DEEP FACTS
OSPAR's MPA Network Toolkit
OSPAR is the mechanism by which fifteen governments of the western coasts and river catchment areas of Europe, together with the European Community, cooperate to protect the marine environment of the North-East Atlantic. Under its North-East Atlantic Environment Strategy (NEA Strategy) the work of the OSPAR Commission is guided by the ecosystem approach to an integrated management of human activities in the marine environment. One of the tools applied is the establishment of an ecologically coherent network of well-managed marine protected areas. As this is a country-led, knowledge-based approach, the process requires much political and scientific consultation.
The Role of OSPAR in the Management of the Charlie-Gibbs Marine Protected Area
The OSPAR Convention is the legal instrument that has guided the international cooperation to protect the marine environment of the North-East Atlantic since March 25th, 1998. Work under the Convention is managed by the OSPAR Commission.
OSPAR MPA Nomination: Case Study Charlie-Gibbs Marine Protected Area
For a new site to become part of the envisaged OSPAR network of marine protected areas (MPAs) it has to satisfy the criteria set out in the selection guidelines. Sites within national jurisdiction have to be formally nominated to the OSPAR Commission (OSPAR Commission, 2003a) by the respective Contracting Parties. Sites in areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ), can also be nominated by observer organisations with regional activities in the field, such as the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) or OCEANA.
Why Do We Need the Charlie-Gibbs Marine Protected Area?
The Charlie-Gibbs MPA is located in a highly complex section of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between Iceland and the Azores. It extends from the relatively shallow Reykjanes Ridge in the north (55° N) across the deepest of several deep-sea trenches (fracture zones) to include the deep and dispersed ridge section down to 49° N.
Working Towards Regional Marine Conservation in the North-East Atlantic
The coastal States of a region share a common ocean space. Together they need to manage human activities and limit human impact on the marine ecosystems in a precautionary way. As a consequence, conserving the marine environment requires a large amount of multi-lateral negotiation, diplomacy and consensus building.
Governing the North-East Atlantic – Who Does What?
An area as vast as the North-East Atlantic (OSPAR The North-East Atlantic) holds interest for many governments, industries, researchers and conservationists. To deal with all these interests many organisations have been formed and agreements been signed. They aim to govern the region, stretching from the North Pole to the Strait of Gibraltar and the Azores in the south, and from the tip of Greenland to the inland sources of rivers discharging into the sea.
Criteria for Conservation Areas
In 2003, OSPAR adopted criteria guiding the selection of areas for its ecologically coherent network of well-managed marine protected areas in the North-East Atlantic (OSPAR 2003-17). Since then, this work has been instrumental to the development of selection criteria for the selection of ecologically or biologically significant areas (EBSAs) as part of the global representative network of MPAs by the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD COP 9 Decision IX/20 Annex I, 2009), and of vulnerable marine ecosystems (VMEs) by the United Nations/ FAO (FAO 2009). Here is an overview of those criteria and a summary of how the Charlie-Gibbs area qualified for the process.
The Charlie-Gibbs Marine Protected Area – Why Was it Split in Two?
2010 was an important year for the protection of biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction (more background in Chapter V www.unep.org). Environmental Ministers of the OSPAR countries officially designated the Charlie-Gibbs South Marine Protected Area (OSPAR Commission, 2010), but not the northern part as already adopted "in principle" in 2008 (see Fig. 1).
Global Marine Conservation
Marine ecosystems face many threats–notably from overfishing, but also from pollution, shipping, climate change, invasive species and more. Human pressure on the oceans increases every year whilst efforts to limit the destructive impacts are totally out of proportion. Global marine conservation lags far behind terrestrial efforts. Marine protected areas, in particular when forming an ecologically coherent and representative network, are considered as one of the essential tools for ocean recovery.