Norway's Environmental Targets

Norway’s Environmental Targets Action for the environment 3 ————————— Priority areas and tools Useful for achieving our goals 4 websites: Priority areas www.miljo.no 01 Living seas and coastal environments 6 www.environment.no 02 Healthy lakes and rivers 10 www.klif.no 03 Rich and varied wetlands 14 www.dirnat.no 04 Forest diversity 18 www.npolar.no 05 Spectacular mountain landscapes 22 www.ra.no 06 A valuable cultural heritage 26 www.statkart.no 07 A good urban environment 30 08 The great outdoors 34 ————————— 09 An unpolluted environment 38 10 Clean air 42 11 A stable climate 46 Instruments Knowledge and geographical information 50 Legislation and planning procedures 52 International cooperation 54 Norway’s Environmental Targets was published in Norwegian in 2011. This translated version contains some updates and corrections, but has not been completely revised. 7U\NN$QGYRUG*UDILVN$6 Action for the environment Thirty years ago, acid rain was killing fish People have always left evidence of their in Norwegian rivers. Now, both salmon and activities behind them, altering the environ- trout are back again in many rivers thanks to ment for better or worse. Our cultural herit- concerted national and international efforts age does more than tell our history – it is also to cut emissions. part of a dynamic contemporary environment. But it, too, is vulnerable: once build- Norway’s nature reaches from the deepest ings and cultural landscapes are destroyed seabed to the topmost mountain peaks, or removed, they are lost for ever. and from the thickest forest to the highest waterfall. Rivers and lakes have always People all over the world are moving to cities. attracted people, who use them for transport, Even in Norway, most of us live in built- food and energy, and now also for enjoyment. up areas. Environmental protection is also Water is a basic necessity, and in much of concerned with how we organise our every- Norway we can drink it straight from the day lives. People want to live near workplaces, source. Running water still pervades the theatres, cinemas, museums and shops, Norwegian landscape, even though nine of partly because they want to avoid depend- our eleven waterfalls have been harnessed ency on cars. At the same time, they want to for hydropower production. Wetlands purify be close to the countryside. Norwegians are water entirely free of charge, and are highly great outdoor enthusiasts. productive ecosystems. Stronger action is needed to safeguard these vulnerable Wherever we live, we are entitled to an ecosystems. unpolluted environment that promotes good health and welfare. We used to be able The seas too support a rich variety of living to see pollutants in the smoke from factory organisms. Norway’s seas are some of the chimneys. Nowadays they are just as likely most productive in the world – a blue-green, to exit through the gate in the manufactured self-replenishing treasure chest. But seabirds products. Local air quality in Norway’s largest such as puffins and guillemots are seriously towns is still not good enough. We must take threatened. We must redouble our efforts to fresh action to deal with these problems. save them. Climate change is perhaps the greatest However, most of the threatened plants and threat humanity has ever faced. The Earth’s animals in Norway are forest species. Forests temperature is rising. To ignore this would are the home of the red helleborine, one of be a crime against our own and future our most beautiful orchids, and of the lynx, generations. That is why Norway’s goal is brown bear and wolf. Without protection stabilisation of the global climate system. measures, these species would have disappeared from Norway. In this publication you can read about Norway’s environmental targets and what we Almost one third of Norway’s spectacular are doing to reach them. Many of the targets mountain landscapes are protected. Wild are ambitious and will not be easy to achieve, reindeer, lemming, wolverine and Arctic fox but we know that environmental action does are some of the species we find here. Thanks produce results. to breeding programmes and other action, the Arctic fox has so far been saved from extinction. Norwegian Ministry of the Environment – Norway’s Environmental Targets 3 ————————— environment.no Priority areas and This website provides up-to-date information on the state of the environment and environmental trends in Norway. tools for achieving Some of the infor mation is presented in English, and more complete information is available from the Norwegian version our goals of the website, miljostatus.no. ————————— This publication presents the priority Norway’s targets for biodiversity also What is the Norwegian areas of Norway’s environmental policy reflect the Aichi Targets. These were Nature Index? and the main policy instruments the adopted in 2010 by the parties to the Ministry of the Environment uses to Convention on Biological Diversity in The Nature Index is designed to show trends in biodiversity in major ecosys- achieve its goals. For each priority area, Nagoya, Japan, as part of the Strategic tems, and is expressed on a scale from a specific set of national targets has been Plan for Biodiversity. According to its 0 to 1. The values show deviation from drawn up, based on government policy mission statement, the overall aim is to a reference state, which is given the as set out in white papers and other policy “take effective and urgent action to halt value 1 and is intended to represent documents. These are listed in the appro- the loss of biodiversity in order to ensure an ecologically sustainable state. The priate chapters. The Norwegian Nature that by 2020 ecosystems are resilient and value 0 indicates large deviations from Index is one of the tools we are using to continue to provide essential services”. the reference state, for example the extinction of a species within a particular measure progress towards our targets. area. The overall objective is to measure whether Norway is succeeding in halt- ing the loss of biodiversity, as we have undertaken to do under the Convention on Biological Diversity. ————————— Norwegian Red List for Ecosystems and Habitat Types The Norwegian Biodiversity Informa- tion Centre made a first assessment of the status of ecosystems and habitats in 2011, and published a Red List on the same pattern as national and international Red Lists for species. It is only available in Norwegian at present. ————————— 4 Norwegian Ministry of the Environment – Norway’s Environmental Targets Living seas and coastal Healthy lakes and rivers Rich and varied wetlands Forest diversity environments Spectacular mountain A valuable cultural heritage A good urban environment The great outdoors landscapes An unpolluted environment Clean air A stable climate Instruments: legislation and planning procedures; international cooperation; knowledge and geographical information Norwegian Ministry of the Environment – Norway’s Environmental Targets 5 Living seas and coastal environments Imagine a deep blue-green treasure chest that replenishes itself. Norway is one of the fortunate countries that actually possesses one – the cold, clean waters off its coast. We must take good care of our treasures so that they can be enjoyed by future generations as well. Natural resources from the sea have clean waters, and tourism and outdoor world’s largest cold-water coral reefs, made Norway one of the world’s fore- recreation are also a vital part of the which provide a unique habitat of global most maritime nations. We have always economy. importance. Many of the species found in drawn on marine and coastal waters Norway’s seas support a rich variety the coastal zone are highly specialised to for growth and prosperity. Today, of marine life. There are internationally deal with extremes such as the alterna- Norway’s largest export industries are important fish stocks such as herring tion between submersion and drying out the offshore oil and gas industry and the (Clupea harengus), cod (Gadus morhua) in the intertidal zone or exposure to salt fisheries. Maritime transport is another and capelin (Mallotus villosus), and sea- spray above the shoreline. important industry, and there are busy birds such as puffins (Fratercula arctica), ports all along Norway’s long coast. Brünnich’s guillemots (Uria lomvia) and Kelp, fish and seabirds at risk Offshore wind power is a new sector, little auks (Alle alle). Marine mammals Norway’s maritime areas stretch 200 with considerable growth potential in include walrus (Odobenus rosmarus), nautical miles out from the coast of the Norwegian waters. And of course, visitors bearded seal (Erignathus barbatus) mainland, Svalbard and Jan Mayen, from all over the world are attracted to and beluga (Delphinapterus leucas). and are about six times larger than Norway’s spectacular coastal scenery and On the seabed, there are some of the its land territory. They include large 6 Norwegian Ministry of the Environment – Norway’s Environmental Targets ©Kim Abel/Naturarkivet.no relatively shallow areas in the North sea urchins, but has shown some signs Sea, the Barents Sea and the continental of recovery. Sugar kelp has declined shelf areas along the coast, and this is dramatically because of a combination of one reason for the high biodiversity in higher water temperature, eutrophication Norway’s waters. Much of the biologi- and sediment deposition, and the rapid cal production in the world’s oceans is loss of sugar kelp forests is continuing in concentrated in shallow waters. the southern half of the country. Habitat types vary widely, from the It is estimated that about 80 % of the deep seabed via the water column, the sugar kelp along the Skagerrak coast of continental slope, shallow waters and Norway has disappeared, and that about fishing banks to tidal areas along the 40 % has been lost along parts of the North coast.

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