Marine Environment

EU Commissioner Maria Damanaki addressing the GLOBE World Oceans Day Forum 2011 held at Selfridges Department Store

GLOBE Parliamentarians Declaration on Common Fisheries Policy Reform

UPDATE: GLOBE World Oceans Day Forum

On ‘Reforming Europe’s Common Fisheries Policy’

The GLOBE World Oceans Day Forum, held on Wednesday 8^th June 2011 at Selfridges Department Store brought together members of parliaments from across the European Union to discuss the 2012 Common Fisheries Policy Reform with the aim of forging a progressive political consensus on the issue.

The GLOBE Forum was formally opened by Her Majesty Queen Noor al Hussein Speech for Queen Noor on the occasion of the GLOBE World Oceans Day Forum_080611, Patron of IUCN and global conservation advocate and keynotes were given by EU Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Maria Damanaki Speech by Commissioner Damanaki and UK Minister for Natural Environment and Fisheries, Richard Benyon MP, as well as messages from the Spanish Ambassador to the UK on behalf of Spanish Minister for Environment, Rural and Maritime Affairs, Rosa Aguilar Rivero, and German Federal Minister for Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection (Link to video message: ftp://prensa-lectura:psoe-CEF10@ftp.psoe.es/20110607hugomoran.mov).

 GLOBE legislators heard from leading experts including GLOBE Chief Marine Scientific Advisor, Alex Rogers, Professor of Conservation Biology at Oxford University, who gave two presentations on The State of Europe’s Fisheries and the Common Fisheries Policy Reform and on Delivering the EU’s International Commitments ahead of Rio+20. Expert legal advice was also provided by environmental lawyers’ organisation Client Earth (http://www.clientearth.org/).

 The GLOBE Forum was held in Selfridges Department Store as the political culmination of ‘Project Ocean’ a high-profile public awareness campaign by the Store in collaboration with the Zoological Society of London (ZSL)which saw famous artists, musicians, fashion designers and top chefs all collaborate to highlight the importance of ocean conservation and sustainable seafood.

 The ‘Selfridges Declaration’:

 The GLOBE Parliamentarians Declaration on Common Fisheries Policy Reform referred to as the ‘Selfridges Declaration’ GLOBE Parliamentarians Declaration on Common Fisheries Policy Reform agreed on World Oceans Day by members of parliament from key EU fishing nations, establishes a set of principle ambitions for the 2012 Common Fisheries Policy.

These 18 ambitions for Europe’s fisheries were agreed by the Forum to be the necessary components of any new regulation in order to achieve a healthy marine environment and sustainable fishing industry for future generations, and furthermore enable Europe to restore its record and ‘take global leadership’ on sustainable fisheries management and ocean governance.

As a legacy of the GLOBE World Oceans Day Forum and Selfridges ‘Project Ocean’ campaign, it was also agreed that World Oceans Week would be held annually in the UK and UK Parliament to focus the public and politicians on the oceans around World Oceans Day.

GLOBE announced that it will also be holding a day on Oceans at the first World Summit of Legislators in Rio on the 25^th-27^th May 2012 to address the issue of international oceans governance.

 Conclusions:

The World Oceans Day event has demonstrated the political appetite for action on ocean sustainability. By engaging legislators in discussion on the issue with their counterparts in other countries, as well as with the leading experts gathered in Selfridges on World Oceans Day, there is now a real opportunity to positively influence Europe’s future policy through targeted political intervention.

The GLOBE Forum in Selfridges has provided the platform for a political process which will seek to raise the Common Fisheries Policy Reform up the priority list of national parliaments and governments and advance government positions towards the ambitions of the GLOBE Parliamentarians Declaration through the mechanisms of parliamentary process and public awareness.

Next Steps: 

• The Selfridges Declaration will be circulated for endorsement amongst the 100+ GLOBE members and other key affiliates throughout the parliaments of Europe and will also be submitted by GLOBE MPs to the European Commission, and government Ministries across Europe, with the aim of securing the support of 50 parliamentarians in each Member State.
• Over the next 12 months, GLOBE will support the development of bilateral and cross-cutting political links amongst MPs on this issue and will seek to organise focused policy discussions at the national-level, bringing different national political interests into a dialogue on supporting a progressive outcome for European fisheries. 
• GLOBE will be organising a second Forum on in Brussels or Strasbourg in six months time, to take-stock of the political progress made, and the status of legislative deliberations in the European Parliament and Council of Ministers.

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 “It is critical that legislators from around the world begin to work together to address the ongoing degradation of the marine environment. It is our responsibility to show political leadership to promote the conservation and restoration of our marine fisheries, coral reefs and coastal marine ecosystems. The GLOBE Marine Ecosystems Recovery Strategy is a powerful document that outlines what legislators can do to set our oceans on a path to a sustainable future”.

Ms Isabella Lövin MEP

Member of European Parliament Fisheries Committee

“Oceans and marine fisheries cannot be protected unilaterally, which is why GLOBE’s meetings are so important. International Forums like GLOBE International are essential for achieving the protections the oceans desperately need”.

Senator Maria Cantwell

Chair US Senate Commerce Committee Sub-Committee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries and Coast Guard

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UPDATE: GLOBE Brazil

Following their engagement in the GLOBE World Oceans Day Forum, on June 8^th 2010, GLOBE Brazil has worked cross-party within the National Senate and Congress to secure the establishment of the ‘Permanent Mixed Commission on Oceans’. This bicameral body will be responsible for comprehensively reviewing and monitoring Brazil’s maritime policy and legislation. In 2011 GLOBE Brazil will work with the International Secretariat to ensure that this Commission fulfils its aims to establish an integrated approach to marine policy-making and ensure the environmental sustainability of Brazil’s future marine legislation.

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UPDATE: GLOBE Initiative for Common Fisheries Policy Reform:

GLOBE members in Europe are launching a new parliamentary initiative to galvanise and mobilise the European political community around ambitious and progressive reform of the European Union (EU)’s primary fishing policy framework – the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP).

Over the next two years, the European Parliament and European Council of Ministers will debate new proposals for the whole scale reform of the CFP framework, as the policy reaches the end of its current 10-year programme.

The GLOBE initiative will work through its wide, cross-party network of active members across the 27 member states of the EU to generate greater cross-party parliamentary support for reform of the CFP.   Specifically, Members will seek:

• An end to overfishing by 2015, as committed to at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg 2002; and
• Restoration of the marine environment to Good Environmental Status by 2020, as required by the E.U. law under the Marine Strategy Framework Directive;

The GLOBE initiative will be formally launched at the GLOBE Parliamentarians Oceans Summit, to be held on World Oceans Day, June 8^th 2011.

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GLOBE International Marine Ecosystems Recovery Programme:

GLOBE international is committed to creating the political support to protect and restore the marine environment and set our oceans on a path to a sustainable future. In 2008, the GLOBE International Commission on Land Use Change and Ecosystems was formed with support from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), which allowed GLOBE to begin a new focus on this critical policy area.

On the direction of GLOBE Commissioners, the Commission has undertaken the development of the GLOBE Marine Ecosystems Recovery Strategy, a tri-partite policy strategy to address the drivers of marine ecosystems degradation in three critical areas: marine fisheries; tropical shallow-water coral reefs; and coastal shelf ecosystems.

Marine Fisheries

Marine capture fisheries are of vital economic and social importance for estimated 540 million people  or 8% of the world’s population whose livelihoods depend on the sector and for the millions of people in developing countries who depend on marine fish as their primary source of protein. However, whilst global per capita consumption of fish reached a “new all-time high” in 2008, the majority of marine stocks are stagnant or in decline, and 32% are estimated to be overexploited, depleted or recovering and in need of rebuilding. Overfishing and destructive fishing practices harm not only target fish stocks but also the wider marine ecosystem. Poor management of marine fisheries means that the difference between potential and actual economic benefit is US$50 billion per year.

GLOBE’s work on marine fisheries focuses on addressing the main drivers of unsustainable fishing and the associated environmental degradation, including inter alia:

• Adjusting economic incentives;
• Reforming high seas management;
• Implementing ecosystems-based management; and
• Improving compliance with regulations.

Part I of the GLOBE Marine Ecosystems Recovery Strategy focuses on all of these issues and was developed, by legislators and leading international experts over a period of 12 months. The marine fisheries work stream formally commenced in June 2009 at the International Commission’s first meeting in Nairobi, Kenya. The GLOBE Marine Technical Advisory Group (MTAG) was then formed, bringing together international experts to develop initial high-level recommendations for legislators on the reform of marine fisheries policy. In early 2010, these recommendations were politically tested and developed through a series of national and regional meetings which developed national responses to the recommendations, including:

• GLOBE Japan Marine Fisheries Workshop, Tokyo, 25^th January 2010;
• GLOBE UK and Industry Stakeholders Marine Fisheries Workshop, London, 3^rd March 2010;
• European Parliament Marine Fisheries Workshop, Brussels, March 2010;
• GLOBE Korea Consultation, May 2010.

Following this consultation period, GLOBE legislators convened to discuss and agree the recommendations at the GLOBE World Oceans Day Meeting, which took place in London on 7^th – 8^th June 2010. Over 30 legislators from key fishing, coastal and importing nations were convened under the chairmanship of Commission Chair, Ian Johnson, in a high-level dialogue in order to discuss the legislative action necessary to ensure the environmental, social and economic sustainability of marine fisheries and their associated ecosystems. The Commission endorsed the GLOBE Marine Ecosystems Recovery Strategy: Part I Marine Fisheries on World Oceans Day 2010 and committed to advancing its principles at the regional and national political level.

Please follow link here for: GLOBE Marine Ecosystems Recovery Strategy Part I.

Tropical Coral Reefs

Tropical coral reefs are the most diverse marine ecosystems on the planet. Half a billion people (8% of the world’s population) depend to some degree on the goods and services provided by coral reefs, which are estimated to be worth US$172-375 billion per year, and more than 100 countries have coastlines with coral reefs and 30 million people are entirely dependent on reefs. And yet by 2008, 19% of coral reefs had been lost and 75% are threatened by direct and indirect human impacts such as overfishing, pollution and climate change.

In 2009, the growing scientific understanding of the critical impacts of climate change through ocean warming and acidification on tropical coral reefs, prompted the GLOBE Copenhagen Legislators Forum in October 2009 to hold a session reporting on the issues. The Commission presented the latest scientific research on the impacts of climate change and rising CO₂ levels, as well as economic analysis of the value of tropical coral reef ecosystems, and the predicted global consequences of their degradation and collapse.

The significant interest expressed by legislators in Copenhagen led to the focus of Part II of the GLOBE Marine Ecosystems Recovery Strategy on ‘Coral Reef Resilience’. This strategy sets out high-level policy recommendations for increasing the ecological resilience of coral reefs and the social resilience of dependent communities in the face of multiple anthropogenic pressures and the increasing effects of climate change and focuses on the following five policy solutions:

• Enabling sustainable fishing
• Managing watersheds and water quality to reduce pollution
• Increasing marine protected areas coverage and effectiveness
• Increasing effective management and governance
• Increasing environmental education and awareness

The International Commission held a technical workshop at the Zoological Society of London in April 2010 that developed initial proposals for the strategy. The GLOBE Marine Ecosystems Recovery Strategy: Part II Coral Reef Resilience was then discussed and formally endorsed by a meeting of members of the GLOBE International Commission who represent nations with jurisdiction over tropical coral reefs. The meeting was held in Nagoya, Japan, during the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) 10^th Conference of Parties (COP10), in October.  

Following this meeting, GLOBE and its advisors will focus on the implementation of the Action Plan for Coral Reefs, and work closely with its network of coral reef nation legislators to advance the recommendations within their national parliaments and through regional and international agreements.

Coastal Marine Ecosystems

The third part of the GLOBE Marine Ecosystem Recovery Strategy is under development by the GLOBE International Commission and will be published in 2011/12.

GLOBE Nagoya Parliamentarians Forum:

Parts I and II of the GLOBE Marine Ecosystems Recovery Strategy were presented and endorsed by over 100 members of parliament from 30 different countries who attended the Nagoya Parliamentarians Forum held at the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) 10th Conference of the Parties, in collaboration with the CBD Secretariat.

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For more information on the GLOBE Marine Programme, please contact GLOBE Marine Policy Advisor, Ms Beth Gardiner-Smith at beth.gardiner-smith@globeinternational.org.