International agreements relating to the seas go back many decades. The first agreements relevant to nature conservation, however, mainly governed international cooperation in the use of marine resources, such as the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW, 1946) and the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Seals (CCAS, 1972). The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS, 1982) more comprehensively regulates the use of the seas and covers both marine life and mineral resources www.un.org. There are also obligations to protect ‘non-target’ species and prevent pollution of the marine environment.
Increasing pollution of the seas led in the 1970s to a number of international marine conservation agreements, some global, some regional, although each related only to the introduction of harmful substances and nutrients or to pollution (for example oil pollution):
- Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter (London Convention, 1972 www.imo.org).
- Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic (OSPAR convention, combining the Oslo Convention of 1972 and the Paris Convention of 1974 www.ospar.org).
- Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea Area (Helsinki Convention/HELCOM, 1974 www.helcom.fi).
Nature conservation in the strict sense of the word was not part of these agreements. Recognising that purely technical environment protection was not enough to conserve marine species and habitats, conservation-related provisions were later added to the various environmental agreements, including in 1992 to the OSPAR Convention and in 1998 the Helsinki Convention, both of which apply to German waters.
Some international conservation agreements that are not exclusively marine-focused apply to individual marine species. Examples include the EU Birds Directive (1979), which lists sea birds such as divers, and the EU Habitats Directive (1992), which creates an obligation to protect seals and small cetaceans. The UN Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) signed in Bonn in 1979 ( www.cms.int ) has two subordinate agreements that are of direct relevance to the seas:
- Agreement on the Conservation of Small Cetaceans of the Baltic and North Seas (ASCOBANS, 1991 www.ascobans.org).
- Trilateral Agreement on the Conservation of Seals in the Wadden Sea (1991), signed in response to a collapse in common seal populations www.cms.int/species/wadden_seals/sea_bkrd.htm).
The global Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) of 1992, with its all-inclusive objectives of conserving and ensuring the ecologically sustainable use of biodiversity, also includes marine biological diversity ( www.cbd.int).
OSPAR and HELCOM: Joint activities for marine conservation
Joint Ministerial Meeting of the OSPAR and HELCOM Commissions in 2003