UNCED AND THE OCEANS

Living marine resources issues were among the most controversial topic s at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development . Conflicts about conservation and management of high-seas fisheries p roved impossible to resolve. Participating States advanced numerous pr oposals designed to secure particular interests in straddling and high ly migratory stocks, but to no avail. As a compromise, Agenda 21 recom mended a new international conference under UN auspices to seek improv ement in the provisions of the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention dealing with these stocks. Major alternative proposals for such improvement ar e examined.