Dominique Thiriet: dominique.thiriet@jcu.edu.au Yoland Bosiger: yoland.bosiger@jcu.edu.au

1. Navigating Multilateral
Governance
in the Coral Triangle
Pedro Fidelman1, Julia Ekstrom2, Dominque Thiriet3
& Yoland Bosiger4
1 ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University
2 University of California, Berkeley
3 School of Law, James Cook University
4 School of Marine & Tropical Biology, James Cook University
Paper presented at the Resilience 2011 Conference, 15 March 2011, Tempe, USA.

2. Outline
1. Introduction
 Coral Triangle Initiative
 Research problem
2. Navigating Multilateral Governance
 Methods
 Preliminary findings
3. Next steps

3. Global Coral Reef Crisis
Coral Triangle
World Resources Institute
Reefs at Risk Revised (2011)
75% of coral reefs in danger from overfishing,
pollution and climate change.

4. Coral Triangle Initiative: to address threats
to the marine, coastal, and small island
ecosystems within the Coral Triangle
region... (May 15, 2009)

5. Goals of CTI
Regional Plan
1. Priority Seascapes designated and
effectively managed
2. Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries
Management (EAFM) and other marine
resources fully applied
3. Marine Protected Areas (MPAs)
established and effectively managed
4. Climate Change Adaptation measures
achieved
5. Threatened Species status improving

6. Recognition of other agreements
Leaders’ Declaration: “6. To emphasise that cooperation of the
CTI-CFF [Coral Triangle Initiative on Coral Reefs, Fisheries and
Food Security] shall… [take] into consideration the relevant
multilateral, regional and bilateral environmental agreements;”
(2009: 2)
CTI Regional Plan of Action: “Principle #5: CTI should be aligned
with international and regional commitments. Goals and
activities should be supportive of international and regional
commitments already made under relevant legal instruments
and multilateral processes…” (2009: 8)

7. Research Problem
Governance is complex & dispersed across
many agreements
1. What is the extant governance for the CTI
region?
2. Which multilateral arrangements relate to
the priorities of the CTI, and to what extent?

8. Method: Multidimensional exploration
 Methodology developed in
Ekstrom et al. 2009:
 Text analysis using
MINOE 1.1 (Ekstrom et
al., 2010)
 Network diagrams
NetDraw 2.091
(Borgatti, 2006) (Downloadable program at:
http://minoe.stanford.edu)

9. Dataset
• What: International and
multilateral
arrangements
(conventions, treaties,
agreements , plans etc)
• Issue scope: management of marine resources, CTI goals
• Source: ECOLEX database on environmental law
(FAO/IUCN/UNEP)
• Size: ~200 documents (190 analysed), ~70-80 regimes

10. # Agreements signed
5
30
15
25
0
35
10
20
1905
1959
1965
1972
1981
1984
1988
1991
1994
1997
2000
Dataset timeframe
2003
2006
2009

11. Text analysis
Concept of interest Terms used to represent concept
1 - Priority Seascapes seascape* ecoregion* "ecosystem
region“ "regional sea"
2 - Ecosystem Approach "ecosystem approach" "ecosystem
management” “ecosystem-based
approach”
3 - Marine Protected "marine reserve“ "marine park“
Areas (MPAs) "marine sanctuary“ "protected area"
4 - Climate change "climate change adaptation"
adaptation "adaption to climate change“
"adaptation strategy”
5 - Threatened Species "threatened species“ "endangered
Status species" overfish* overexploit*
"depleted stock”

12. Topics covered in documents
%of documents per topic
69%
n=190
23%
15% 14%
9% 9% 7%

13. Multilateral Arrangements
Malaysia Philippines Solomon Islands
CTI Regional Plan
Indonesia Timor Leste PNG
Non- binding: 49% Scope Regional: 72%
Status
Binding: 51% Global: 28%

14. Multilateral Arrangements
Malaysia Philippines Solomon Islands
Indonesia Timor Leste PNG
Non- binding: 49% Scope Regional: 72%
Status
Binding: 51% Global: 28%

15. Fisheries
Resolutions of
the Indian
Ocean Tuna
Malaysia Philippines Solomon Islands
Commission
UN
Indonesia Timor Leste PNG Agreement on
straddling and
highly
migratory fish
stocks
Hits No. docs % of docs FAO Code of Conduct
5,856 131 69% for Responsible
Fisheries

16. Food Security UN Agenda 21
Malaysia Philippines Solomon Islands
3rd ACP-EEC
Convention
Indonesia Timor Leste PNG
Hits No. docs % of docs
Non- binding Regional
161 29 15%
Binding Global

17. Ecosystem Approach
Resolutions of Malaysia Philippines Solomon Islands
the Indian
Ocean Tuna
Commission
SPREP
Indonesia Timor Leste PNG Strategic
Programme
Hits No. docs % of docs
RAMSAR Strategic Non- binding
55 18 9%
Plan Binding

18. Climate Change Adaptation Convention on
Migratory
Species
Malaysia Philippines Solomon Islands
Indonesia Timor Leste PNG
Pacific Islands
Framework for
Action on
Hits No. docs % of docs
Regional Climate Change
102 17 9%
Global

19. Preliminary observations
 Fisheries vs. other concepts
 All mostly regional
 Fisheries: 55% binding
 Other: non-binding
 Potential for “treaty
congestion”
 Highly complex governance
landscape, but more so with
the non-state actors (e.g.
BINGOs)

20. Next Steps
Coordination opportunities
 Which agreements does the CTI Plan refer to?
 Regime profiles of a selection of agreements that refer to
one or more CTI goals
 How do objectives overlap functionally and spatially?
Lessons learned
 How is/will CTI differ from other agreements? (e.g. SDS-
SEA)
 What can we learn from past?
 Review regime effectiveness studies on target
agreements

21. Conclusion
 Demonstrated the complexity of governance
(just the environmental multilateral
agreements!)
 Useful for sketching out/grasping the system
as a whole
 Critical to recognize these existing efforts
 Use these as coordination opportunities
 Apply lessons learned from the past (+ and -)

22. Acknowledgement
Contact information
Pedro Fidelman: pedro.fidelman@gmail.com
Julia Ekstrom: jekstrom@berkeley.edu