SHI Xiaoxiao, DONG Mingmei, JI Fengying, WAN Fangfang, HAN Luyao, YUE Xinyang

National Marine Data and Information Service, Tianjin 300171, China

Abstract: As the international community place high value on the ocean, protecting the marine environment and promoting the sustainable development of the ocean have become the consensus of all countries around the world.Integrated ocean management,as an important part of the ocean governance mechanism within the framework of the United Nations, have approached to the scene view of human gradually.Taking the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea as the framework, the current international integrated ocean management is summarized and the future development trend of ocean management is analyzed, providing reference for China to build a maritime power and a maritime community with shared future.

Keywords: United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, integrated ocean management, maritime community with a shared future

In April 2019, President Xi Jinping pointed out that "China attaches great importance to the construction of marine ecological civilization, continues to strengthen the prevention and control of marine environmental pollution, protects marine biodiversity, and realizes the orderly exploitation of marine resources"，succinctly summarized China's successful experience in implementing integrated ocean management, and also revealed the importance of implementation of integrated global ocean management for building a"maritime community with a shared future" .

According to the provisions ofthe United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea(hereinafter UNCLOS), the rights of ocean management does not define the continental shelf and other maritime areas belong to the relevant coastal states.After the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in 1992, the concept of integrated ocean management has gradually emerged.Coastal states as well as some regions have made useful exploration and practice in integrated ocean management.In June 2017, the United Nations Ocean Conference named "Sustainable Development Goal 14: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development", opened at the UN headquarters, which called on participating countries to implement comprehensive and integrated management and ensure ocean sustainable development.Under the guidance and coordination of the United Nations, a system for global ocean management was established.This system is guided by international law,withUNCLOSas the legal framework, specialized agencies of the United Nations as governing bodies, participating countries and stakeholders as the main participants, a variety of measures have been taken on issues including shipping, marine garbage,international seabed areas, marine pollution prevention, and fisheries management.Governments and international organizations have been actively collaborating on cooperation schemes on the conservation and sustainable use of marine resources.The rights, obligations and institutional arrangements inthe UNCLOSare the main framework for international ocean management.

1 Analysis of the characteristics of integrated ocean management

The implementation of integrated management of the interconnected oceans is undoubtedly an important step in building a maritime community with a shared future, and initial exploration of integrated ocean management had already been made, whose main features are "diversification, legalization and cooperation".

1.1 Diversified integrated management

In the early days, many countries adopted a decentralized management system based on industry management.With the emergence of new issues on the ocean, marine management has become increasingly complex, and diversified planning have gradually become prominent.The concept of integrated management based on practice has come into being, and ocean management has begun to transition from industry management to diversified integrated management.

Nowadays, the content of integrated marine management is increasingly abundant.With the expanding of human marine activities, a single and decentralized marine management system based on industry can no longer cope with the development of marine industry.Comprehensive and diversified ocean management is becoming the mainstream of the world's ocean management.Under the constraints ofthe UNCLOS, all maritime countries have actively explored international coordination mechanisms and promoted the establishment of regional or international maritime management organizations to meet the requirements of strengthening the integrated management of oceans.The Partnerships in Environmental Management for the Seas of East Asia(PEMSEA) put forward the concept of integrated marine management, the "Integrated Coastal Management".It covers important areas such as marine policies, strategies,action plans, and also stipulates laws and regulations of information disclosure, public awareness, fund raising, and capacity expansion.In 1992, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.Based on harmonizing environmental protection and economic development, the participating countries adopted five documents includingAgenda 21, andthe Convention on Biological Diversity and the Framework Convention on Climate Change.For the first time,implementing integrated management of the coast and ocean was proposed.InAgenda 21, it is encouraged to establish a coordination mechanisms between countries, including the development of a comprehensive management plan and assessment of related environmental impacts.It stipulates that the marine management coordination mechanism should include academic and private sectors, non-governmental organizations, local communities, resource user groups and indigenous peoples as appropriate, and is proposed to build a comprehensive policy formulation and decision-making implementation process.This mechanism forms a new way for the countries and society to jointly conduct the marine management, and being conducive to integrating the forces of the whole society for ocean development.

1.2 Standardized legal management

With the rapid development of productivity, science and technology, the ocean's role in human survival and development has become increasingly significant.With the research and practice on the international conventions on ocean management, many ocean-related laws and regulations were published.These have played active roles in promoting the development of marine economy and safeguarding the ocean rights and interests.

As marine economy has increasingly become a new hot spot in the world's economic development, coastal countries are seeking for adjustments in their maritime relations in order to equitably use marine resources while safeguard maritime rights.For this reason,the historical international customs in the form of bilateral or multilateral international treaties had been revised, and new international rules of the law of the sea had been formulated to determine the rights and obligations among the contracting parties, so that the international legal system of ocean management has been gradually developed.In 1995, theConvention for the Protection of the Marine Environment and the Coastal Region of the Mediterranean(referred to as the Barcelona Convention) proposed the concept of "Integrated Management of Coastal States and Regions".According to the Barcelona Convention, each contracting party shall further strengthen or formulate national strategies for integrated coastal management and coastal implementation plans and programs, which essentially imposes obligations on coastal states to develop or maintain integrated marine management.In addition, theBarcelona Conventionalso established the basic principles and specific objectives of "Integrated Management of Coastal States and Regions".It is stipulated that when carrying out economic activities,the impact on the environment should be fully considered to ensure the effective protection and sustainable use of coastal areas.At the same time, in order to further protect the environment in the Western Indian Ocean, in March 2016, the Western Indian Ocean countries formulated theNairobi Conventionsand the draft protocol of Integrated Management of Coastal States and Regions.The draft also defines coastal state and regional integrated management as a dynamic governance or management process.According to modern international maritime management laws and regulations, starting from the coastline of maritime countries, the ocean is divided into nine areas including internal waters, territorial seas, contiguous areas, archipelago waters, straits used for international navigation, exclusive economic zones, continental shelves, high seas, and international seabed areas.The above-mentioned legal regimes of maritime zones and dispute settlement methods constitute the basic content and legal system of modern international maritime management.

In addition, marine legislation is also an important basis for marine countries to build their marine management system, and is the foundation for a country to implement marine management.Nowadays, as the maritime interests are gradually highlighted, and conflicts between countries' maritime interests are intensifying, the level of legalization of maritime management in maritime countries is gradually increasing.At present, the marine management legal systems of the world's major maritime countries are constantly built and developed.Most of them have established a legal system that meets oceans interests, and have improved domestic ocean management laws and regulations through the introduction of new laws and policies.In this process, a variety of special laws for marine management and comprehensive marine laws that taking the overall development of marine undertakings into account had been set up, providing strong support for the development of marine management.

1.3 International cooperation management

TheUNCLOSstipulates that the rights on management in territorial seas, exclusive economic zones, continental shelves belong to the relevant coastal states, and Article 192 of the UNCLOS provides that States have the obligation to protect and preserve the marine environment.It follows that States are the fundamental subjects of international law to which theUNCLOSconfers rights and imposes obligations.However, due to the complexity of marine activities, marine management always appears to cover more than one subject, which is not conducive to the development.Competition between countries not only affects international relations, but also easily causes destruction of marine resources.For this reason, countries are increasingly inclined to the win-win strategy of ensuring their own interests while taking into account the interests of other countries,moving from competition to cooperation by establishing international organizations for ocean management and formulating international conventions to guide and regulate ocean activities.Thus, many international organizations, conventions, and regulations have made requirements for cooperation.

In the Part 14, Development and Transfer of Ocean Technology of theUNCLOS, it stipulates that in accordance with their capabilities, states should cooperate directly or through competent international organizations to actively promote the development and transfer of marine science and marine technology and promote international cooperation,particularly at the regional, subregional and bilateral levels.Among the 27 principles stipulated in theRio Declaration, five of them elaborate on the importance of international cooperation.At the same time, in the preface of the first chapter ofAgenda 21, it is clearly stated thatAgenda 21reflects the global consensus on development and environmental cooperation and the highest level of political commitment.Article 1 of theUnited Nations Charterstipulates that countries should promote international cooperation to resolve international issues of economic, social, cultural and human welfare nature.In addition, many other international legal documents also have relevant provisions on international cooperation.For example, theDeclaration of Principles of International Lawadopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1970 listed international cooperation as a fundamental principle of international law and required countries to cooperate with each other in accordance with the Charter.It can be seen that as a basic principle of international law, international cooperation is a principle applicable to all fields of international law.It also shows the important status of the principle of international cooperation in the field of integrated international ocean management.

2 Analysis of the main trends in the development of marine management

Along with the continuous expansion and deepening of human marine activities, the demands for resources are gradually increasing, and the ocean has become more important for resource development in various countries.As the dependence of human society on the ocean grows, the approach to ocean management is being optimized.Therefore, only by making timely management adjustments in response to environmental changes can we meet the tasks given by the times.

2.1 Integrated Industry Management

With the advancement of science and technology, ocean activitie s continue to show new characteristics, leaving the traditional decentralized management system difficult to adapt to the requirements of the new era.First, marine activities are becoming increasingly integrated, and one activity often involves multiple marine industries, in which single department is unable to complete.If we continue to manage the ocean in the traditional way, the management system will become more complicated and more difficult to coordinate, leading the lower overall efficiency and ultimately detrimental to the development of ocean-related industries.Therefore, we should effectively integrate different marine industry management agencies and functions, and place the interests of industry sectors under the overall interests of the country through the establishment of an integrated marine management agency or coordination agency.This can effectively solve the conflict between the various industry management agencies, and reduce operating costs and improve management efficiency.By doing so, the new marine industry will be integrated into the comprehensive management of the ocean, ensuring its orderly and stable development under government supervision.

2.2 Standardized management system

The standardization of ocean management will help the effective implementation of the country's ocean management policies, and will facilitate official exchanges between countries.Using the law as a guideline at the domestic level, most countries are strengthening the standardization of future ocean management development through international conventions to guide their ocean management.With the increase in marine management matters, the willingness of countries to cooperate will continue to increase.Therefore, to expand international cooperation, there is a need for a unified institutional model and distribution of functions for ocean management among countries, thus making ocean management and its institutions increasingly regulated.In addition, the establishment of standardized national integrated ocean management system needs to take into account the national conditions, while learning from the experience of other countries.It also needs to adapt to the development of the law of ocean management.

2.3 Developing marine technology

Compared with the land area, the task of ocean management is more arduous.The application of new technology has alleviated the pressure, and it has increasingly become an indispensable tool for ocean management.Ocean technology(such as ocean satellite remote sensing monitoring and ship traffic control system, etc.) now is broadly applied to the government management, which not only enriches the means of ocean management,but also improves efficiency and effectiveness.With the further development of ocean science and technology, strengthening the application of science and technology in the ocean management is an important way to realize the national ocean strategy.At the same time, marine technology management itself is an important function of ocean management.In the future, the development of ocean science management will inevitably rely more on the promotion of the government, and the technological factors in ocean management will become more prominent.In addition, to realize integrated marine management, we must use science and technology to reduce communication barriers between departments.By strengthening the capacity of integrated marine management control, we can ensure the effective operation of the agencies under the integrated functions.

2.4 Achieving win-win cooperation

As a resource on which mankind depends, the ocean itself contains huge economic value.Given the many characteristics of the oceans, they require extensive international cooperation for their management.Since marine resources are limited and the competition among countries around marine resources is becoming increasingly acute and complex, only collaborative efforts and joint development are effective ways to solve the problem.Apart from that, the vastness of the oceans makes ocean management more technically demanding and costly.The ability of one country to manage the oceans alone is limited, and international cooperation must be strengthened to jointly manage the oceans.With the continuous progress of human society, the concept of win-win cooperation is deeply rooted in the hearts of us, and more countries will seek cooperation and jointly manage the ocean.At the same time, with the development of economic globalization and regional economic integration, the common interests of countries in the field of oceans are increasing, and the degree of interconnection and dependence will still be further deepened.Through methods like international cooperation, jointly managing the oceans, expanding common interests, and sharing marine achievements, the important of ocean will be recognized by more coastal countries.

3 Conclusion

Integrated ocean management is an important part of the ocean governance within the framework of the United Nations.Its effective implementation requires the joint efforts of all countries.At present, the international community is increasingly aware of the importance of protecting the ocean and the marine environment.In order to safeguard the overall marine interests of human society and jointly build a marine community of share future, we should actively participates in the practice of other integrated marine management, lead the healthy development direction and effective implementation model of global integrated ocean management, and ensure the sustainable development of coastal areas and marine resources for the benefit of human society.