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Profile
Youna LBL Lyons is a marine policy analyst, trained in international law and oceanography in Australia, France, and the United States. She specialises in issues of global and regional marine environmental governance, with a particular focus on Southeast Asia where she has been based since 2008. She works at the interface of law and marine sciences, leads multi-disciplinary research projects on the protection and preservation of the marine environment and has 30 years of professional experience in Europe and Asia. Her current areas of focus include the making of ocean law and policy for the protection of the marine environment and systemic governance failures, the identification and management of sensitive marine areas under international law and science, pollution from marine plastics, the protection of carbon sinks and reservoirs through blue carbon policy and marine environmental governance in the ASEAN region.
Youna is a Visiting Associate Research Professor with the Centre for International Law (CIL) at the National University of Singapore (NUS). She has led the marine environmental research work of the Ocean Law and Policy programme of CIL, since its creation in 2009, including a number of applied research projects under public and private grants. She also provides training and education to government officials, in the context of CIL mission, and is a frequent guest lecturer on ocean environmental governance to non-legal audiences.
In parallel to her work with NUS-CIL, she is also a trustee and the Chair of the Advisory Committee on Protection of the Sea (ACOPS – www.acops.org.uk), an observer in a number of intergovernmental bodies involved with the protection of the marine environment, as well as an active participant to specialized working groups that support their work.
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Research Interests
- Marine Environmental Law
- Offshore oil and gas in Southeast Asia, especially transboundary pollution from offshore activities, offshore decommissioning and the opportunity for rigs to reefs
- Use of satellite imagery to inform marine environmental management through habitat mapping and maritime boundary disputes on remote features
- Sensitivity mapping for oil spill response and preparedness
- Marine spatial planning and integrated coastal management
- The protection of marine sensitive environments in the seas of Southeast Asia
- Governance and ocean policy in Southeast Asia
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Selected Publications
Peer-reviewed publications and reports include:
- Y Lyons and Lim CL (2022) International and regional legal and policy framework to marine aquaculture activities in Southeast Asia, Centre for International Law, National University of Singapore; https://cil.nus.edu.sg/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/2022-07-19_-Marine-Aquaculture-in-SEA.pdf
- PT Harris, J Tamelander, Y Lyons, T Maes (2021) Taking a mass-balance approach to assess marine plastics in the South China Sea, Marine Pollution Bulletin 171: 112708 (open-source); https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025326X21007426
- Y Lyons, ML Neo, A Lim, YL Tay and Vu Hai D from NUS (2020) Status of Research, Legal and Policy Efforts on Marine Plastics in ASEAN+3: A Gap Analysis at the Interface of Science, Law and Policy, COBSEA and NUS. Available at: https://cil.nus.edu.sg/research/special-projects/#polllution-from-marine-plastics-in-the-seas-of-asean-plus-three
- Y Lyons, R Beckman, LM Chou and D Huang (2019) Moving from marine protected areas to area-based management initiatives in the South China Sea, International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law 35:1-31 (Open source: https://brill.com/view/journals/estu/aop/article-10.1163-15718085-23521101/article-10.1163-15718085-23521101.xml)
- Y Lyons (2019) EBSAs to inform application for IMO Measures, GOBI-WWF. Available http://www.acops.org.uk/activities/international-shipping/
- Y Lyons (2019) Identifying sensitive areas in the High Seas: A review of scientific criteria adopted under international law, in High Seas Governance: Gaps and Challenges, R Beckman et al. (eds), doi:10.1163/9789004373303_005
- Y Lyons, D Cheong, ML Neo and HF Wong (2018) Managing giant clams in the South China Sea, International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law 33(3)
- Y Lyons, Luu QH and P Tkalich (2018) Determining High-tide Features (or Islands) in the South China Sea under Article 121(1): A Legal and Oceanography Perspective, in The South China arbitration: The legal dimension, S Jayakumar, T Koh, R Beckman, T Davenport and HD Phan (eds), 2018, Edward Elgar
- Y Lyons and D Cheong, The international legal framework for the Protection and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity, in Biodiversity and the Law, C McManis and B Ong (eds), 2017, Routledge
- Y Lyons (2015) Regulation of Offshore Hydrocarbon Exploration and Exploitation under International Law, in Handbook in Maritime Regulation and Enforcement, S. Kay and R. Warner (eds), 2015, Routledge
- Y Lyons (2015) Transboundary Pollution from Offshore Activities: A Study of the Montara Oil Spill, in Transboundary Pollution: Evolving Issues of International Law and Policy, 2015, Edward Elgar
- Y Lyons (2014) The New Offshore Oil and Gas Installation Abandonment Wave and the International Rules on Removal and Dumping, The International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law 29: 480-520
- Y Lyons (2014) Prospects for Satellite Imagery of Insular Features and Surrounding Marine Habitats in the South China Sea, Marine Policy 45: 146-155
