Development and Structure of the PSSA Concept: Implementation and Coordination of Protective Measures
The previous chapters have illustrated the deteriorating state of the marine environment and how far states are allowed, under international law, to respond by deploying regimes that subject specific marine areas to enhanced protection. While the PSSA con
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Part 3: PSSAs: an IMO Instrument to Protect Marine Areas
control regimes is increasingly cracking down on non-compliance107, but sustained success still remains an exception. To add to that, other problems pertaining to the marine environment and its biodiversity still remain. The state of the marine environment is generally deteriorating, with vessel-source pollution being just one part of the problem.108 The desolate overall picture is largely a result of continuing land-based pollution, which IMO has no powers to deal with. Yet it is clear that even within IMO a lot of work is still to be done. Whether the PSSA regime is a mechanism that could possibly contribute to strengthening measures aimed at curbing vessel-source environmental damage by expanding coastal states’ competences to legislate and enforce respective rules will be examined in the following chapters.
Chapter 7: Development and Structure of the PSSA Concept: Implementation and Coordination of Protective Measures The previous chapters have illustrated the deteriorating state of the marine environment and how far states are allowed, under international law, to respond by deploying regimes that subject specific marine areas to enhanced protection. While the PSSA concept was still being drafted, Friends of the Earth International, who were strongly involved in and dedicated to the process, noted that the PSSA regime should “be developed as a means of harmonizing existing international conventions and other legal instruments relating to the protection of marine areas with protective measures provided by IMO Conventions.”109 Even though it is not a premature observation to note that these demands have been met, it is the aim of this treatise not just to sum up the concept roughly but also to reveal its subtle strengths and weaknesses. Thus, in the following sections, I shall shed light on the main components of the PSSA concept as it was developed by IMO within the last two decades. It will become clear that this remarkably open concept stands out for a number of reasons, even though it is restricted in that it only addresses vesselsource environmental threats. A PSSA is defined as “an area that needs special protection through action by IMO because of its significance for recognized ecological, socio-economic, or scientific attributes where such attributes may be vulnerable to damage by
107
Regional MOUs also develop inter-institutional ties on administrative and technical levels, cf. Tokio MOU, Annual Report on Port State Control in the Asia-Pacific Region (2005), available from ; (accessed on 30 September 2006), p. 8 et seq. 108 See, supra, Chapters 1 and 2, further SRU (ed.), Marine Environment Protection for the North and Baltic Seas – Special Report (Baden-Baden: Nomos-Verlagsgesellschaft 2004), p. 33 et seq. 109 MEPC 23/16/1, as cited by Gerard Peet, “Particularly Sensitive Sea Areas – A Documentary History”, 9 IJMCL (1994), pp. 469-507, at 476.
Chapter 7: Development and Structure of the PSSA Concept
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international shipping activities.”
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