IUCN activities relevant to the establishment of a regional environmental management plan for the Clarion-Clipperton Zone

ISA Workshop, Kingston, Jamaica 8-12 November 2010

Kristina M. GjerdeIUCN High Seas Policy Advisorkgjerde@eip.com.pl

Credit: Sarah Gotheil/IUCN

IUCN secretariat

State members

Govt. agency

members

NGOmembers

IUCN – The International

Union for Conservation of

Nature

Six Commissions: 11,000 experts

CEC CELWCPA

SSC

1,100

members

60+ Regional & country Offices

950 staff150 staff

Credit: IUCN

1) Marine protected areas and spatial planning

2) Management and governance in areas beyond national jurisdiction

3) Science-policy interfaces

WORLD SUMMIT ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENTJOHANNESBURG, 2002

• Reduce the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010

• Encourage the application of ecosystem approaches to marine management by 2010

• Establish representative marine protected area networks by 2012

• Restore depleted fish stocks to maximum sustainable yields, where possible by 2015

• Eliminate destructive fishing practices

• Integrate marine and coastal areas management into key sectors

Marine Protected Area: “a geographically defined area which is

designated or regulated and managed to achieve specific conservation objectives” (Convention on Biological Diversity, 1993)

MPA OBJECTIVES:

• maintain the integrity of representative examples of marine ecosystems

• protection for unique, vulnerable, rare, or high biodiversity areas

• reference sites for scientific research

• maintain critical aspects of ecosystem function, e.g. highly productive areas

• increase resilience to climate change or other environmental changes

• support for fisheries management, e.g. areas for critical life-history stages

• multiple-use areas to coordinate activities and minimise cumulative impacts

CCAMLR

• Individual MPAs vital but not sufficient

• Effectiveness of MPAs greatly increased when networked and part of a broader ecosystem-based management approach

• Marine spatial planning key part of ecosystem-based management

• MSP focuses on developing area-based management plans to jointly meet multiple objectives

Moving Forward

Credit: IUCN

1) Marine spatial planning and MPAs

2) Management and governance in areas beyond national jurisdiction

3) Linking science to policy

Institute Marine Research, Bergen, Norway

UNGA RESOLUTIONS 61/105(2006) & 64/72(2009)

• States and RFMOs to protect vulnerable marine ecosystems from significant adverse impacts from high seas bottom fishing activities

• Including through

• prior impact assessments

• adoption of management measures

• and/or area closures

• or not authorize fishing to proceed

Credit: Deep Atlantic Stepping Stones Science Team_IFE_URI_NOAA

VULNERABLE MARINE ECOSYSTEMS (VMEs)

FAO VME Criteria

1. Uniqueness or rarity

2. Functional significance of the habitat

3. Fragility

4. Life-history traits of component species that make recovery difficult

5. Structural complexity

High Seas bottom fisheries closures

High Seas bottom fisheries closures

PLANNING TOOLS IN THE MARINE ENVIRONMENT

UNGA WORKING GROUP 2010

“13. States and competent international organizations should work towards a more integrated and ecosystem-based approach to the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction, in order to strengthen cross-sectoral cooperation and effectively address sectoral and cumulative impacts.”

Credit: Save the Albatross /BirdLife International

CBD COP9 Decision 20 (2008)Annex I: Site Criteria“Ecologically or Biologically Significant Areas” (EBSAs)

1. Uniqueness / rarity

2. Special importance for life history of species

3. Importance for threatened, endangered or declining species / habitats

4. Vulnerability, fragility, sensitivity, or slow recovery

5. Biological productivity

6. Biological diversity

7. Naturalness Credit: Deep Atlantic Stepping Stones Science Team_IFE_URI_NOAA

CBD COP10 Decision on Marine and Coastal Biodiversity Nagoya, Japan, October 2010

Affirmed and elaborated the role of the CBD in providing scientific and technical advice

Encouraged Parties and competent organizations to apply criteria and adopt appropriate measures

Developed a process via regional and subregional workshops involving relevant UN bodies and others to help gather information and assess areas against the CBD criteria

Established a repository to make information and data widely available and inter-operable

Created a mechanism for CBD COP to endorse areas proposed as EBSAs and to convey the information to other competent international organizations, including the UNGA, for further action

Biodiversity-inclusive EIAs AND SEAs

Requests the development of voluntary guidelines for the consideration of biodiversity in environmental impact assessments (EIAs) and strategic environmental assessments (SEAs) in marine and coastal areas using

MANILA WORKSHOP GUIDANCE

Environmental Impact Assessments and Strategic Environmental Assessment:

address the large scale and connectivity of ocean ecosystems

assess individual and cumulative impacts

management and coordination of multiple users of ocean space

aim to maintain species, habitats and ecosystem structure

Further information:

UNEP. 2006. Ecosystems and biodiversity in deep water and high seas

Gjerde K. M., Dotinga, H, Hart, S. Molenaar, E.J. Rayfuse, R. Warner, R (2008). “Regulatory and governance gaps in the international regime for the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction”,

Gjerde K. M., Dotinga, H, Hart, S. Molenaar, E.J. Rayfuse, R. Warner, R. (2008) “Options for addressing regulatory and governance gaps in the international regime for the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction”

UNEP, 2010. Modalities for advancing cross-sectoral cooperation in managing marine areas beyond national jurisdiction (see IUCN report for links)

Credit: John Weller john@lastocean.com

Progress towards networks of MPAs beyond national jurisdiction

CBD COP9 DECISION 20 (2008)Annex II: Network Guidance

1. EBSAs (site criteria)

2. Representativity

3. Connectivity

4. Replication

5. Adequacy / viability

Credit: Deep Atlantic Stepping Stones Science Team_IFE_URI_NOAA

BIOGEOGRAPHIC CLASSIFICATION: Global Open Ocean and Deep Sea (GOODS)

Global Open Ocean and Deep Seabed (GOODS) Biogeographic Classification, UNESCO 2009

Bioregionalisation

Bioregionalisation & CCAMLR candidate MPA locations

CandidateMPA

Locations

DepthSilicateNitrate

Surface Chlorophyll-aIce Concentration

Courtesy Denzil Miller

SOUTH ORKNEYS MARINE PROTECTED AREA

Credit: UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office

• CCAMLR adopted 2009

• First large-scale purely high seas protected area in the Southern Ocean

• Size: ~94,000 km2

• No fishing activities

• No discharge/disposal from fishing vessels

• In force: May 2010

MEDITERRANEAN: 1. Identification of 10 marine Ecologically or Biologically Significant Areas

Credit: Mediterranean Action Plan/Regional Activity Center

A: Alborán Seamounts; B: Southern Balearic; C: Gulf of Lions shelf and slope; D: Central Tyrrhenian; E: Northern Strait of Sicily (including Adventure and nearbybanks); F: Southern Strait of Sicily; G: Northern and Central Adriatic; H: Santa Maria di Leuca; I: Northeastern Ionian; J: Thracian Sea; K: Northeastern LevantineSea and Rhodes Gyre; L: Nile Delta Region (§: Pelagos Sanctuary declared as SPAMI in 2001)

MEDITERRANEAN: 2.Identification of 12 priority conservation areas

OSPAR HIGH SEAS MPAS & NEAFC FISHERIES CLOSURES

Credit: OSPAR Secretariat

© Sylvia Earle ©

US

FWS

©U

SFW

S

©USFWS

©U

SFW

S

SARGASSO SEA

SARGASSO SEA

Unique open-ocean sargassum-based ecosystem

Important for life history of many species (eels, turtles, tuna, billfish, sharks, etc.)

Need for regional and international cooperation and action

Photo credit Don Kincaid

©Larry MadinWoods Hole Oceanographic Institution

LINKING SCIENCE TO POLICY

GOBI PARTNERS

INITIATIVE BACKGROUND

International partnership initiated in 2008 by the GermanFederal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservationand Nuclear Safety as current CBD COP President

supported by the German Federal Agency for NatureConservation (with funds from the German Federal Ministry for theEnvironment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety)

Aims to identify ecologically or biologically significantmarine areas (EBSAs) in need of protection beyond nationaljurisdiction using the best available scientific data, tools, andmethods

GOBI STRUCTURE

GOBI Advisory Board

Task Groups

GOBI Science Board

Partners

GOBI Secretariat

The GOBI Advisory Board is composed of: CBD, FAO, GEF, IMO, UNESCO’s IOC, ISA, UNDP, UNEP and, as an observer, DOALOS

GOBI Partners include: IUCN, BfN, CBD, Census of Marine Life, OBIS, UNEP-WCMC, Duke University Marine Geospatial Ecology Lab, MCBI, UNU-IAS, AquaMaps, BirdLife International, CSIRO, Tagging of Pacific Predators, CenSeam, UNESCO’s IOC and HERMIONE

Credit: Sarah Gotheil/IUCN

www.GOBI.org/

SUMMARY Biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction now top of

environmental agenda

Deep sea fisheries managers required to close areas to bottom fishing if cannot prevent significant adverse impacts

How to apply to seabed mining when activity inherently destructive?

MPAs and representative networks accepted tool for conservation and sustainable use

Marine spatial/environmental planning is essential for broader seascape management

Emerging interest in cross-sectoral cooperation –will require new flexibility to achieve global goals and targets

IUCN looks forward to cooperating

Thank You!

Credit: Sarah Gotheil/IUCN

KEY OBSERVATIONS FOR IMPROVING CROSS-COOPERATION

1. Need to scale up

2. CBD tools as platform for collaboration

3. Common science advisory foundation

4. Build and fund capacity development

5. Build effective regional oceans management organizations

Credit: John Weller

FAO: Significant Adverse Impacts

17. Significant adverse impacts are those that compromise ecosystem integrity (i.e. ecosystem structure or function) in a manner that:

(i) impairs the ability of affected populations to replace themselves;

(ii) degrades the long-term natural productivity of habitats; or

(iii) causes, on more than a temporary basis, significant loss of species richness, habitat or community types. Impacts should be evaluated individually, in combination and cumulatively.

FAO: Significant Adverse Impacts

19. Temporary impacts are those that are limited in duration and that allow the particular ecosystem to recover over an acceptable time frame.

Such time frames should be decided on a case-by-case basis and should be in the order of 5-20 years, taking into account the specific features of the populations and ecosystems.

LEGAL COUNSEL: R A MAKGILL LL.M., Barrister and Solicitor of the High Court of New Zealand

D K ANTON J.D., Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Victoria, the Supreme Court of New South Wales, and the High Court of Australia; and Member of the Bar of the State of Missouri, the State of Idaho, and the Supreme Court of the United States C R PAYNE J.D., Member of the Bar of the State of California, the Commonwealth of

Massachusetts, and the Supreme Court of the United States Y LE BERRE LEMAIRE LYONS LL.M., Member of the Paris Bar, Research Fellow at the

National University of Singapore, Centre for International Law

SEAMOUNT PROJECT Southern Indian Ocean

Credit: Sarah Gotheil/IUCN