협치 기반 해양보호구역 관리와 OECM 확대방안

The international community, faced with the difficulty of expanding protected areas, set an action goal of securing other effective area-based conservation measures (OECM) in addition to protected areas in the Aichi Biodiversity Targets of 2010, but failed to achieve the expected results. Hence, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) propelled by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) reaffirmed the goal [30×30] of designating and registering 30% of the Earth's surface as protected areas or OECM by 2030. However, the designation of protected areas, which requires administrative disposal such as designation and notice and is accompanied by various prohibitions and restrictions on actions according to legal statutes, has been stalled under the justification of local development or on account of infringement on private property rights. In the case of our marine protected areas, the cumulative area, which was 471.509 km² in 2014, increased every year, expanding to 1,777.449 km² until 2018, but it recorded 1,865.622 km² by 2023, showing that the expansion of marine protected areas is not easy. OECM are different from protected areas in terms of management entity, pattern, and legal methods, but it contributes in the same way to the common goal of sustainable development for mankind. Our Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries has listed uninhabited islands, environmental ecosystem management areas, research and education conservation areas, safety management areas, self-regulated fishing areas, protected waters, and tidal flat areas other than marine protected areas as candidates for OECM. Unlike protected areas managed by strict command-and-control, areas or waters that have been added to the potential list of OECM or will be added to the same list in the future require a flexible management system, so called, governance, based on voluntary agreements or conservation-contracts and incentives involving stakeholders. Although the self-regulated fishing areas listed by our Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries as potential OECM have only been identified and their areas have not yet been calculated, if the governance is executed, it is expected to advance efficiency. Aquaculture farms under the licensed fishery, and tidal flats registered as private land after being faked into submerged land during the Japanese colonial period are also eligible as OECM. In order to activate governance according to the new social contract theory, it is necessary to establish provisions based on relevant laws and regulations, and to stipulate the authority and roles of the stakeholders, category of the agreement, incentives for participants, performance-responsibility, or disadvantages owing to non-performance.