Establishing a regional fisheries management organisation for the Western and Central Pacific tuna fisheries

On the 4th of September 2000 coastal States and fishing nations of the Western and Central Pacific adopted the “Convention on the Conservation and Management of Highly Migratory Fish Stocks in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean” by a majority vote. It is the first agreement to be negotiated on the basis of the UN Fish Stocks Agreement following its adoption in 1995. This article analyses the process leading up to the adoption of the tuna convention in the Western and Central Pacific by applying regime theory. The formation of international regimes is generally understood to comprise of three stages; agenda formation, negotiation and operationalisation. The analysis tests the validity of hypotheses based on power, interests and cognitive factors in explaining the formation of the tuna convention for the Western and Central Pacific. It concludes that different theoretical approaches have relevance during the stages of regime formation.