ABSTRACT
The Lisbon principles for sustainable governance of the oceans enunciate some general guidelines for development and implementation of policies to protect ocean resources and ecosystems. By examining issues of diversity in institutional management of uncertainty and coordination of diverse actors, this paper begins to develop a social map of systematic differences in the ways institutions may interpret the principles at various scales of governance from local to global. The paper concludes that institutional diversity in a framework of civil society will prove as important as biodiversity for the sustainability of the oceans.
