Protection of Specific Marine Areas
This chapter introduces marine protected areas (MPAs) as a means to counter threats to the marine environment. As has been seen in the previous chapter, the ecological state of the oceans is in constant danger. It is my intention to explore in what way th
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The PSSA concept, as we shall see later, is an instrument that relies on the designation of a clearly defined marine area, for which it provides for the establishment of protective measures addressing threats posed by international shipping. Several decades ago, individual states and the international community as a whole started to realise that certain marine areas are more vulnerable to environmental threats or more important for maintaining the oceans’ habitat functions than others and thus require a higher level of protection. The second part of my treatise attempts to elucidate the rationale and the requirements for spatial regulations, as well as the relevant international legal framework governing and limiting the establishment of protected areas in the seas. In addition, I will give an account of existing regimes allowing for the creation of specially protected marine zones. Observations to be made in this part will prove to be a necessary prerequisite for analysing and assessing the PSSA concept in the final part of this treatise.
Chapter 3: Protection of Specific Marine Areas This chapter introduces marine protected areas (MPAs) as a means to counter threats to the marine environment. As has been seen in the previous chapter, the ecological state of the oceans is in constant danger. It is my intention to explore in what way the establishment of protected areas contributes to marine environment protection. In so doing, I will first give a rough overview of MPA concepts in order to elucidate the historical developments and the underlying scientific rationale. In a second section, I will look into how MPAs are established, i.e. what criteria they have to meet, what their objectives are and how protection can actually be achieved. I. Introduction to the Concept of Marine Protected Areas Marine Protected Area (MPA) is an all-encompassing term whose definition is not standardised between states. Several different categories exist, labelled by around 80 different terms.1 However, on a general level, they exhibit similar features, which will be set out in the following section. 1
J.L. Baker, Guide to Marine Protected Areas (Adelaide: Government of South Australia Publication 2000), p. 7 et seq.
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Part 2: Instruments to Protect Specific Marine Areas
1. Historical Development and Basic Definitions The first MPA was already designated in 1935: the Fort Jeffersen National Monument (Florida/USA), which is at least partially marine.2 At about the same time, protected areas in the Baltic Sea were extended to include coastal waters in order to foster protection of the terrestrial reserves that either covered islands or mainland coastal zones.3 These first steps signify the application of the so-called terrestrial approach, which only considered marine areas worth protecting where they possessed importance for the adjacent land under protection. Later, scientific research underscored the necessity to shift to an aquatic approach, recognising the inherent ecological value of marine areas.4 About 4,000 MPAs are recor
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