Horizontal and vertical integration are equally required at the level of national governments. Institutional arrangements will vary, depending on existing infrastructure - e.g., whether federal, confederate or unitary; democratic, monarchic or dictatorial; small or large; continental, insular or archipelagic; and it will also depend on the stage of economic development, on culture, etc. but there are at least three features which all national ocean governance systems will have in common: There must be effective linkages between the local and national governance systems (vertical integration); there must be effective linkages between all government departments and ministries involved one way or another in ocean affairs; and in fact almost all departments or ministries are involved - sometimes as many as 25. If each one of these makes its decisions independently, it is obviously impossible to generate an integrated policy. The most promising approach to solving this problem is to establish some sort of inter-ministerial council, under the responsibility of a lead agency or, in many cases of the Prime Minister or his Deputy. Finally the system must be open to the participation of the “stake-holders,” of “civil society,” of the non-governmental sector.

　

　An excellent example is provided by the ocean governance system of the Netherlands, which links Government, research institutions, Parliament, and the non-governmental sector. At the political level, there is a Board of Ministers under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister. The Board is advised by a Parliamentary Commission on Ocean Affairs as well as by a non-governmental advisory council comprising industry, science, and non-governmental organizations. The work of these advisory bodies is coordinated by the Minister of Transport and Public Works. At the bureaucratic level, there is an Interdepartmental Commission, composed of senior officials of 13 Departments and usually chaired by a former Prime Minister. It is the responsibility of this Commission to prepare the work for the Ministerial Board. Decisions by the Board are made by consensus.

　

　The agreed policy will be the nation's integrated ocean and coastal area policy. It will be transmitted to the international, regional and global levels where it will have to be harmonized with the national policies of other countries, especially in a regional context. Vertical integration thus reaches from the local level, through the national government, to the level of the United Nations.

　

　Trying to generalize the system, to make it adaptable to different States and to take into account the recommendations made for ocean governance at the local community level, a set of recommendations for ocean governance at the national level might be as follows:

　

　

　

Also the Regional Seas Programme must keep up with these developments on the local and national level. It, too, must move from the sectoral approach of the 'Seventies to the integrated approach of the 'Nineties. Its institutional “revitalization” is essential for the implementation of all the documents created by the UNCLOS/UNCED process. This “revitalization” has already begun. It has been triggered by two developments: The implementation of the Global Programme of Action for the Prevention of Pollution from Land-based Activities (GPA); and the 1995 revision of the Barcelona Convention by the Mediterranean States.

　

　UNEP has the responsibility for the implementation of the GPA, which must be effected mostly at the national level and through regional cooperation. At the regional level, this implementation requires a broadening of the mandate of the regional seas programs. To deal with pollution from land-based activities is an immensely complex undertaking. UNEP recognizes that it requires the full cooperation, not only of the Contracting Parties of the Regional Seas Programmes, but, equally, the participation and cooperation of the UN Specialized Agencies dealing with the oceans, regional institutions concerned with the marine environment, other regional institutions such as regional development banks, the private sector and non-governmental organizations whose interests must also be reflected on the agenda which must necessarily be broadened The Proposal, in fact, repeatedly states that it should serve to:

　

　

　The Proposal states:

　

　

　Thus this agenda will have to be genuinely trans-sectoral and interdisciplinary. It will require comprehensive and integrative approach, corresponding to those already initiated at the local and national level, for the implementation of integrated coastal management.

　

　An assembly, with representation of all these organizations, institutions and groups has competences far broader than the implementation of one sectoral program. It would be wasteful to restrict its mandate to the consideration of this program alone. This kind of assembly would certainly be competent to deal with the implementation of all the Conventions, Agreements and Programmes of the UNCLOS/UNCED process. One might therefore suggest that it be institutionalized as part of the biennial meetings of Contracting Parties to deal with the implementation of the whole range of legal or paralegal instruments affecting the region in an integrative manner. Even though each of these Conventions, Agreements and Programmes establishes its own regime, it is absolutely essential that, at the operational level in a regional context, these regimes must be harmonized and their implementation must be integrated to deal with overlaps, avoid duplication of efforts as well as conflicts.

　

　It is in this sense that the implementation of the GPA can serve as a trigger mechanism for the revitalization of the regional seas program.

　

　The second “trigger” comes from the Mediterranean. The Mediterranean Regional Seas Programme was the first in what is now a world-spanning series of programs. It has been the most developed of these programs, and with the revision of its Convention and Action Plan is once more in the forefront of this development. The 1995 revision of these instruments has brought the program up from the sectoral approach of the ⟩Seventies to the integrated approach of the 'Nineties, from pollution control to sustainable development. It has incorporated the major new concepts of the ⟩Eighties and ⟩Nineties, such as the precautionary approach, integrated ocean and coastal management, and it has created, on this basis, the first regional Commission on Sustainable Development, bringing the nongovernmental sector, the Major Groups, as equal partners into the decision-making process including even the right to vote. This development should be studied by all other regions and might stimulate the revitalization of the Programme as a whole. This will entail further institutional innovations, which will be discussed in Part III of this study, dealing with the tools of implementation..

　

　

Since the end of UNCLOS III there has not been any forum in the sectorally structured United Nations system, where the Governments and the People of the United Nations could discuss the closely interrelated problems of ocean space as a whole. Awareness of the need for such a forum has been growing over the past few years. It concretized in the Seventh Session of the Commission on Sustainable Development (1999) which was devoted to ocean affairs. There was general agreement that the only organ in the United Nations system competent to deal with this huge complex of issues, as annually compiled by the Secretary-General and presented to the General Assembly, was indeed the General Assembly, considering its universal membership and broad mandate. It was also clear to all, however, that the General Assembly simply did not have the time to do justice to this very comprehensive task. The Secretary-General's Report is becoming longer and more complex with every year that passes and it highlights an increasing number of issues on which actions have to be taken. To think that the General Assembly could do that competently in the half day it has had at its disposal, is obviously unrealistic. Thus a mechanism had to be created enabling the General Assembly to devote the necessary time to the job. On the recommendation of CSD7, this mechanism has now been created. It is called “United Nations Consultative Informal Process on Oceans and the Law of the Sea” (UNICPOLOS). It meets for one full working week every year, with the mandate “to facilitate the annual review by the General Assembly, in an effective and constructive manner, of developments in ocean affairs by considering the Secretary-General's Report on oceans and the law of the sea and by suggesting particular issues to be considered by it, with an emphasis on identifying areas where coordination and cooperation at the intergovernmental and inter-agency levels should be enhanced.”²⁷ It is open to all Members and Observers (Intergovernmental Organizations) of the General Assembly as well as to the “Major Groups.” As a “process” of the General Assembly, it is trans-sectoral and interdisciplinary in its composition and integrative in its function. It is the global counterpart to the to the “processes” discussed in the previous sections, at the regional, national, and local level.

　

　The first session of UNICPOLOS, in May/June 2000, approached its task prudently but efficiently. The particular issues it considered, with an emphasis on identifying areas where coordination and cooperation at the intergovernmental and inter-agency levels should be enhanced, were Illegal, Unregulated and Unreported Fishing (IUUF), and the economic and social impact of pollution from land-based activities. The result was a comprehensive report including useful recommendations.

　

　The second session will take place in May, 2001. The particular issues selected for this session are piracy and armed robbery at sea, and marine science and the development and transfer of marine technology, two major issues where, as indicated in Part III of this study, integration at the operational level is indeed a necessity.

　

　As if to close the circle of ocean governance in its institutional component, UNICPOLOS 2000 issued the following recommendations to State governments, stressing:

　

　

　And sending

　

　

　Other pieces of the global institutional framework of ocean governance will evolve. Thus, the implementation of the mandate of the Subcommittee on ocean affairs of the Administrative Coordination Committee (ACC/SOCA) (Francois, is that the name?) to streamline and coordinate the ocean-related activities of the UN Specialized Agencies and Programmes will have to be improved. This can only be achieved through guidelines given by the General Assembly, which will be greatly facilitated trough UNICPOLOS.

　

　Another proposal that has been on the table for some years, had been put forward by the Government of Malta. It was to transform the Trusteeship Council, which has completed its mandate of overseeing the decolonialization process, into a sort of Custodian of the concept of the Common Heritage of Mankind. This, however, would require Charter amendment, which, in the present political climate, would be unobtainable, at least for the next four years. For the time being, issues arising from the Common Heritage concept would have to remain with the General Assembly.