The South China Sea includes highly productive fisheries and extensive coral reef ecosystems, which are among the most biodiverse in the world. The marine environment around Scarborough Shoal and the Spratly Islands has an extremely high level of biodiversity of species, including fishes, corals, echinoderms, mangroves, seagrasses, giant clams, and marine turtles, some of which are recognized as vulnerable or endangered.

While coral reefs are amongst the most biodiverse and socioeconomically important ecosystems, they are also fragile and degrade under human pressures. Threats to coral reefs include overfishing, destructive fishing, pollution, human habitation, and construction.

In the South China Sea, ocean currents and the life cycles of marine species create a high degree of connectivity between the different ecosystems.

This means that the impact of any environmental harm occurring at Scarborough Shoal and in the Spratly Islands may not be limited to the immediate area, but can affect the health and viability of ecosystems elsewhere in the South China Sea........

QUESTIONS:-

1. How is the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity a framework convention?

2. Why is the protection of marine biodiversity inadequate in the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea?

3. Do you think that the overall international legal framework of biodiversity is inadequate in the rule that it sets out?