Background Briefing on OSPAR

23 June 2000

What is the OSPAR Convention and Commission?

The OSPAR Maritime Area stretches from Arctic waters to Gibraltar, including the North Sea. It covers Norwegian and UK waters, Celtic Seas, the Biscay and Atlantic waters off the Iberian peninsula, as well as large parts of the deep Atlantic Basin and mid Atlantic Ridge, from Iceland in the north to the Azores archipelago in the south.

The OSPAR Convention is the legal framework that protects the marine environment of the North-East Atlantic. There are 16 Contracting Parties whose territories and economic zones are linked to the OSPAR Maritime Area and/or contain part of the riverine catchment: Belgium, Denmark, the EU, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

Signed by Environment Ministers in Paris in 1992, the new OSPAR Convention entered into force in March 1998 and replaced the Oslo and Paris Conventions for the Prevention of Marine Pollution. These had been established in the 70ies to tackle inputs of pollutants via dumping from ships, direct discharges from e.g. offshore installations and discharges and emissions from land-based sources entering the sea via rivers and the atmosphere.

The text of the new OSPAR Convention and its four Annexes incorporates a number of important decisions and principles already adopted since the 70’s, such as the prohibition of dumping of industrial waste and the phase out of dumping of sewage sludge, as well as the precautionary principle and the obligation to prevent and eliminate marine pollution. The new Convention goes however beyond the remit of the preceding frameworks by e.g. addressing "necessary measures to protect the maritime area against the adverse effects of human activities so as to safeguard human health and to conserve marine ecosystems and, when practicable, restore marine areas which have been adversely affected."

The OSPAR Commission (Secretariat based in London) is the Executive Body to pursue tasks and obligations arising from the OSPAR Convention. Every year, Senior Officials from OSPAR Governments gather for the Commission Meeting to discuss and adopt proposals prepared by the subsidiary Committees and Working Groups. On an annual basis, OSPAR adopts and reviews legally binding decisions, recommendations and other agreements as well as reports on implementation of such agreements, action plans and work programmes. In this context, it also falls to the OSPAR Commission to define standards on Best Available Technology and Best Environmental Practice or to restrict and phase out the use of harmful chemicals in order to prevent and eliminate marine pollution from industry, agriculture, aquaculture, households and consumer products.


What was the outcome of OSPAR’s Sintra Ministerial Meeting, Portugal, 1998?

The first Ministerial Meeting held under the new OSPAR Convention (Sintra, Portugal, 22-23 July 1998) turned out to be a political milestone in many respects, as OSPAR Governments

- signed a new Annex (Annex 5) to the 1992 OSPAR Convention concerning the protection and conservation of the ecosystems and biological diversity of the maritime area;

- adopted long term strategies with regard to: hazardous substances; radioactive substances; eutrophication; conservation of the ecosystems and biological diversity of the maritime area, (supplemented by a strategy with regard to offshore activities in 1999); and

- adopted OSPAR Decision 98/3 on the disposal of disused offshore installations that prohibits the dumping of all steel installations and gives priority to the recycling and disposal on land in general;

The Ministerial Sintra Statement refers to key principles, objectives and targets incorporated in these documents, such as to

Hazardous Substances
* Prevent pollution of the maritime area by continuously reducing discharges, emissions and losses of hazardous substances (that is, substances which are toxic, persistent and liable to bioaccumulate or which give rise to an equivalent level of concern), with the ultimate aim of achieving concentrations in the environment near background values for naturally occurring substances and close to zero for man-made synthetic substances;
* Make every endeavour to move towards the target of cessation of discharges, emissions and losses of hazardous substances by the year 2020;

Nutrients and Eutrophication
* To eliminate eutrophication where it occurs in the maritime area from anthropogenic inputs and to prevent future occurrences.

Radioactive Substances
* Prevent pollution of the maritime area from ionising radiation through progressive and substantial reductions of discharges, emissions and losses of radioactive substances, with the ultimate aim of concentrations in the environment near background values for naturally occurring radioactive substances and close to zero for artificial radioactive substances.
* Ensure that discharges, emissions and losses of radioactive substances are reduced by the year 2020 to levels where the additional concentrations in the marine environment above historic levels, resulting from such discharges, emissions and losses, are close to zero.

Ecosystems and Biodiversity
* Assess a candidate list of human activities which may produce adverse impacts on the marine environment and its species, habitats and ecological processes other than through causing pollution.
* Identify those marine species, habitats or ecosystems that need to be protected, conserved or restored;
* Promote the establishment of a network of marine protected areas to ensure the sustainable use and protection and conservation of marine biological diversity and its ecosystems.

For more information, search the OSPAR Commission's website at http://www.ospar.org