Natural Resources and Violent Conflict - WaterWiki.net

274 philippe le billonResource Governance in Nonstate Areas: 1995 UN Fish StockAgreement. The UN Agreement on Fish Stocks entered into force inDecember 2001. 71 Along with the Food and Agriculture Organization’sCode of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries, this agreement outlinesprinciples for good governance of fisheries in terms of maximumsustainable yield and applies a “precautionary approach” to the sector.The agreement provides a tough mechanism for monitoring andenforcement:• Compliance and enforcement are ensured by the state in whichthe vessels are matriculated (flags), irrespective of where the violationsoccur. States will cooperate, either directly or through regional fisheriesmanagement mechanisms.• States are granted boarding and inspection on vessels—includingthe right to use force “to the degree necessary to ensure the safety of theinspectors and where the inspectors are obstructed in the execution oftheir duties”—as well as the right to detain the vessel or otherwise incapacitatea vessel when there is sufficient evidence of an alleged violation.• States are “liable in accordance with international law for damageor loss attributable to them in regard to this Agreement.”• States “shall take measures consistent with this Agreementand international law to deter the activities of vessels flying the flagof non-parties which undermine the effective implementation of thisAgreement.”In terms of the resolution of disputes and sanctions, states have theobligation to resort to only peaceful means (for example, negotiation,inquiry, mediation, conciliation, arbitration, judicial settlement, referralto regional agencies or arrangements). The agreement recognizes thespecial requirements of developing states, including their frequent lackof inspection capacity, and calls on states and international agencies toassist in this regard; it also asks implementing states to consider thenutritional and subsistence needs of the populations of developing countriesand the economic needs of workers in small-scale fisheries.The effectiveness of the agreement, however, depends on the nationalor regional legislation passed, the quality of the data employed todetermine quotas, as well as the enforcement capability of states. Theagreement itself has been criticized for its engagement at the level of fishspecies rather than the ecosystem (MacGarvin 2001). Its exclusionary“relevancy rule,” which confers governance status over the fish stockon relevant coastal states and on states having a “real interest in thefisheries concerned,” has also been criticized as a significant departurefrom the inclusive constituency defined by the Law of the Sea Treaty(Admay 2000).