Laws and conventions

The marine environment has a highly complex and inter-related body of laws and legislation that regulate it. There are multiple level of management and multiple jurisdictions many of which may have conflicting aims and objectives. The various levels are international, regional, national, county and local, in addition for marine protected areas there may be internal bylaws that need to be applied. The various jurisdictions include environment, tourism, fishery, and extraction of raw materials for power supply, minerals and chemicals. In addition the overriding jurisdiction is often that of security or defense of the national state.

The integration of these many laws and management bodies requires a high level of coordination that may not be so vital in terrestrial environment due to long standing planning and ownership regulations that have not been applied to the marine environment. Within Croatia the transposition of European law into national law is one of the overriding priorities, the most important environmental regulation is the EU habitats directive.