Innovative Policy Options for Shared Marine Fishery Resource Management: Lessons from the Nigeria-sao Tome & Principe Joint Development Zone

Offshore marine living and non-living resources straddling disputed areas of maritime boundary claims have been known to lead to the establishment of joint development zones by disputing states with a view to resolving such disputes in line with the provisions of Article 74(3) of United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea III. Subsequently, the issue of straddling or highly migratory fish stocks led to the enactment of the 1995 United Nations Agreement for the Conservation and Management of Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory Stocks upon realization of the failure of United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) III to address it. However, practical implementation of ‘The Agreement’ revealed a number of challenges that appeared to impede its success across various international regimes. These had detrimental consequences for the sustainable management of marine living resources. A new innovative approach is presented here for the resolution of the issues associated with migratory fishery stocks under a shared management arrangement. This arrangement is between Nigeria and Sao Tome & Principe based on an area of overlap observed during the delineation of their Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ). The area of overlap has been designated as a Joint Development Zone (JDZ) and placed under a management arrangement of a Joint Development Authority (JDA). It is proposed to legitimately encroach upon each of the two nations’ state EEZ such that potential issues of jurisdiction will be more effectively addressed. This will help strengthen the institutional relationships and cooperation between the two nations’ institutions in line with the principles and objectives of UNCLOS III and Chapter 17, Agenda 21 respectively. The approach is expected to prove useful to other similar management arrangements.