Regional Cooperation and Governance of Marine Biodiversity in Areas beyond National Jurisdiction: The Case of West and Central African Region

Marine biodiversity is today under a lot of pressure: climate change, IUU Fishing and marine pollution. The need to ensure adequate governance of this milieu within national jurisdiction has always been difficult due to the transboundary nature of this biodiversity and the various pressures affecting it: Greater will be this challenge when the International community would have adopted the needed global legally binding instrument for the governance marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ). Indeed, creating a global legal regime that is implemented nationally is good. But not enough. Individual efforts of States to implement global legal norms has never been sufficient; it has shown several shortcomings and great numbness that can only be complemented by the involvement of regional governance in the implementation process. The need to have regional cooperation, in order to ensure the effectiveness of the future BBNJ legal instrument is fundamental for a sustainable marine biodiversity. This is even so for developing countries such as those of the West and Central African Region as a regional partnership will come in to consolidate national efforts in this area. More again, regional cooperation is to be encouraged in the governance of the BBNJ when considering the cost.

Keywords: Regional Cooperation, West and Central African Region, Governance of Marine Biodiversity, Areas beyond National Jurisdiction