of maritime jurisdictional zones and the international regime in influencing and determining management patterns

The rational limits of the maritime jurisdictional zone framework and international regime

The disparity between geographical conditions and management availability

The key issues raised within the ecological context

Global ocean change focusing on sea-level rise and its subsequent effects

How the ocean may meet the world’s requirements for natural resources

The prospects for achieving sustainable exploitation of biomass, energy and mineral resources

How the post-modern approach to resource exploitation may evolve in the future

The new kinds of energy and mineral resources which may be exploited over the medium to long term

The inter-connected nature of the issues facing ocean governance

Economic prospects, within the context of ecological and jurisdictional concerns

What the key issues are that ocean governance must address

Effective decision-making and spatial integration

10.1 A key complex reality As a new century begins, there have been numerous attempts in both scientific and political circles to predict the future of ocean exploitation, to envisage the ways in which human communities will interact with coastal waters and the deep oceans, and to identify the likely prospects and potential issues. As was mentioned in Section 1.1, in 1984 the IOC began dealing with this subject through the publication of an ambitious book entitled Ocean Science for the Year 2000, within which the role of oceanography in the context of ocean management was discussed and various scenarios were outlined. Intense scientific and political discussions were occasioned by the 1998 International Year of the Ocean, whilst the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (UN CSD) included both ocean and coastal management in the agenda of its sessions. Over the same period, the Independent World Commission on the Oceans published The Ocean, Our Future (1998), a book that presented a global view of major issues and potential future prospects, whilst numerous scientific events were convened and special issues of journals published. These extended deliberations have been sustained by the widespread feeling that in the twenty-first century the ocean will unprecedently strengthen its role as a key component of the world.