Report of the North Pacific Regional Workshop to Facilitate the Description of Ecologically Or Biologically Significant Marine Areas1
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CBD Distr. GENERAL UNEP/CBD/RW/EBSA/NP/1/4 21 February 2014 ORIGINAL: ENGLISH NORTH PACIFIC REGIONAL WORKSHOP TO FACILITATE THE DESCRIPTION OF ECOLOGICALLY OR BIOLOGICALLY SIGNIFICANT MARINE AREAS Moscow, 25 February to 1 March 2013 REPORT OF THE NORTH PACIFIC REGIONAL WORKSHOP TO FACILITATE THE DESCRIPTION OF ECOLOGICALLY OR BIOLOGICALLY SIGNIFICANT MARINE AREAS1 INTRODUCTION 1. At its tenth meeting, in decision X/29 (paragraph 36), the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity 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 regard to fisheries management, to organize a series of regional workshops, with a primary objective to facilitate the description of ecologically or biologically significant marine areas (EBSAs) through the application of scientific criteria in annex I of decision IX/20 and 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. In the same decision (paragraph 41), the Conference of the Parties requested that the Executive Secretary make available the scientific and technical data, information and results collated through the workshops referred to above to participating Parties, other Governments, intergovernmental agencies and the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA) for their use according to their competencies. 3. The Conference of the Parties, at its tenth meeting, also requested the Executive Secretary, in collaboration with Parties and other Governments, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), United Nations Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization–Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (UNESCO–IOC), in particular the Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS), and other competent organizations, the United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) and the Global Ocean Biodiversity Initiative (GOBI), to establish a repository for scientific and technical information and experience related to the application of the scientific criteria on the identification of EBSAs in annex I of decision IX/20, as well as other relevant compatible and complementary nationally and intergovernmentally agreed scientific criteria that shares information and 1 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. /... 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. UNEP/CBD/RW/EBSA/NP/1/4 Page 2 harmonizes with similar initiatives, and to develop an information-sharing mechanism with similar initiatives, such as FAO’s work on vulnerable marine ecosystems (VMEs) (paragraph 39, decision X/29). 4. Subsequently, at its eleventh meeting, the Conference of the Parties to the Convention requested the Executive Secretary to include the summary reports on the description of areas that meet the criteria for EBSAs, prepared by the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice at its sixteenth meeting and contained in the annex to decision XI/17, in the repository, as referred to in decision X/29 and decision XI/17, and, for the purpose set out in decision X/29, to submit them to the United Nations General Assembly and particularly its Ad Hoc Open-ended Informal Working Group to Study Issues Relating to the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity Beyond Areas of National Jurisdiction, as well as to submit them to Parties, other Governments and relevant international organizations. The Conference of the Parties further requested the Executive Secretary to submit them to the Ad Hoc Working Group of the Whole on the Regular Process for Global Reporting and Assessment of the State of the Marine Environment, including Socioeconomic Aspects, as well as to provide them as a source of information to United Nations specialized agencies. 5. The Conference of the Parties, in its decision XI/17, also requested the Executive Secretary to further collaborate with Parties, other Governments, competent organizations, and global and regional initiatives, such as the United Nations General Assembly Ad Hoc Working Group of the Whole on the Regular Process for Global Reporting and Assessment of the State of the Marine Environment, including Socioeconomic Aspects, the International Maritime Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, regional seas conventions and action plans, and, where appropriate, regional fisheries management organizations with regard to fisheries management, and also including the participation of indigenous and local communities, to facilitate the description of areas that meet the criteria for EBSAs through the organization of additional regional or subregional workshops for the remaining regions or subregions where Parties wish workshops to be held, and for the further description of the areas already described where new information becomes available, as appropriate, and make the reports available for consideration by future meetings of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice. The summary reports from the Subsidiary Body will be made available for future meetings of the Conference of the Parties for consideration with a view to including the reports in the repository in line with the purpose and procedures set out in decision X/29 and decision XI/17. 6. Pursuant to the above requests and with financial support from the Government of Japan (through the Japan Biodiversity Fund), the Executive Secretary convened the North Pacific Regional Workshop to Facilitate the Description of Ecologically or Biologically Significant Marine Areas (EBSAs), in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the Action Plan for the Protection, Management and Development of the Marine and Coastal Environment of the Northwest Pacific Region (NOWPAP), the North Pacific Marine Science Organization (PICES), the IOC Sub-Commission for the Western Pacific (WESTPAC) and the North Pacific Fisheries Commission (NPFC). This workshop was hosted by the Government of the Russian Federation in Moscow, from 25 February to 1 March 2013. 7. With the financial support of the Government of Japan (Japan Biodiversity Fund), the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity commissioned a technical team to support their scientific and technical preparation for the workshop. The results of this technical preparation were made available in a meeting document providing data to inform the CBD North Pacific Regional Workshop to Facilitate the Description of Ecologically or Biologically Significant Marine Areas (UNEP/CBD/RW/EBSA/NP/1/3). 8. The meeting was attended by experts from Canada, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Japan, Mexico, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the United States of America, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Action Plan for the Protection, Management and Development of the Marine and Coastal Environment of the Northwest Pacific Region (NOWPAP), North Pacific Marine Science Organization /... UNEP/CBD/RW/EBSA/NP/1/4 Page 3 (PICES), North Pacific Fisheries Commission (NPFC), Global Ocean Biodiversity Initiative, Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East, and WWF-Russia. Experts from China were nominated and invited to participate but were unable to attend for logistical reasons. A member of the Bureau of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA Bureau), as well as local observers nominated by the host government, also attended the workshop. The full list of participants is attached as annex I. ITEM 1. OPENING OF THE MEETING 9. Mr. Anton Bersenev, Director of the Department of State Policy and Regulation for Hunting and Biodiversity, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of the Russian Federation, welcomed participants and opened the meeting. He said that the biological resources of the oceans were not always managed sustainably. He cited as an example whaling in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, which had caused great damage to whale populations, such as the Okhotsk-Korean population of grey whales, which almost disappeared in the early 1980s. He indicated that the Russian Federation had put great effort into preserving this grey whale population, the smallest such population in the world, including restricting oil and gas activities off the coast of Sakhalin Island. He went on to say that the establishment