Charted waters? Tracking the production of conservation territories on the high seas

Abstract

Marine protected areas (MPAs), a common marine conservation tool, function as both objects of governance and as a form of territory. This article tracks the long‐term effort to produce conservation territories on the high seas, in areas beyond national jurisdiction. Drawing on data collected at five international environmental meetings, the paper demonstrates how an imaginative geography of the high seas is being simultaneously constituted by scientific and technological advances, particularly geospatial visualisations, as well as coordinated efforts to advocate for and develop a new international conservation instrument (an implementing agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea). Conventional understandings of territory constrain this effort by equating territory with the state. At the same time, the case of high seas conservation contributes to critiques of this conceptualisation of territory, by showcasing the role of multiple actors in seeing and controlling ocean space. Overall, the production of territory on the high seas both reflects and informs a shift in the “frontier mentality” of the oceans, as conservation and science frontier as well as economic frontier. Diverse responses to representations of, and policies for, the high seas point to both possibilities and limits of territorial thinking in the oceans.

The territories of governance : unpacking the ontologies and geophilosophies of fixed to flexible ocean management, and beyond

“…The 'geo', I argue, is a core part of the ontologies driving ocean governance. Indeed, it is geographically informed ideas of what exists-the ocean as a space that can be territorialized-that shape how oceans are bordered, bounded, zoned and demarcated for management (see, for example, [6]). I posit that thinking about territory-the 'apportioning' of space [5]-is vital where it has become a naturalized mode of thinking that underlies many modes by which governance is performed and ocean management tools and policy directives are deployed.…”

Science, scale and the frontier of governing mobile marine species

“…The UN Fish Stocks Agreement, an UNCLOS implementing agreement, formalised a mandate for overlapping inter‐state regulatory bodies that merge multiple states’ territorial spaces and the high seas to collectively govern stocks that span jurisdictions. New efforts to develop a legally binding instrument under UNCLOS on the governance of marine biodiversity in Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction imagine an inter‐state governance territory applied to non‐state space (Gray ).…”

“…Pew Charitable Trusts ). Scientific advances, such as ocean observing systems, genetic analysis and satellite telemetry, have begun to document these spatialities and their governance implications (Campbell and Godfrey ; Gray ; Lehman ). For instance, scientific data now elaborate the contours of the floating Sargasso Sea, often described as the earth's only sea without a land boundary (Acton, Campbell et al .…”

“…Today, knowledge of ocean materialities and mobilities continues to feature centrally in resource extraction and conservation efforts at the territorial edges of ocean spaces (Campbell e t al . 2016; Gray, ; Havice ; Steinberg ; Zalik, ). New oceans governance bodies are based on such scientific knowledge.…”

Uncharted territories in tropical seas? Marine scaping and the interplay of reflexivity and information

“…We find this problematic: first and foremost, we argue that governance-by-government is always complemented by networked forms of governance, particularly in transboundary marine areas (van Tatenhove 2013). A better focus on informational flows is needed to identify and analyze MSP as a process of (re-) constructing and shaping marine reality, but such flows are not just governed by states (Gray 2018;Lamers et al 2016;Toonen and Bush 2018;Toonen and van Tatenhove 2013). We claim that market parties, environmental non-governmental organizations (eNGOs), and other non-state actors also play a crucial role as they have capabilities that enable them to move information (separate, with or next to money and goods) across traditional (state) borders (cf.…”