The UNEP Regional Seas Programme: Bridging the Governance Gap

One of the important outcomes of the historic 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment (UNCHE) forty years ago was the establishment of the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) and the UNEP Regional Seas Programme. Today the UNEP Regional Seas Programmes, with eighteen regional seas programmes under its auspices, has created an institutional and governance framework for the protection and preservation of the marine environment based on state co-operation at the regional level. Ideally, under the centralized and coordinated administration of UNEP each regional sea programme should have a standardized regional framework of governance based on the best available science, modern principles of environmental law including adequate compliance mechanisms. To the contrary, however, the existing UNEP Regional Programme does not provide such a standardized legal framework for each regional sea. It further lacks the centralized regulatory role of international organizations such as the IMO or FAO. Consequently, there is no overarching governance system that establishes a common framework of principles, obligations, aspirations or methods of compliance and enforcement. The UNEP Regional Seas Programme in some cases, such as the Mediterranean Sea Programme, provides administrative functions whereas in others, such as the Black Sea, does not. Each regional sea programme has adopted different instruments at differing levels of application of existing norms, principles and approaches. Nonetheless, the UNEP Regional Seas Programmes remains a key mechanism to promote co-operation through coordinated action and implementation of global responsibilities at the regional level, and fulfilling specific localized needs that cannot be addressed through global instruments. This paper will assess the existing governance structure of the UNEP Regional Seas Programme, identify gaps and conclude with recommendations to promote a more robust system where there will be less of a governance gap between the different regional seas programmes