Ten governments have now signed the 2014 Hamilton Declaration on Collaboration for the Conservation of the Sargasso Sea (Azores, Bahamas, Bermuda, BVI, Canada, Cayman Islands, Dominican Republic, Monaco, UK and US). The Hamilton Declaration is the first non-binding instrument to establish a framework for its signatory governments to work together through existing international organisations and other partners to conserve an iconic ecosystem that lies primarily in an area beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ).

The Declaration mandated the Government of Bermuda to establish the Sargasso Sea Commission, and Dr David Freestone is the Executive Secretary of the Commission. He will outline the successes and the challenges of this innovative project.

About the speaker

David Freestone is an Oxford Martin School Visiting Fellow on the Oxford Martin Programme on Sustainable Oceasns. He is Executive Director of the Sargasso Sea Alliance, based in the IUCN office in Washington DC. From 1996-2008 he worked at the World Bank in Washington DC, first as head of the International and Environmental Law Group and from 2004 - 08 was Deputy General Counsel and Senior Adviser in the Office of the General Counsel.

He is Visiting Scholar at The George Washington University Law School in Washington DC, visiting Professor at the Institute of Advanced Studies at the UN University in Japan, and was previously Professor of International Law at the University of Hull, England. He has written widely on the Law of the Sea and international environmental law, and is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law (now in its 26th year).