ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses three questions in order to try and further locate the ‘ecosystem approach’ within the context of international environmental law. The first question relates to the way that the ‘ecosystem approach’ is framed and understood. The second question hinges on the different institutional genealogies of the ‘ecosystem approach. The final question relates to the ways in which the ‘ecosystem approach’ is labelled. The chapter presents a distinction between a wide and a narrow concept of the ecosystem approach. It discusses two distinct concepts of ‘ecosystem approach’, namely a wide concept and a narrow concept. A wide understanding of the ‘ecosystem approach’ reads the concept into any environmental regime that employs and deploys the concept of ecosystem, from which specific legal consequences can be drawn. The ‘ecosystem approach’ to fisheries is a prime example of narrow sectoral understanding.
