El Proceso de Mantenimiento

This Chapter has established that a complex adaptive system is a hierarchical, self- organised emergent and adaptive entity that functions according to its own set of rules and strategies. The dynamic nature of complex adaptive systemsmeans that the

behaviour of the whole cannot be understood by the sum of its parts. The dynamics of a cas – its topology, environmental influences, the characteristics of the agents within the system, and the system itself – demand constant behavioural adaptations in action settings.

Complex adaptive systems are neither static nor balanced – instead, they are in a state of perpetual novelty. The complex adaptive systems paradigm provides the best description of the global oceans governance system and an ideal methodology with which to

understand the dynamic processes that take place within this system on a scale determinative of “priority social goals” (Norton and Ulanowicz 1992, 244).

This chapter has also introduced the concept of a high seas epistemic community, an entity which will be described and analysed in more detail in the following three chapters. The high seas epistemic community is recognised as the ideological impetus behind high seas MPA discourse within the global oceans governance cas and the community’s goal of a global representative system of MPAs by 2012 is embedded in its broader priority social goal of ensuring oceans biodiversity is protected. The seven basics of cas – (i) aggregation; (ii) tags and tagging; (iii) non-linearity; (iv) flows; (v) diversity; (vi) internal models; and (vii) building blocks – provide a cache of metaphors for describing and analysing the high seas epistemic community’s goal and the fitness of the community in a governance system that is in a constant state of flux. The emergence of these basic features within the global oceans governance cas setting will be traced through Chapters Four and Five and deconstructed in Chapter Six.

All complex adaptive systems are emergent systems where patterns of behaviour, identifiable properties, basic rules and coherent structures emerge from the interactions between agents at various hierarchical levels within the cas, and where the cas itself exhibits patterns of ‘whole’ behaviour that can be discerned over long periods. It is worth reiterating that while control is highly dispersed in cas, complex adaptive systems do have leverage points whereby small amounts of input have the capacity to produce significant changes. Agents that have achieved a level of ‘fitness’ keep the cas

functional by creating and taking advantage of conditions that are both necessary and sufficient for the system’s survival. Chapter Seven identifies and explores a leverage point for protection of deep oceans biological diversity in the form of a prototype high seas MPA. It will be argued that while a prototype high seas MPA is a comparatively small input, it has potential to produce significant changes in high seas biodiversity management, or at minimum, steer the approach toward marine protected areas in oceans beyond national jurisdiction in a more practical direction.

The global oceans governance ‘system’ bears the features and characteristics of cas – hierarchical organisation; adaptation; self-organisation; and emergent behaviour. It is also polycentric and multiscalar, and operates to a basic set of rules and components that interact simultaneously, with multiple options for interaction being presented by the system itself.

The high seas epistemic community is also a hierarchical and self organised Level 1 subsystem nested within the larger global oceans governance cas, although as proposed in Chapter Six, its capacity for adaptation and emergent behaviours seems to be

diminishing somewhat, bound as it is to the linear and temporally finite tag of a global representative system of MPAs by 2012.

The next two chapters provide summaries of international fora that have addressed the concept of high seas marine protected areas, either as the main agenda item or as part of a broader oceans governance schedule, with the cas paradigm providing the

metaphorical signposts. A key objective of Chapters Four and Five is to demonstrate the emergence of patterns of behaviour around high seas MPA discourse, the emergent influence of the high seas epistemic community and the evolution, ascendancy, and primacy of the community’s ‘macro-goal’ that has been embraced by some, although certainly not all, agents in the global oceans governance cas. The high seas epistemic community’ primary tag – a global representative system of MPAsby 2012 – is

underpinned by plans of action, ‘roadmaps’, and strategies considered by high seas MPA proponents to be integral to protection of oceans biodiversity beyond national

jurisdictions and the effective functioning of the environmental mandate of the global oceans governance system.

The physiology of the global oceans governance cas is best understood by exploring the connectivity – the relationships – between its parts rather than analysing each part in isolation (Gallagher and Appenzeller 1999, 79). Over time these patterns of interactions manifest in emergent phenomena that are observable at the macro-level (for example, the United Nations General Assembly or the Conference of Parties to the Convention on

Biological Diversity) even though they are generated by agents at the micro-level (the high seas epistemic community) (Seel 1992, 2; Parvard and Dugdale 2005).