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In light on the new UN ocean treaty, Nereus member Harriet Harden-Davies and other co-authors highlight the need to address questions about capacity building as a key part of the development of new legal instruments under the BBNJ Agreement (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea).

Bee on flower

Nereus member Matilda Petersson & Peter Stoett review articles published in the INEA journal to determine the lessons learnt in global biodiversity governance from 2000-2020. This work paints a picture of the main barriers to efficient biodiversity governance, and brings to light key issues to address in order to accelerate the process of protecting global biodiversity.

Fishing

Nereus member Julia Mason et al., have developed and applied a novel framework to build climate resilient fisheries worldwide. The authors claim this framework is a valuable starting point for critical application of resilience concepts to fisheries socio-ecological systems.

WTO building

In November 2021, the WTO (World Trade Organization), drafted and agreement on how to tackle harmful fisheries subsidies. Andrés Cisneros-Montemayor et al., provide a constructive critique to make this draft agreement more realistic and specific, and therefore applicable.

In spite of a pressing Sustainable Ocean Economy plan, Norway seems to be choosing a ‘business as usual’ route expanding oil and gas exploration. Accountability is crucial to attain sustainable ocean management by 2025.

Conservation of fish and other marine life migrating from warming ocean waters will be more effective and also protect commercial fisheries if plans are made now to cope with climate change, according to a Rutgers-led study in the journal Science Advances.

The new Blue Paper “The Human Relationship With Our Ocean Planet”, co-authored by Dr. Yoshitaka Ota, commissioned by the Ocean Panel urges us to recognize the ocean’s role in not just providing material goods, but different forms of wellbeing including cultural identity, knowledge & sense of place and belonging.

Solène Guggisberg was awarded the Gerard J. Mangone Prize 2019 for her article “The EU’s Regulation on the Sustainable Management of External Fishing Fleets: International and European Law perspectives”.

Nereus Network members Katherine Seto and Quentin Hanich co-authored a new ground-breaking study “Illuminating dark fishing fleets in North Korea”, shedding light on illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing by Chinese fleets.

Principal Investigator Quentin Hanich co-authored a new paper that looks at how openness and accessible information can be used in negotiating and developing international fisheries conservation and management measures, to help ensure their future sustainability.

You can now watch a series of presentations given by Nereus Program research fellows describing their work in Nereus Program’s “Predicting Future Oceans” book. It is an encapsulation of a decade’s worth of ocean research done by Nereus Program, made freely available for the public to watch on YouTube.

Harriet Harden-Davies is lead author with Marjo Vierros and others on a new study published in Marine Policy, “Rights of Nature: Perspective for Global Ocean Stewardship.” In it, they discuss the inherent (and legally recognized) rights of nature and ecosystems, and how this perspective can be applied to global ocean governance.

Research Associate Marjo Vierros is lead author with a research team that includes Guillermo Ortuño Crespo, Daniel Dunn, Director Yoshi Ota, and Andrés Cisneros-Montemayor on a new study published in Marine Policy, “Considering Indigenous Peoples and local communities in governance of the global ocean commons.”

Andrés Cisneros-Montemayor (UBC) is lead author on a new study published in Advances in Marine Biology that focuses on shark ecotourism, and how it acts as an economic driver for different locations in Mexico.

ASU-CI Nexus is hiring a Post-Doctoral Fellow in sustainable oceans to help assess the global prevalence of human rights abuses in the seafood sector, with a focus on wild-capture fisheries. There is a May 1, 2020 deadline, and you can read the full description and access the application portal here.

Henrik Österblom and Colette Wabnitz are lead authors with many collaborators on a new Blue Paper for the High Level Panel for the Sustainable Ocean Economy (HLP), “Towards Ocean Equity”, which was also the focus of a recent webinar.

Harriet Harden-Davies co-authored an analysis of the current draft text of the UN treaty concerning the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ). The final round of treaty negotiations based on revised draft text are planned for March at the UN headquarters in New York City.

February 20, 2020 | Law and GovernanceBiodiversity

Nereus alumnus Robert Blasiak (Stockholm Resilience Centre) wrote an article for The Conversation about the newest publication he co-authored concerning the Blue Acceleration. You can read it and access the original article here.

At the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Harriet Harden-Davies participated in discussions about the development of a historic new treaty for marine biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ).

January 28, 2020 | Law and Governance

Robert Blasiak and Henrik Österblom from the Stockholm Resilience Centre are part of a research team on a new publication in One Earth, “The Blue Acceleration: The Trajectory of Human Expansion into the Ocean.” You can read a short summary and access the article here.

Harriet Harden-Davies was one of five international experts invited to attend a high-level dialogue at the Nobel Institute in Oslo, 20-21 January 2020. The participants discussed marine genetic resources and benefit sharing, a current challenging issue in areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ).

Nereus director (science) William Cheung (UBC) is a co-author on a new paper published in One Earth – “A Roadmap for Using the UN Decade of Ocean Science fr Sustainable Development in Support of Science, Policy, and Action”.

The UN Environmental Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) is seeking to fill a Senior Post-Doctoral position working to integrate climate change into marine spatial conservation planning, with a December 8, 2019 application deadline. You can find a link to apply in here.

Andrés Cisneros-Montemayor (UBC) and U. Rashid Sumaila (UBC) are co-authors on a new paper in Marine Policy – “Busting myths that hinder an agreement to end harmful fisheries subsidies”. You can read an overview of the paper here, as well as access the original.

Colette Wabnitz (UBC) and Robert Blasiak (Stockholm Resilience Centre) are co-authors on a new paper in the journal Marine Policy – ‘A global assessment of structural change in development funding for fisheries’.

Nereus director (science) William Cheung (UBC) and Thomas Frölicher (University of Bern) are co-authors on the newly released Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (SROCC) Summary for Policymakers (SPM). It was approved and presented at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on September 25, 2019.

Robert Blasiak (Stockholm Resilience Centre), Colette Wabnitz (UBC) and Solène Guggisberg (Utrecht University) are all co-authors on a publication in the Marine Policy special issue on Ocean Finance. Their paper resulted from a two-day workshop focused on the transparency of ocean financial resources, which took place at the Stockholm Resilience Centre in December 2018.

The final Nippon Foundation Nereus Ocean Science Conference was recently held at Princeton University in New Jersey. Nereus Program research fellows, principal investigators, alumni, research associates and guests presented their research and reflected on the culmination of a decade of interdisciplinary research, and what the future holds for the oceans and society.

A recent study performed by Nereus researchers showing governance gaps concerning marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ) is featured in Science Daily.

Nereus research fellow Harriet Harden-Davies (University of Wollongong/ANCORS) is a co-author on a new paper published in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science. In it, the authors discuss scientific best practices and accessibility to marine genetic resources (MGR), and how benefit sharing can be strengthened through a new Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) agreement.

September 10, 2019 | Law and GovernanceBiodiversity

Colette Wabnitz (UBC) and Robert Blasiak (Stockholm Resilience Centre) are guest editors this month for a special issue on Ocean Finance in the journal Marine Policy. Solène Guggisberg (Utrecht University) also contributes with a paper on funding fisheries projects under the climate change regime.

‘Predicting Future Oceans: Sustainability of Ocean and Human Systems Amidst Global Environmental Change’ is now available. It contains contributions from previous and current Nereus research fellows, associates and Principal Investigators, and covers a diverse span of ocean topics that include marine ecology, biodiversity, economics, fisheries management, seafood supply, climate change and many more.

Nereus members Guillermo Ortuño Crespo, Daniel Dunn, and Patrick Halpin are co-authors on a new paper published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution, ‘High-seas fish biodiversity is slipping through the governance net’. They stress the need to include fish biodiversity in negotiations for the new BBNJ treaty at the United Nations General Assembly and close current legal gaps in existing ocean governance frameworks.

Research fellows Harriet Harden-Davies (University of Wollongong/ANCORS) and Guillermo Ortuño Crespo (Duke University) with Daniel Dunn (Duke University) are co-authors on a policy brief published by IDDRI that aims to strengthen the current high seas management and governance framework to improve marine conservation and sustainability.

Nereus research fellow Harriet Harden-Davies (University of Wollongong/ANCORS) and Rashid Sumaila (UBC) are co-authors on a new paper published in Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems that identifies necessary measures to restore ocean health for future generations.

Solène Guggisberg (Utrecht University) has published the article ‘The roles of nongovernmental actors in improving compliance with fisheries regulations’ in the Review of European, Comparative & International Environmental Law.

Nereus research fellow Jessica Spijkers’s (Stockholm Resilience Centre – SRC) recent publication on the rise in international fisheries conflicts is the focus of an article in Hakai Magazine – ‘International Fish Fights on the Rise’.

Nereus research associate Lydia Teh (UBC) writes a blog about her and other Nereus colleagues attending the Integrated Marine Biosphere Research Conference (IMBeR) Future Oceans Open Science Conference in Brest, France.

Nereus research fellow Harriet Harden-Davies (Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security (ANCORS), University of Wollongong) recently published a short article in the special Oceans edition (Spring 2019) of The Geographer, entitled ‘Sharing benefits from genetic resources and sustaining the high seas’.

Nereus Fellow Zoë Kitchel (Rutgers University) writes about fellows Katy Seto, Julia Mason, Tiff-Annie Kenny, Becca Selden and Harriet Harden-Davies discussing critically important themes concerning equity and interdisciplinarity in relation to how the ocean is studied at the United Nations building, during an Open-ended Informal Consultative Process on Oceans and the Law of the Sea.

Nereus Research Fellow Matilda Petersson (Stockholm Resilience Centre) published the open-access article ‘Transnational partnerships’ strategies in global fisheries governance’ in the journal Interest Groups & Advocacy.

Palau’s President Tommy Remengesau Jr. signs a presidential directive that intends to reduce fishing pressure on reefs and promote the consumption of local pelagic seafood, a policy which was advocated for in a Nippon Foundation-UBC Nereus Program research publication last year.

Nereus Senior Research fellow Solène Guggisberg (Utrecht University) recently published the article “The EU’s Regulation on the Sustainable Management of External Fishing Fleets: International and European Law Perspectives” in the International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law. You can read her summary and access it here.

Nereus Research fellow Jessica Spijkers (Stockholm Resilience Centre) is the lead author, with other Nereus colleagues as co-authors, on an upcoming publication concerning the global patterns of international fisheries conflicts, and which countries are primarily involved. You can read a brief preview of the article here.

Nereus Senior Research fellow Solène Guggisberg (Utrecht University) co-organized a workshop on Transparency in Fisheries Governance that took place in Utrecht on May 20-21st, 2019. Fellow Matilda Petersson (Stockholm Resilience Centre), and Principal Investigators Quentin Hanich (University of Wollongong), Alex Oude Elferink (Utrecht University) and Erik Molenaar (Utrecht University) were also in attendance.

Nereus Fellow Guillermo Ortuño Crespo (Duke University) writes about the first Global Planning Meeting of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development that he, fellow Harriet Harden-Davies (ANCORS, University of Wollongong) and policy director Yoshitaka Ota (University of Washington) attended in Copenhagen, Denmark on May 13-15th.

Nereus Fellow Matilda Petersson (Stockholm Resilience Centre) wrote a blog about her most recent research and publication concerning non-state actor participation in tuna Regional Fisheries Management Organization (RFMO) committee meetings, and their influence on decision-making.

Nereus Fellow Matilda Petersson (Stockholm Resilience Centre – SRC) is a co-author with Principal Investigator Henrik Österblom (SRC) on a new publication in Marine Policy, entitled ‘Patterns and trends in non-state actor participation in regional fisheries management organizations’. They investigate participation trends and influence of non-state actors in the global governance of migratory and straddling tuna fish stocks.

Nereus Fellow Gerald Singh (University of British Columbia) recently had an article accepted into the journal People and Nature, entitled ‘Climate impacts on the ocean are making the Sustainable Development Goals a moving target traveling away from us’. A description of what to expect can be found here.

Nereus’s Vicky Lam, William Cheung, Andrés Cisneros-Montemayor and Oai Li Chen from University of British Columbia (UBC) are all co-authors on an article with Rashid Sumaila recently published in Science Advances, entitled ‘Benefits of the Paris Agreement to ocean life, economies, and people’. The authors investigated how implementing the Paris Agreement could protect top-revenue generating catch globally, impacting fishers’ revenues, seafood workers’ income and household seafood expenditure.

Nereus Fellow Solène Guggisberg (Utrecht University) presented a paper at the Women in International Law event ‘New female voices in legal academia’ on February 11th, which took place at the Austrian ambassador’s residence in the Hague and gathered an audience of diplomats, practitioners, and academics.

February 12, 2019 | Law and Governance

Nereus Fellow Solène Guggisberg (Utrecht University) wrote a blog about Japan withdrawing from the International Whaling Commission (IWC), and what, if any, international legal obligations they may have violated, as well as any potential policy responses from other States.

February 5, 2019 | Law and Governance

Nereus researchers recently published an article in the open access journal PLoS ONE, entitled ‘The role of human rights in implementing socially responsible seafood’. You can read about the human rights violations in the seafood supply chain, reasons that contribute to their ongoing existence, and the authors’ proposals to improve the situation.

Nereus Principal Investigator Quentin Hanich (University of Wollongong) was recently named Editor-in-Chief for the journal Marine Policy and is joined by Nereus Director of Policy Yoshitaka Ota (University of Washington) and Megan Bailey (Dalhousie University) as Associate Editors.

January 24, 2019 | Law and Governance

Nereus Fellow Becca Selden will be joining the Biology faculty at Wellesley College in Massachusetts. She is thrilled to be at this highly prestigious institution to continue her research and help launch the careers of the next generation of women scientists.

January 17, 2019 | EcologyLaw and Governance

Nereus Fellow Julia Mason (Stanford University) will serve as a John A. Knauss fellow in Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey’s office in Washington D.C. starting in February, where she will work on a variety of important ocean and environmental issues and policies for the upcoming 2019 year.

January 9, 2019 | FisheriesLaw and Governance

Nereus Fellow Solène Guggisberg (Utrecht University) writes about Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMO) and the challenges they face managing fish stocks, such as non-members fishing in areas under their management and insufficient sustainable and conservation measures. Some RFMOs, such as the South Pacific RFMO, have adopted measures to address these challenges.

November 2, 2018 | FisheriesLaw and Governance

Nereus Senior Research Fellow Solène Guggisberg presented a paper entitled ‘The role of non-governmental actors in fisheries governance – Improving compliance’ at the Transatlantic Maritime Emissions Research Network (TRAMEREN) conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. She discusses how non-governmental actors may be filling in a monitoring and enforcement gap at sea to improve vessels’ compliance with fishing regulations.

October 31, 2018 | FisheriesLaw and Governance

Nereus Fellow Katy Seto attended a workshop on October 22-24th in Yokohama, Japan about emerging remote sensing technologies that highlight fishing activities in the Pacific and around the globe. The meetings continued to develop a research collaboration between the University of Wollongong’s ANCORS with Global Fishing Watch (GFW) and Japanese Fisheries Research and Education Agency (FRA).

October 28, 2018 | FisheriesLaw and Governance

School of Marine and Environmental Affairs (SMEA) Masters student Samantha Farquhar (University of Washington) writes about other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs), as well as other international goals and practices (e.g. Marine Protected Area implementation) that international organizations use to conserve biodiversity, including the skepticism that surrounds their effectiveness.

October 18, 2018 | Law and Governance

Nereus fellow Robert Blasiak writes about the negotiations at the United Nations (UN) on conserving biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ), and the timely appearance of marine genetic resources in the mainstream media.

September 24, 2018 | Law and GovernanceBiodiversity

The negotiations on the fate of biodiversity in 46% of our planet, or the high seas, have begun. Since the aftermath of World War II, the distribution and intensity of anthropogenic pressures on biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ) have been increasing almost continuously. After almost two decades of discussions about the need to better protect the high seas, the international community mobilized.

September 11, 2018 | Law and GovernanceBiodiversity

What happens when some of the most vulnerable populations on the planet are forced to flee the impacts of climate change without legal backing or clear definition of their rights?

One hundred and twenty five nations gathered from July 9-13 at the Committee on Fisheries meeting at the Food and Agriculture Organization headquarters in Rome, Italy, to examine international fisheries and agriculture issues.

In a Q & A session with Nereus researcher Dr. Richard Caddell, we delve deeper into the policy implications of the projected mass migration of fish towards the poles.

Is the ocean a biological continuum or are there distinct ecological units? Nereus researchers are delving deep into this question, exploring how climate-change will change the answer and untangling what it will all mean for the ocean resources humans rely on across the globe.

An international team of researchers has developed a comprehensive set of criteria to help the International Seabed Authority (ISA) protect local biodiversity from deep-sea mining activities. These guidelines should help identify areas of particular environmental importance where no mining should occur.

Twenty six million tons of seafood, worth $23 billion is illegally caught, unregulated and unreported every year. According to the UN Food and Agricultural Organization, this is a “huge threat to all efforts to bolster sustainable fishing in the world’s oceans.”

The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals are an admirable set of targets set out to achieve a better world–but how do they interact with each other? Are some more pivotal to the success of all? Possibly.

A story of marine genetic resources with an unusual set of characters: a fuzzy little five-inch worm, the doomed Roman city of Pompeii, the world’s largest chemical company, and a cosmetic skin cream.

All the big names in the field were in attendance; the 5 days of presentations crystallized how far we have come in understanding what climate change will mean for ocean systems. But we still have a long way to go before we achieve climate-ready ocean resource management.

I think what inspires me most about this group is that it values a diverse array of approaches to research. We reward the type of disciplinary flexibility and freedom that most academic organizations tend to smother. Nereus lets us be who we want to be, not who they want us to be

Many marine organisms have evolved unique and rare adaptations to allow them to survive in some of the most extreme and varied environments on earth. The genetic sequences responsible for these traits could have applications in anything from pharmaceuticals to biofuels.

Fish are being driven from their territory at a rate of 70 km per decade, which could accelerate. In a paper published in Science yesterday, an interdisciplinary team of Nereus researchers describe how many species will be pushed across national and other political boundaries in the coming decades.

The most prevalent seafood supply chain is the shortest one: from the ocean to the plate. And that’s the one we have the least information on. Small-scale fisheries are vital to coastal communities around the world, but their contributions to global harvests are severely underestimated.

The excitement around Sustainable Development Goals has faded somewhat since the United Nations meeting in 2015, and now comes the less inspiring dirty work of analysis and policy-setting to achieve them.

International wildlife law can be used as a tool to enhance conservation if a selective, informed approach is chosen to enhance cooperation among international wildlife lawyers and conservation professionals. Nereus Program Fellow Richard Caddell explores the limitations and opportunities of international wildlife law in a new paper published in BioScience.

October 31, 2017 | Law and Governance

Nereus Program Fellow Richard Caddell attended the “Natural Marine Resource Management in a Changing Climate” Workshop between June 12 to 13, 2017 at the University of Tromsø in Norway. Discussion at the workshop addressed how regulations might evolve in response to shifting fish stocks due to ocean warming and acidification.

June 28, 2017 | Law and Governance

Fisheries Economics Research Unit (UBC) Research Associate Louise Teh, Nereus Director of Science William Cheung, and OceanCanada Director and Nereus Research Associate (Honourary) Rashid Sumaila recently had a paper (“Scenarios for investigating the future of Canada’s oceans and marine fisheries under environmental and socioeconomic change”) published in Regional Environmental Change…

December 16, 2016 | FisheriesLaw and Governance

Meeting the Paris Agreement global warming target of 1.5°C will have large benefits to fisheries, finds a new Nippon Foundation-Nereus Program study published in Science. For every degree Celsius decrease in global warming, potential fish catches could increase by more than three million tonnes per year.

Nereus Fellow at Utrecht University Richard Caddell presented at the Seventh Annual Oslo-Southampton-Tulane Colloquium at Southampton University on October 13, 2016. He presented his paper entitled “Pirates and Platforms: Maritime Disorder and the Arctic Sunrise Arbitration”.

October 21, 2016 | Law and Governance

Dellmuth received her PhD in political science from the University of Mannheim. Her research as part of her fellowship focused on understanding when, how and why advocacy groups mobilize and gain influence in global marine governance.

October 20, 2016 | Law and Governance

Nereus Fellow at Utrecht Richard Caddell acted as the keynote speaker at a fisheries law workshop on September 23 at Tromsø University, Tromsø, Norway.

September 28, 2016 | FisheriesLaw and Governance

This year, the Nereus Program will hold a seminar series with UBC’s Green College on “Adapting to global changes in oceans and fisheries.” This series will consist of seven lectures looking at how ocean changes are affecting environments and people.

The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) released their Methodological Assessment of Scenarios & Models of Biodiversity & Ecosystem Services, for which Nereus Director of Science William Cheung was a coordinating lead author, as well as a contributing author for Chapter 5.

The Second Session of the Preparatory Committee related to Marine Biological Diversity Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction took place from August 26th to September 9th at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City, United States.

September 16, 2016 | Law and GovernanceBiodiversity

Closing the high seas to fishing could increase fish catches in coastal waters by 10%, compensating for expected losses due to climate change, finds a new Nippon Foundation-Nereus Program study published in Fish and Fisheries.

The Nereus Scientific & Technical Briefs on Marine Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (ABNJ) series was developed out of a workshop held prior to this year’s 4th International Marine Conservation Congress in St. John’s, Newfoundland (July-August 2016).

Up until the 1960s, the open-ocean in areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ) was one of the last frontiers of fisheries exploitation.

August 27, 2016 | FisheriesLaw and Governance

Despite their remoteness, the high seas and deep ocean in areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ) are at the forefront of CO2-induced climate stress, both in their mitigation capacity, and their vulnerabilities.

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) Part XIV provides for State cooperation with the view to promoting the development and transfer of marine science and technology. In addition, Article 202 refers to the provision of scientific and technical assistance to developing States for the protection and preservation of the marine environment. UNCLOS Part XIV and XIII refer to various forms of technology transfer including training, access to information, international scientific research cooperation and establishing national and regional marine science and technology centres.

Open data is critically important for effective conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ). Open data enables effective and efficient environmental impact assessments, area-based management, sharing of non-monetary benefits of marine genetic resources and achieving marine technology transfer.

The International Marine Conservation Congress (IMCC) took place from July 30th to August 3rd in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada. The congress brings together marine conservation professionals and students in order to “develop new and powerful tools to further marine conservation science and policy”.

Newly published in the Asia-Pacific Journal of Ocean Law and Policy is the paper “Dispute Resolution and Scientific Whaling in the Antarctic: The Story Continues” by Nereus Fellow Richard Caddell, Utrecht University. The paper looks at the implications of judgements by the International Court of Justice against Japanese scientific whaling in the Southern Ocean.

Senior Nereus Fellow at Duke University, Daniel Dunn, co-organized a workshop from July 12th to 15th on the development of a strategic environmental management plan for deep sea mining on the Mid-Range Atlantic Ridge. The workshop, held in Lisbon, Portugal, was carried under the International Seabed Authority.

July 16, 2016 | Law and Governance

One of the most significant – and increasingly bitter – international disputes of recent years has engaged legal claims over maritime territory in the South China Sea. Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 1982 (UNCLOS), to which the main protagonists are parties, states are entitled to claim an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) conferring sovereign rights and jurisdiction up to 200 nautical miles of maritime space from their coasts.

Nereus Fellow Richard Waddell (Utrecht) presented at the ‘New uses and abuses of the seabed’ workshop at the Scandinavian Institute of Maritime Law at the University of Oslo, Norway, from June 1 to 2, 2016.

June 18, 2016 | Law and Governance

The Nereus Program was created to look at ocean questions that need input from experts on a range of topics from around the world. This past May 30 to June 3, nearly 50 of these experts gathered at the University of British Columbia for the Nereus Program Annual General Meeting.

Richard Caddell, Nereus Fellow at Utrecht, has had his chapter “Uncharted Waters: Strategic Environmental Assessment in the UK Offshore Area” published in The Strategic Environmental Assessment Directive.

June 9, 2016 | Law and Governance

Fish don’t respect borders. With 1982’s United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, coastal nations were given the right to manage fisheries within their Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) – the area that extends, generally, up to 200 nautical miles. But of course, fish don’t adhere to imaginary lines in the ocean.

Yoshitaka Ota, Nereus Program Director (Policy), and Rashid Sumaila, OceanCanada Research Director and Nereus Program Honorary Research Associate, acted as panelists during a talk by Marjo Vierros, Adjunct Senior Fellow at the United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability and Liu Institute Visiting Fellow, given at the Liu Institute for Global Issues on April 27th.

May 18, 2016 | Law and Governance

“What has been interesting about the Nereus fellowship right from the beginning is that we are all here, all engaged in this monumental challenge of predicting the future of marine fisheries and the global oceans. My whole PhD has been grappling with that question- how do you say something valuable around the future of the oceans from a governance perspective?”

Richard Caddell, Nereus Fellow at Utrecht, has contributed a chapter entitled “‘Only connect’? Regime interaction and global biodiversity conservation” to the Research Handbook on Biodiversity and Law, to be published June 2016.

Different people will naturally have different awareness levels of international organisations and global governance. But why does this matter? A new paper by Nereus Fellow Lisa Dellmuth, at Stockholm University, finds that there is inequality due to the type of people that have this knowledge.

April 5, 2016 | Law and Governance

Matilda Petersson has a background in Political Science with a specialization in Environmental Politics. Her PhD project will investigate whether and under which conditions inclusive governance systems can contribute to effective governance of global marine resources.

April 5, 2016 | Law and Governance

A range of human pressures is threatening the sustainability of marine fisheries. Amongst those, overfishing, partly driven by Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing, is a major stressor. Thirty percent of global fish catch goes unreported, found a recent study by Nereus Program collaborator Sea Around Us.

Based on the current trajectory of human-induced impacts on the environment, it is clear that we are pushing the oceans and marine ecosystems to unprecedented limits.

Lisa Dellmuth, Senior Research Fellow at Stockholm University, is a co-author of the newly published paper “NGO Influence in International Organizations: Information, Access and Exchange” in the British Journal of Political Science.

November 9, 2015 | Law and Governance

In A Sand County Almanac, the landmark book on wilderness, ecology, and conservation, we are offered a short anecdote regarding a changing environment:

“I had a bird dog named Gus. When Gus couldn’t find pheasants he worked up an enthusiasm for Sora rails and meadowlarks. This whipped-up zeal for unsatisfactory substitutes masked his failure to find the real thing. It assuaged his inner frustration.” – Aldo Leopold (1949).