Policy and legal framework and the current status of ballast water management requirements

Abstract

There is a wealth of policy and management options addressing species introductions including conventions, treaties, multilateral agreements and codes of practices. Together these instruments support an internationally consistent management of specific transport vectors, quarantine or other biosecurity measures. This chapter lists selected global legal frameworks addressing species introductions. Chronologically, the first international instrument on unintentional introductions may have been the International Health Regulations issued in 1969 by the World Health Organization (WHO). These regulations were prepared to support public health care operations and to ensure the prevention of the spread of epidemics (e.g. plague, cholera). This chapter addresses legal frameworks addressing species introductions with the focus on ballast water related policy and legal frameworks. It gives an update on the current status of ballast water management requirements world-wide. A number of countries have taken the approach to nationally implement ballast water management requirements. We describe that most of these national requirements are based upon the IMO Ballast Water Exchange Standard, some countries refer to the Ballast Water Performance Standard and a minority addresses land-based ballast water reception facilities