There is a growing interest in the management of seamounts of the Southwestern Indian Ocean (SWIO) both in waters under national jurisdictions and in the Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (ABNJ). New scientific knowledge has been gathered through various oceanographic cruises during the past decade, and new agreements are under consideration globally to promote conservation and sustainable use of the biodiversity in the ABNJ, where the deep sea ecosystems associated with seamounts are a growing matter of concern. SWIO seamounts have attracted the interests of fishers since the 1960s, and contracts for mining exploration have been granted recently. Seamounts are known to shelter rich, fragile and poorly resilient ecosystems whose important ecological functions are threatened by various anthropogenic pressures. Whereas many seamounts and shoals are located in national waters, many others fall in the ABNJ, with no current legal status per se. To ensure conservation of their habitats and biodiversity, it is essential that protection measures are instigated under an internationally recognized legal and institutional framework. In this paper, we review the current state of such a framework relevant to seamounts, with emphasis on fisheries and conservation in the SWIO. An emblematic seamount, the Walters Shoal, is selected as a case study to discuss how it could become a fully-protected space in the ABNJ. As a large part of the SWIO is under the mandate of the Nairobi Convention (as a Regional Sea under the auspices of UNEP), guidelines are proposed to encourage dedicated seamount governance within the framework of this Convention.

在国家管辖范围内的水域和国家管辖范围以外的地区（ABNJ），对西南印度洋（SWIO）海山的管理越来越引起人们的关注。在过去的十年中，通过各种海洋航行收集了新的科学知识，并且正在全球范围内考虑新的协议，以促进ABNJ中生物多样性的保护和可持续利用，而与海山相关的深海生态系统正成为人们日益关注的问题。自1960年代以来，SWIO海山吸引了渔民的兴趣，并且最近已授予采矿勘探合同。众所周知，海山能够庇护丰富，脆弱和脆弱的生态系统，其重要的生态功能受到各种人为压力的威胁。本身。为了确保保护其栖息地和生物多样性，必须在国际公认的法律和体制框架下采取保护措施。在本文中，我们回顾了与海山有关的此类框架的当前状态，重点是SWIO中的渔业和保护。案例研究选择了标志性的海山沃尔特斯浅滩（Walters Shoal）作为案例研究，以讨论如何使其成为ABNJ中受完全保护的空间。由于SWIO的很大一部分受《内罗毕公约》（作为环境署主持的区域海）的授权，因此提出了指导方针，以鼓励在本公约框架内进行专门的海山治理。