INTERNATIONAL LEGAL FRAMEWORK FOR PROTECTION OF THE MARINE ENVIRONMENT: THE WAY FORWARD FOR NIGERIA

Abstract

The birth of international environmental law as a distinct branch of international law has been a fairly recent one. It is generally believed that it came to its present prominence since the Stockholm Conference of 1972, when the famous Stockholm Declaration on the Human Environment was adopted. Needless to say, however, this does not mean that there had been no rules of international law in the field of environment. A marine area covers around 71% of the earth’s surface, although most of the ocean’s depth remains unexplored. It is the habitat of a significant part of the world’s biodiversity that plays a key role in global climate change. It is globally recognized that marine biodiversity constituted a fundamental component of life in the oceans and on the earth. In order to effectively secure the marine environment, treaties have been enacted to regulate man’s activities in the ocean. It is against this backdrop that this paper seeks to appraise international legal framework for the protection of the marine environment. The study appraises the effectiveness of the international legal framework on the protection of the marine environment in Nigeria. The doctrinal research method is adopted as both the primary and secondary sources of law were relied upon. This paper finds that sufficient legal frameworks exist for the protection of the marine environment but the enforcement mechanism is a challenge as most of these treaties are yet to be domesticated in Nigeria. This paper recommends among others that Ecological funds should be strictly monitored and used to remediate or restore damaged environment to its status quo ante as obtainable in civilized economies.