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Box 3-2. First World Ocean Assessment3.1. Interlinked issues: oceans, seas, marine resourcesjurisdiction, namely in the high seas 148 and the Area 149 . TheAd Hoc Open-ended Informal Working Group to studyTable 3-1 summarizes some important inter-linkagesissues relating to the conservation and sustainable use ofamong nexus areas and lists illustrative scientific reports, asmarine biological diversity beyond areas of nationalwell as areas for further research suggested by contributingjurisdiction has been meeting regularly since 2006. The lastexperts. Contributing experts estimate the scientificmeeting of the Working Group, held in January 2015,coverage of oceans, seas and marine resources as beingstressed the need for a comprehensive global regime torather developed, notwithstanding the fact that large areasbetter address the conservation and sustainable use ofof the oceans are unexplored and unknown forms ofmarine biodiversity beyond areas of national jurisdictionmarine life and their habitat remain to be discovered. Theand resulted in the recommendation to develop anscientific coverage of the impact of ecosystem integrity oninternational legally-binding instrument under the Unitedhuman well-being is seen as being rather developed withNations Convention on the Law of the Sea. 150 regard to the creation of jobs and sustainable livelihoods,but weak with regard to the evaluation of benefits derivedThe Regular Process for Global Reporting and Assessmentof the State of the Marine Environment, including SocioeconomicAspects was established by the United NationsGeneral Assembly to strengthen the regular scientificassessment of the state of the marine environment in orderto enhance the scientific basis for policymaking. The startupphase to the Regular Process, called the “assessment ofand human well-beingRegarding the overall scientific coverage of the nexus andits threats (Section 3.2), contributing experts note that thenumber and quality of assessments are very variable interms of the geographic range or areas they cover. Someresearch areas and regions are more poorly covered thanothers due to a lack of or uneven distribution of financialassessments”, was concluded in 2009. 145 A census of support, technological and human resources and capacitiesexisting ocean assessments was conducted and and/or logistical limitations due to habitat inaccessibilityconsolidated in the Gramed database. 146 The output of thefirst cycle of the Regular Process, the First Global IntegratedMarine Assessment (“World Ocean Assessment”) 147 , isunder preparation and will be considered by the Ad HocWorking Group of the Whole in September 2015 and asummary thereof will be considered by the United NationsGeneral Assembly at its seventieth session. It is expected toprovide an overall assessment of the scale of human impacton the oceans and the overall value of the oceans tohumans; the main threats to the marine environment andhuman economic and social well-being; the needs forcapacity-building and effective approaches to meeting suchneeds; and the most serious gaps in knowledge andpossible ways of filling them.Apart from supporting the World Ocean Assessment, oceanscientists are informing other intergovernmental processesand meetings, including the United Nations Open-endedInformal Consultative Process on Oceans and the Law ofthe Sea and the Ad Hoc Open-ended Informal WorkingGroup to study issues relating to the conservation andsustainable use of marine biological diversity beyond areasof national jurisdiction (see Box 3-3).(remote areas or deep sea). Research tends to be veryresults-driven, so that areas where clearly definable resultscan be demonstrated in a short amount of time tend to bemore pursued and financed. There is a need for moreintegrated study of the oceans by teams of natural andsocial scientist to propose and assess different sustainabledevelopment scenarios. However, natural and socialscientists seldom work together due to their use ofdifferent research methods, different geographical scales ofresearch and the fact that funding is often only targeted atone type of research. Some areas are at the forefront ofnew science and need more time for research to mature.Another problem identified by experts is the lack of freeand openly available data. Quite few data remainunpublished or are not available through open accessdatabases. While the experts’ priorities for future researchvary according to their expertise, important research areasmentioned by several experts were: (1) understanding thedirect, cumulative and interacting effects of anthropogenicthreats on biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and stabilityand human well-being; (2) qualitative and quantitativeevaluation of ecosystem services and their connection tohuman well-being; (3) importance of biodiversity (at allBox 3-3. Ad Hoc Open-ended Informal Working GroupIn recent years, the international community has becomeincreasingly aware of the range of services provided bymarine ecosystems and of the rich biodiversity of pelagicand benthic ecosystems beyond the limits of nationallevels of food web) for ecosystem functioning and stability;(4) impact of different policy and management options onsustainable ocean management; (5) adaptive capacity ofocean-dependent communities and livelihoods vis-à-visthreats.from marine resources and ecosystem services. Thisillustrates a need for more systematic global and regional55