The challenges of marine spatial planning in the Arctic: Results from the ACCESS programme

Marine spatial planning is increasingly used to manage the demands on marine areas, both spatially and temporally, where several different users may compete for resources or space, to ensure that development is as sustainable as possible. Diminishing sea-ice coverage in the Arctic will allow for potential increases in economic exploitation, and failure to plan for cross-sectoral management could have negative economic and environmental results. During the ACCESS programme, a marine spatial planning tool was developed for the Arctic, enabling the integrated study of human activities related to hydrocarbon exploitation, shipping and fisheries, and the possible environmental impacts, within the context of the next 30 years of climate change. In addition to areas under national jurisdiction, the Arctic Ocean contains a large area of high seas. Resources and ecosystems extend across political boundaries. We use three examples to highlight the need for transboundary planning and governance to be developed at a regional level.     

The Growing Need for Sustainable Ecological Management of Marine Communities of the Persian Gulf

The Persian Gulf is a semi-enclosed marine system surrounded by eight countries, many of which are experiencing substantial development. It is also a major center for the oil industry. The increasing array of anthropogenic disturbances may have substantial negative impacts on marine ecosystems, but this has received little attention until recently. We review the available literature on the Gulfs marine environment and detail our recent experience in the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) to evaluate the role of anthropogenic disturbance in this marine ecosystem. Extensive coastal development may now be the single most important anthropogenic stressor. We offer suggestions for how to build awareness of environmental risks of current practices, enhance regional capacity for coastal management, and build cooperative management of this important, shared marine system. An excellent opportunity exists for one or more of the bordering countries to initiate a bold and effective, long-term, international collaboration in environmental management for the Gulf.     

Factors influencing the ground level distribution of ozone in Europe

Ozone is a widely distributed pollutant in the atmospheric boundary layer over north west Europe. Three main sources have been identified: the stratosphere, the free troposphere and boundary layer photochemical production. The pattern of ground level ozone concentrations resulting from these three sources cannot be accurately specified. Ozone shows significant variations in space and time but because of the high cost of continuous monitoring equipment, spatial variations on a national and international basis have not been studied in detail. Variations in ozone concentrations at individual monitoring sites have been given a great deal of attention and experience gained from United Kingdom monitoring sites is described in some detail. The averaging time statistical model of Larsen is employed to relate the exposure levels measured over different averaging periods. Diurnal variations have a major influence on exposure levels at sites nominally exposed to the same regional ozone distribution. The physical and chemical mechanisms which give rise to diurnal variations are detailed so that sites can be screened for different diurnal behaviour characteristics.     

Ship emissions and their externalities for Greece

The existing and emerging international and European policy framework for the reduction of ship exhaust emissions dictates the need to produce reliable national, regional and global inventories in order to monitor emission trends and consequently provide the necessary support for future policy making. Furthermore, the inventories of ship exhaust emissions constitute the basis upon which their external costs are estimated in an attempt to highlight the economic burden they impose upon the society and facilitate the cost–benefit analysis of the proposed emission abatement technologies, operational measures and market-based instruments prior to their implementation.The case of Greece is of particular interest mainly because the dense ship traffic within the Greek seas directly imposes the impact of its exhaust emission pollutants (NO_x, SO₂ and PM) upon the highly populated, physically sensitive and culturally precious Greek coastline, as well as upon the land and seas of Greece in general, whereas the contribution of Greece in the global CO₂ inventory at a time of climatic change awareness cannot be ignored. In this context, this paper presents the contribution of Greece in ship exhaust emissions of CO₂, NO_x, SO₂ and PM from domestic and international shipping over the last 25 years (1984–2008), utilizing the fuel-based (fuel sales) emission methodology. Furthermore, the ship exhaust emissions generated within the Greek seas and their externalities are estimated for the year 2008, through utilizing the fuel-based (fuel sales) approach for domestic shipping and the activity-based (ship traffic) approach for international shipping.On this basis, it was found that during the 1984 to 2008 period the fuel-based (fuel sales) ship emission inventory for Greece increased at an average annual rate of 2.85%. In 2008, the CO₂, NO_x, SO₂ and PM emissions reached 12.9 million tons (of which 12.4 million tons of CO₂) and their externalities were found to be around 3.1 billion euro. With regard to shipping within the Greek seas, the utilization of the fuel-based (fuel sales) analysis for domestic shipping and the activity-based (ship traffic) analysis for international shipping shows that the ship-generated emissions reached 7.4 million tons (of which 7 million tons of CO₂) and their externalities were estimated at 2.95 billion euro. Finally, the internalization of external costs for domestic shipping was found to produce an increase of 12.96 and 2.71 euro per passenger and transported ton, respectively.     

Why a Global International Waters Assessment (GIWA)?

Why GIWA? Six years ago several people had their doubts as to whether a Global International Waters Assessment would be worth the money and effort. Nowadays, it is no longer necessary to justify the creation of GIWA. On the contrary, we will show how important it was that the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) and UNEP, constituted GIWA. Countless water-related assessments focus on specific regions and/or specific issues. But GIWA is unique in its global and holistic policy-oriented approach applying a common methodology to address the major problems in all parts of the global hydrosphere. One major achievement of GIWA will be the GIWA publications which provide advice to GEF and other decision-making organizations. Further assets include the network of regional focal points and teams. GIWA encompasses marine, surface freshwater, and groundwater systems, following the flow of water from the sources in the mountains through the rivers and estuaries into the coastal waters and the shelf seas. GIWA studies the physical, chemical and biological properties of those waterbodies and living resources in relation to the human activities, combining ecological and socioeconomic considerations.     

Review articles: Tankships in the marine environment

This report gives an inside view on discussions held at the headquarters of the International Maritime Organization, the United Nations agency concerned with maritime safety and the prevention of pollution from ships. Marine environmental protection regulations and their historical development are presented and discussed. The regulative measures that have been taken under the responsibility of this organization during the last decades to reduce accidental and operational discharge from tankships have achieved success although the marine environment is still suffering. Those standards which will come into force will further reduce the risks of accidental pollution. The report summarizes aspects beyond issues of environmental science which have to be analysed in order to reduce the impact of tankships on the marine environment. The report ends with the thesis that safer ships and improved occupational conditions on board are prerequisites for cleaner seas.     

Status and interconnections of selected environmental issues in the global coastal zones

This study focuses on assessing the state of population distribution, land cover distribution, biodiversity hotspots, and protected areas in global coastal zones. The coastal zone is defined as land within 100 km of the coastline. This study attempts to answer such questions as: how crowded are the coastal zones, what is the pattern of land cover distribution in these areas, how much of these areas are designated as protected areas, what is the state of the biodiversity hotspots, and what are the interconnections between people and coastal environment. This study uses globally consistent and comprehensive geospatial datasets based on remote sensing and other sources. The application of Geographic Information System (GIS) layering methods and consistent datasets has made it possible to identify and quantify selected coastal zones environmental issues and their interconnections. It is expected that such information provide a scientific basis for global coastal zones management and assist in policy formulations at the national and international levels.     

The conservation status and trends of raptors and owls in Europe

To conserve biodiversity efficiently, an international framework is needed to ensure that national priorities take into account regional and global priorities. BirdLife International has published five comprehensive assessments of the global status of the world's birds and two evaluations of the status of Europe's birds at a continental level. This paper analyzes the results of these assessments in relation to Europe's 56 species of raptors and owls, 18% of which are of global conservation concern, and 64% of which have an unfavorable conservation status in Europe. The European Union (EU) holds half of the total estimated European breeding population of raptors and owls, and European Russia supports another third, but every European country has a responsibility for at least two species of European conservation concern. During the 1990s, more raptors increased than decreased in most EU member states, but the opposite was true in eastern Europe, where many of the most threatened species are concentrated. Given the popularity of these species with the public, and the political commitment to halt the loss of biodiversity by 2010, much more action is needed to monitor and conserve birds of prey.     

Social Network Analysis of Multi-level Linkages: A Swedish Case Study on Northern Forest-Based Sectors

Forest use in Northern Sweden is being influenced both by global trends and local situations. This results in interactions between numerous groups that may impact local forest governance. Social network analysis can here provide insight into the total pattern of positive, negative, and cross-level interactions within user group community structure (within and among groups). This study analyses interactions within selected renewable resource sectors in two northern Swedish municipalities, both with regard to whether they are positive, neutral, or negative, as well as with regard to how local actors relate to actors across levels, e.g., with regional, national, and international actors. The study illustrates that many interactions both within and outside a given sector are seen as neutral or positive, and that considerable interaction and impact are defined as national and in some cases even international. It also indicates that the impact of Sweden’s only existing Model Forest may to some extent constitute a bridge between different sectors and levels, in comparison with the interactions between sectors in a municipality where such a cooperation mechanism does not exist.     

The sustainable management and protection of forests: analysis of the current position globally

The loss of forest area globally due to change of land use, the importance of forests in the conservation of biodiversity and in carbon and other biogeochemical cycles, together with the threat to forests from pollution and from the impacts of climate change, place forestry policy and practice at the center of global environmental and sustainability strategy. Forests provide important economic, environmental, social, and cultural benefits, so that in forestry, as in other areas of environmental policy and management, there are tensions between economic development and environmental protection. In this article we review the current information on global forest cover and condition, examine the international processes that relate to forest protection and to sustainable forest management, and look at the main forest certification schemes. We consider the link between the international processes and certification schemes and also their combined effectiveness. We conclude that in some regions of the world neither mechanism is achieving forest protection, while in others local or regional implementation is occurring and is having a significant impact. Choice of certification scheme and implementation of management standards are often influenced by a consideration of the associated costs, and there are some major issues over the monitoring of agreed actions and of the criteria and indicators of sustainability. There are currently a number of initiatives seeking to improve the operation of the international forestry framework (e.g., The Montreal Process, the Ministerial Convention of the Protection of Forests in Europe and European Union actions in Europe, the African Timber Organisation and International Tropical Timber Organisation initiative for African tropical forest, and the development of a worldwide voluntary agreement on forestry in the United Nations Forum on Forests). We suggest that there is a need to improve the connections between scientific understanding, policy development, and forestry practice, and also the cooperation between the various international initiatives and processes, so that the international framework is more effective and its influence is extended geographically.     

Managing Fleet Capacity Effectively Under Second-Hand Market Redistribution

Fishing capacity management policies have been traditionally implemented at national level with national targets for capacity reduction. More recently, capacity management policies have increasingly targeted specific fisheries. French fisheries spatially vary along the French coastline and are associated to specific regions. Capacity management policies, however, ignore the capital mobility associated with second-hand vessel trade between regions. This is not an issue for national policies but could limit the effectiveness of regional capacity management policies. A gravity model and a random-effect Poisson regression model are used to analyze the determinants and spatial extent of the second-hand market in France. This study is based on panel data from the French Atlantic Ocean between 1992 and 2009. The trade flows between trading partners is found to increase with their sizes and to be spatially concentrated. Despite the low trade flows between regions, a net impact analysis shows that fishing capacity is redistributed by the second-hand market to regions on the Channel and Aquitaine from central regions. National capacity management policies (constructions/destructions) have induced a net decrease in regional fleet capacity with varying magnitude across regions. Unless there is a change of policy instruments or their scale of implementation, the operation of the second-hand market decreases the effectiveness of regional capacity management policies in regions on the Channel and Aquitaine.     

Marine spatial planning: Coordinating divergent marine interests

Globally, ecosystem-based marine spatial planning has become a useful instrument to coordinate the planning of different authorities. This, for balancing different requirements when managing marine areas and space. In the planning process, ecology is setting limits to which human activities are acceptable to the society. The use of the marine environment can be planned similarly as the land environment. We argue that there are several aspects which must be taken into consideration. Marine activities have traditionally been planned and managed in a sectoral way. Today, it has become obvious that a more holistic, multi-sectoral and coordinated approach is needed in future successful marine planning and management. The increased awareness of the importance of the oceans and seas challenges the traditional sector division and geographical limits in marine policy and calls for better coordinated and coherent marine policies.     

Natural background visibility and regional haze goals in the Southeastern United States

The goal of the regional haze mitigation program in the United States is to attain "natural conditions" in national parks and wilderness areas by 2064. Results of research investigations on background concentrations of sea salt and biogenic organic matter, of episodic Saharan and Asian dust, and of carbon from natural fires were reviewed to provide a basis for making site-specific estimates of what the concentrations of atmospheric fine particulate matter components might be under natural conditions in the Southeastern United States. Based on this review, rough estimates were made of potential contributions of these aerosol components to natural background visibility. Natural organic particles were the dominant influence on the rate of visibility improvement required to reach natural conditions at an inland, mountainous location, and organic particles and sea salt were the dominant influences on the rate at a coastal location. African dust also had a large episodic effect, but the current regulatory approach is not designed to address episodic background variations. Insufficient data exist to quantify the contributions of wildfires with any detail, although global air pollution modeling provides insight, and their emissions can be locally dominant. Conservative regional refinements to the default natural background estimates do not greatly alter the region-wide rates of reduction of ambient particulate matter concentrations that will be needed to accomplish the first phase of the regional haze program. However, refinements at specific Class I areas may have considerable influence on defining the nature (magnitude and spatial and temporal distribution) of local emission reduction efforts there.     

Climate policy in India: what shapes international, national and state policy?

At the international level, India is emerging as a key actor in climate negotiations, while at the national and sub-national levels, the climate policy landscape is becoming more active and more ambitious. It is essential to unravel this complex landscape if we are to understand why policy looks the way it does, and the extent to which India might contribute to a future international framework for tackling climate change as well as how international parties might cooperate with and support India's domestic efforts. Drawing on both primary and secondary data, this paper analyzes the material and ideational drivers that are most strongly influencing policy choices at different levels, from international negotiations down to individual states. We argue that at each level of decision making in India, climate policy is embedded in wider policy concerns. In the international realm, it is being woven into broader foreign policy strategy, while domestically, it is being shaped to serve national and sub-national development interests. While our analysis highlights some common drivers at all levels, it also finds that their influences over policy are not uniform across the different arenas, and in some cases, they work in different ways at different levels of policy. We also indicate what this may mean for the likely acceptability within India of various climate policies being pushed at the international level.     

The Sea Around Us Project: documenting and communicating global fisheries impacts on marine ecosystems

The Sea Around Us Project, initiated by the Pew Charitable Trusts in Philadelphia, PA, and located at the Fisheries Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, started in mid 1999. Its goal was (and still is) to investigate the impact of fisheries on marine ecosystems and to propose policies to mitigate these impacts. Although conceived as a global activity, the project first emphasized the data-rich North Atlantic as a test bed for developing its approaches, which rely on mapping of catch data and indicators of ecosystem health derived from the analysis of long catch time series data. Initial achievements included mapping the decline, throughout the North Atlantic basin, of high-trophic level fishes from 1900 to the present and the presentation of compelling evidence of change in the functioning of the North Atlantic ecosystems, summarized in a 2003 book. The Central and South Atlantic were the next basins to be tackled, with emphasis on the distant-water fleet off West Africa, culminating in a major conference in Dakar, Senegal, in 2002. The project then emphasized the North Pacific, Antarctica, and marine mammals and the multiplicity of tropical Indo-Pacific fisheries before it turned completely global, with all our major analyses and reports (e.g., on the interactions between marine mammals and fisheries, on fuel consumption by fleets, on the catches of small-scale fisheries, on subsidies to fisheries) being based on global studies. Broadly, the work of the project is aimed at a reappraisal of fisheries, from the benign activity that many interested people still perceive them to be, to a realization that they have become the driver for massive loss of biodiversity in the ocean. Moreover, the emphasis on global estimates (rather than local estimates of dubious generality) has allowed the project to contribute to various global initiatives (e.g., developing the Marine Trophic Index for the Convention on Biological Diversity, quantifying marine ecosystem services for the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment), that is, activities that we expect to increase and for which we invite collaboration from academia and environmental nongovernmental organizations.     

Globalization and multi-spatial trends in the coverage of protected-area conservation (1980-2000)

This study is focused on the global expansion of protected-area coverage that occurred during the 1980--2000 period. We examine the multi-scale patterning of four of the basic facets of this expansion: i) estimated increases at the world-regional and country-level scales of total protected-area coverage; ii) transboundary protected areas; iii) conservation corridor projects; and iv) type of conservation management. Geospatial patterning of protected-area designations is a reflection of the priorities of global conservation organizations and the globalization of post-Cold War political and economic arrangements. Local and national-level factors (political leadership and infrastructure) as well as international relations such as multilateral and bilateral aid combine with these globalization processes to impact the extent, type, and location of protected-area designations. We conclude that the interaction of these factors led to the creation and reinforcement of marked spatial differences (rather than tendencies toward worldwide evenness or homogenization) in the course of protected-area expansion during the 1980--2000 period.     

Estimating historical anthropogenic global sulfur emission patterns for the period 1850–1990

It is important to establish a reliable regional emission inventory of sulfur as a function of time when assessing the possible effects of global change and acid rain. This study developed a database of annual estimates of national sulfur emissions from 1850 to 1990. A common methodology was applied across all years and countries allowing for global totals to be produced by adding estimates from all countries. The consistent approach facilitates the modification of the database and the observation of changes at national, regional, or global levels. The emission estimates were based on net production (i.e., production plus imports minus exports), sulfur content, and sulfur retention for each country's production activities. Because the emission estimates were based on the above considerations, our database offers an opportunity to independently compare our results with those estimates based on individual country estimates. Fine temporal resolution clearly shows emission changes associated with specific historical events (e.g., wars, depressions, etc.) on a regional, national, or global basis. The spatial pattern of emissions shows that the US, the USSR, and China were the main sulfur emitters (i.e., approximately 50% of the total) in the world in 1990. The USSR and the US appear to have stabilized their sulfur emissions over the past 20 yr, and the recent increases in global sulfur emissions are linked to the rapid increases in emissions from China. Sulfur emissions have been reduced in some cases by switching from high- to low-sulfur coals. Flue gas desulfurization (FGD) has apparently made important contributions to emission reductions in only a few countries, such as Germany.     

Riverine fluxes of the persistent organochlorine pesticides hexachlorcyclohexane and DDT in the Russian Federation

The contribution of gross riverine organochlorine pesticide (OCP) transport to estuaries of Russian seas and Lake Baikal was determined to help understand OCP transboundary transfer and to provide a basis for estimating Russia's contribution to global pollution by these pesticides. The official OGSNK/GSN data ranks sea/ocean/lake basins in the following order based upon the amounts of total OCPs received from agricultural use: Eastern Arctic>Western Arctic>Pacific>Baltic>Caspian>Azov/Black>Baikal. A similar ranking was obtained using an independent set of data: Eastern Arctic>Pacific>Caspian>Western Arctic>Baltic>Azov/Black. In terms of riverine flow-associated discharge of HCH isomers (i.e., sum of alpha-, beta- and gamma-HCH) estuaries of the Kara, Okhotsk and Beloye (White)/Barents seas received more pesticides than other seas. No HCH was discharged to estuaries of the Eastern Siberian and Bering seas. For DDT and its derivative (DDE), estuaries of the Kara, Caspian, Okhotsk and Baltic seas received the greatest amounts. During our study period (1988-1996), HCH transport was more prevalent in the majority of rivers reflecting both the official ban on the use of DDT in the former Soviet Union and the greater popularity of HCH as a pesticide. In general, it appears that Russian rivers play a significant role in OCP contamination of some estuaries of regional seas, especially those of the eastern Arctic basin, such as the Kara Sea.