Ecosystem Management and Its Application to Large Marine Ecosystems: Science, Law, and Politics

Abstract

This article discusses the implications of ecosystem management and its application to large marine ecosystems (LMEs) from a scientific, legal, and political perspective. It explores the meaning of ecosystem management and its implications for international management of environmental resources, analyzes the necessity for adopting an ecosystem approach to LME management, and discusses the difficulties and problems in LME management. The article concludes that the complexity of LMEs requires an ecosystem approach to their management, that the obligation to adopt an ecosystem approach to the management of the marine environment and resources has been established in international law, and that the successful application of an ecosystem approach to LME management largely relies on collective political will and the mutual cooperation of the states concerned.-