Till not very long ago, seas and oceans were nobody’s territory. In its most evolved form, certain kilometers of the sea were considered to be under the jurisdiction of the land governance to which it was connected.
Be that as it may, even the regulatory and administrative provisions of the laws and regulations of the land were often silent on what the issues were of the sea. In few cases that the laws could be extrapolated the provisions were often weak, ambiguous or irrelevant to the concerns of the ocean in some cases it added to the complexity of interpretation and application.
Further, there were overlapping area of jurisdiction because the stretch of the sea was not broad enough to demarcate the jurisdiction. This lead to unsavory situations with avoidable conflicts emerging. The stronger nation pushed and often got away with dominance which was neither fair to common sense or equity.
The coming of courts for justice in matters related to the sea did not go very far because of many reasons. For one the legal precedents in matters of the sea were few and far between. there was not enough jurisprudence man power, sufficiently spread out, to deliver justice let alone do it expeditiously. The investment in travelling to the location where justice was to be administered were often costly, time intensive and without local support systems. This rendered the scene bewildering beyond effective management and often beyond comprehension.
The international bodies such as they exist have neither the band-with nor the inclination to charter out into new areas. The International Funding bodies were not willing to take the risks involved. Hence there was not enough order or coherent development.
With a progressive strengthening of the blue economy, awareness of the marine space has become critical. There is a competitive bid to go out deep into the oceans to harness the resources and derive not only economic but also strategic advantages from the same.
It’s not only the oceans and their resources of the sea but also the resources of the seabed which have become important. Amongst the resources of the sea, there are live resources of marine life, which include everything from the various species of the sea but also the vegetations which have become significant. Additionally, the corals and all that goes with the rich accumulation of sea resources that have acquired economic work. Marine Spatial Planning is a part of this larger effort.
Specially as indicated earlier, the mineral wealth stored in deep oceans is a matter of great traction.
As always because of this attractive sea wealth, there is urge for investment, creating predictability and rules which bears scrutiny. Put simply, Marine Spatial Planning has acquired the status of specialization in its own right.
Obviously, all this going to lead to concerns of cross-border issues and jurisdiction. What follows in the trail are many of those concernswhich are there in land spatial planning and more. Traditions of land spatial planning, even where relevant, in an era of independent and sovereign states are several centuries old. Times require fairly clear practices of conflict management and regulation.
When it comes to the sea, story is different, and the freedom of the navigation of the seas has its own concerns. This includes piracy which often recognizes no jurisdiction. Even where practices of jurisdiction could be applicable the sheer expanse of the sea and linkages with administrative centers create problems of scale. This is of course without factoring the changing nature of marine resource use. What is needed is a policy and institutional framework. Some tentative steps have been taken in this direction; however, much of the problems remain. This has meant, dealing with, amongst other issues, those of transboundary specificity.
Add to it climate change which has its own concerns. The changes which are then affected are humongous. There are large gaps and many concerns to address. This will not happen without some sound practices of global cooperation and an appreciation of the need for
inter-dependency.
