International governance of marine socioecological systems (SES): a case study of South America

How does marine governance occur in South America? In order to answer this question, we envision the marine environment based on a framework on socioecological systems and identify the main rules, actors and interactions. Our exploratory empirical study first mapped all of the global and regional multilateral agreements issue related since 1931. Second, we compared the main global agreements to the regional ones, to characterize the institutional dynamics around the marine environment in South America. Three results stand out. Eighty-two international agreements were identified, of which only ten are related solely to the countries of the region. Also, we found that pollution and biodiversity are the most recurrent themes among the interactions and rules that have been established. Finally, we conclude that the institutional configuration related to the marine environment in South America is a scenario of overlapping regimes, which may lead to problems such as lack of coordination in relation to the use of this environment.