REPORT of JOINT OSPAR/NEAFC/CBD SCIENTIFIC WORKSHOP on Ebsas
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CBD Distr. GENERAL UNEP/CBD/SBSTTA/16/INF/5 21 April 2012** ENGLISH ONLY SUBSIDIARY BODY ON SCIENTIFIC, TECHNICAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL ADVICE Sixteenth meeting Montreal, 30 April-5 May 2012 Item 6.1 of the provisional agenda* REPORT OF JOINT OSPAR/NEAFC/CBD SCIENTIFIC WORKSHOP ON EBSAs Information note by the Executive Secretary 1. In paragraph 36 of its decision X/29, the Conference of the Parties requested the Executive Secretary to work with Parties and other Governments as well as competent organizations and regional initiatives, such as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), regional seas conventions and action plans, and, where appropriate, regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs), with regards to fisheries management, to organize a series of regional workshops, including the setting of terms of references, before a future meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA) prior to the eleventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention, with a primary objective to facilitate the description of ecologically or biologically significant marine areas (EBSAs) through application of scientific criteria in annex I of decision IX/20 as well as other relevant compatible and complementary nationally and intergovernmentally agreed scientific criteria, as well as the scientific guidance on the identification of marine areas beyond national jurisdiction, which meet the scientific criteria in annex I to decision IX/20. 2. Pursuant to this request, a Joint Scientific Workshop was convened by the OSPAR Commission and the North-East Atlantic Fisheries Commission (NEAFC) in collaboration with the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity to describe areas meeting scientific criteria for EBSAs and other relevant criteria, in Hyères, France, from 8 to 9 September 2011. 3. The workshop report is circulated, together with the cover letter signed by the executive secretaries of OSPAR Commission and NEAFC, in the form and language in which it was received by the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity. ** Reposted to include the following footnote: “The designations employed and the presentation of material in this note do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.” * UNEP/CBD/SBSTTA/16/1. /… In order to minimize the environmental impacts of the Secretariat’s processes, and to contribute to the Secretary-General’s initiative for a C-Neutral UN, this document is printed in limited numbers. Delegates are kindly requested to bring their copies to meetings and not to request additional copies. Dr Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias Executive Secretary Convention on Biological Diversity United Nations Environment Programme 413 Saint Jacques Street Suite 800 – World Trade Center Montreal, Qc, H2Y 1N9 CANADA 15 February 2012 Dear Dr Dias North-East Atlantic Regional EBSA Workshop outcomes On behalf of the Regional Seas Convention (OSPAR) and Regional Fisheries Management Organisation (NEAFC) for the North-East Atlantic we would like to congratulate you on your appointment as Executive Secretary for the Convention on Biological Diversity. Further to our letter dated 14 December 2011, we have the honour to provide a description of candidate EBSAs in the North-East Atlantic region, representing a summary of the results of the North-East Atlantic Regional EBSA Workshop held in Hyeres, France, in September 2011 (the full report of which has already been forwarded to CBD Secretariat). We understand from colleagues at the CBD Secretariat that the full Workshop report will be presented as an Information Document to SBSTTA 16, and that this summary document should serve to provide information in a more manageable format. Regarding our submissions we would like to emphasise that: a. The North-East Atlantic Workshop report, together with this summary, are the products of a purely scientific and technical exercise. Both OSPAR and NEAFC have made arrangements for further scrutiny and political evaluation of the Workshop outcomes. OSPAR and NEAFC have not finalised their work regarding the candidate EBSAs or made decisions on them. For this reason the results are set out as candidate EBSAs;1 b. Further scrutiny will include advice from the International Council for the Explorations of the Sea (ICES), the details of which will also be communicated to the CBD Secretariat; c. Although consideration was also given to dependency, representativeness, biogeographical importance, structural complexity, natural beauty and geological history, the North-East Atlantic Regional Workshop did not consider the criteria of ‘naturalness’ but subsequent evaluation will do so; and d. The OSPAR Commission, at its meeting of Contracting Parties in June 2011, agreed that the six High Seas Marine Protected Areas, designated by Ministers in 2010 and representing the world’s first network of MPAs in Area Beyond National Jurisdiction, should automatically qualify as EBSAs and 1 The terminology adopted for the workshop was to bring forward proposals for consideration and, once agreed, to establish candidate EBSAs. instructed the OSPAR Secretariat to submit these areas to the CBD EBSA Repository as an independent exercise. We consider this Workshop to have been an excellent example of the cooperation between our two Regional Conventions, and we very much appreciated the support and input of the CBD Secretariat to facilitate this event. We look forward to a continuing fruitful cooperation. Yours sincerely David Johnson Stefan Asmundsson Executive Secretary Executive Secretary OSPAR Commission NEAFC Enc Joint OSPAR/NEAFC/CBD Scientific Workshop on the Identification of Ecologically or Biologically Significant Marine Areas (EBSAs) in the North-East Atlantic Hyères, France: 8 – 9 September 2011 Joint OSPAR/NEAFC/CBD Scientific Workshop on the identification of Ecologically or Biologically Significant Marine Areas (EBSAs) in the North-East Atlantic Background and aims of the workshop 1. The 10th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP 10; Nagoya, Japan, 18-29 October 2010) in its Decision on Marine and Coastal Biological Diversity (CBD Decision X/29, http://www.cbd.int/decision/cop/?id=12295) Annex 1 sets out the process on the identification of Ecologically or Biologically Significant Marine Areas (EBSAs) based upon the scientific criteria as previously adopted by CBD COP 9 (http://www.cbd.int/doc/decisions/cop-09/cop-09-dec-20-en.doc). 2. In particular, § 36 of CBD Decision X/29: “Requests the [CBD] Executive Secretary to work with Parties and other Governments as well as competent organizations and regional initiatives, such as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), regional seas conventions and action plans, and, where appropriate, regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs), with regards to fisheries management, to organize, including the setting of terms of references, subject to the availability of financial resources, a series of regional workshops, before a future meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA) prior to the eleventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention, with a primary objective to facilitate the description of ecologically or biologically significant marine areas through application of scientific criteria in annex I of decision IX/20 as well as other relevant compatible and complementary nationally and intergovernmentally agreed scientific criteria, as well as the scientific guidance on the identification of marine areas beyond national jurisdiction, which meet the scientific criteria in annex I to decision IX/20;”. 3. With a view to respond to the request set out in § 36 of CBD Decision X/29 and in light of the complementary competencies assigned to the OSPAR Commission and the North-East Atlantic Fisheries Commission (NEAFC), and as recognised in the Memorandum of Understanding between OSPAR and NEAFC, the two organisations together with the CBD Secretariat undertook to facilitate the identification and description of EBSAs in the North-East Atlantic through a joint scientific workshop prior to the eleventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the CBD. 4. The objective of this scientific workshop was to identify and describe marine areas in the high seas areas in the North-East Atlantic not included in the OSPAR Network of MPAs or the NEAFC Closed Areas but which fulfilled the scientific criteria set out by the CBD (Annex I of CBD Decision IX/20) for Ecologically or Biologically Significant Marine Areas (EBSAs) - with a view to respond to the request by CBD COP 10 (CBD Decision X/29, § 36). Agreed terms of reference are at Annex 2. 5. The geographic area of focus for the workshop was confined to the OSPAR Maritime Area and the Regulatory Area of NEAFC in areas beyond the EEZ of Contracting Parties (i.e. beyond 200 nautical miles). 1 of 13 OSPAR/NEAFC/CBD NEA EBSA Workshop 2011 6. At its 2011 Commission meeting, OSPAR agreed to report to the CBD Secretariat the six existing OSPAR Marine Protected Areas in areas beyond national jurisdiction that fulfil CBD EBSA criteria for inclusion in the CBD EBSA repository. These were therefore, not a primary consideration at the workshop. NEAFC is in the process of giving further consideration