WORKSHOP examining establishment of mechanism for global assessment

of marine environment to convene at un headquarters, 7 - 11 JUNE

NEW YORK, 7 June (UN Office of Legal Affairs) -– An international workshop to deal with various aspects of reporting and assessment of the marine environment will be convened at Headquarters during  the week of 7-11 June in conjunction with the fifth meeting of the Open-ended Informal Consultative Process on Oceans and the Law of the Sea.  The workshop will review a document (A/AC.271/WP.1) examining the modalities for the establishment of a special mechanism focused on the global reporting and assessment of the state of the marine environment, including socio-economic prospects.  The document was prepared at the request of the General Assembly by a Group of Experts held in New York from 23 to 26 March.

The establishment of a regular marine environmental assessment is in response to a recommendation by the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) for States to improve scientific understanding and assessment of marine and coastal ecosystems as a fundamental basis for sound decision-making.  To achieve this goal, States at the WSSD decided to work towards the establishment by 2004 of a regular process under the United Nations for global reporting and assessment of the state of the marine environment, including socio-economic aspects.  That decision was subsequently endorsed by the General Assembly in resolutions 57/141 and 58/240.

In addition to the review and consideration of the report of the Group of Experts, the international workshop will also consider a document (A/AC.271/WP.2), containing comments on the Group of Experts’ report as received from States, intergovernmental organizations and non-governmental organizations.  The workshop will focus on the report of the Group of Experts with a view to presenting a final document that would be adopted at an intergovernmental meeting scheduled for Reykjavik, Iceland, later this year.  That meeting is mandated by General Assembly resolution 58/240 with adopting the document and formally establishing the monitoring and assessment process.

Background

The concept of establishing a regular marine environment assessment to provide accurate information to decision makers on the state of the marine environment was initiated in 1999 by national governments, under the leadership of Iceland, at the seventh session of the Commission on Sustainable Development.  Further Global Marine Assessment (GMA) initiatives included the technical workshops in Reykjavik (2001) and Bremen (2002).

This initiative was brought to the twenty-first session of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)’s Governing Council (February 2001, which, in

its decision GC 21/13 -- on “Global assessment of the state of the marine environment”, decided to explore the feasibility of establishing a regular process for assessing the state of the marine environment with active involvement by governments, and regional agreements, building on ongoing assessment programmes.  In this regard, two meetings were convened by UNEP.

The Reykjavik, Iceland (12–14 September 2001), meeting was the first stage in exploring the feasibility of an assessment process.

The meeting strongly agreed that a global assessment of the marine environment was both desirable and urgently needed.  The meeting recommended, among other things, that the GMA process should be aimed at policy makers.  It should be based on scientific assessment of the global marine environment and provide its target audience with advice, guidance and assistance on actions required to mitigate environmental impacts and changes.  It would be progressive and not static to allow for feedback and review.

The Bremen, Germany (18–20 March 2002), technical meeting was convened to further elaborate the key objectives and define the practical framework for developing a GMA process.  It considered possible models for establishing the process.

The meeting agreed that there was a prerequisite step in the GMA process which was to evaluate existing major assessments of the state of the marine environment and to identify the scope, status and timing of future assessment activities carried out under relevant national, regional and global organizations.  It was proposed that a review of the scope, status and timing of existing and forthcoming assessment and assessment-related activities be carried out under relevant national, regional and global organizations.  This review, which identified gaps in the coverage and means by which they could be addressed in the global assessment process, was done in 2002 by the UNEP/World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC), in collaboration with the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (IOC/UNESCO) and published in January 2003 (see below for details).

The major conclusion of both meetings was that the GMA process should be established on existing assessments activities in order to facilitate the provision of scientific and socio-economic information for policy makers.  The outcome of both these meetings constitutes an important body of information and guidelines on the issue of the establishment of a GMA process.

A “Global Marine Assessments:  a survey of global and regional marine environmental assessments and related scientific activities” was also conducted in 2002 by UNEP-WCMC with support from UNESCO/IOC and the Governments of Germany, Iceland and the United Kingdom.  It provided a factual basis to complement the recommendations of the Reykjavik and Bremen meetings with respect to feasibility, development and implementation of a GMA.

The study recognized that several organizations of the United Nations system, as well as a number of intergovernmental, international and national organizations (including non-governmental organizations) are actively involved in the assessment of the state of the marine environment.  The scope, focus, methodology periodicity and the level of government involvement in these assessments vary, depending on the intended use of the assessments.  Many of the assessments deal with the state of the marine environment only in the context of a more general assessment of the state of the environment, or focus only on a specific component of the marine environment.  The conclusions of the study show that existing assessments and related activities, in their present form are not able to achieve the expectations of the proposed GMA process.  One of the most difficult tasks facing the development of a GMA mechanism will be how it can successfully build upon and integrate the large number of existing assessments in the marine environment.

At the WSSD, held at Johannesburg in 2002, it was decided to pursue the establishment by 2004 of a regular process under the United Nations for global reporting and assessment of the state of the marine environment, including socio-economic aspects, both current and foreseeable.  As indicated above, this decision was later endorsed by the General Assembly.

Group of Experts

The Group of Experts was convened in March 2004 pursuant to General Assembly resolution 58/240 to examine in detail the various elements of the assessment mechanism or process, including the scope, general framework and outline of the regular marine assessment process.  It also considered administrative issues such as the composition of a secretariat and funding.  A report of the Secretary-General on modalities for a regular marine assessment process (A/58/243) had indicated those elements to be focused on.

In its report, the Group of Experts noted that the process of conducting a GMA should facilitate continuous access to information on the status and trends of marine ecosystems on diverse geographic scales.  It also noted that the marine assessments should inform policy makers, ocean users, the public, and the scientific community with reliable and objective information that would facilitate policies, individual choices and research in a sustainable manner.

The Group concluded that the marine assessment process should address all dimensions of marine ecosystems, including the physical and chemical environment, biota, and socioeconomic aspects.  The assessments would address the state of marine ecosystems, causes of change, benefits derived from marine ecosystems, and threats and risks.  The geographic scope of the assessments should span coastal and estuarine waters through ocean basins, taking account of terrestrial and atmospheric influences.

As to the topics to be addressed in the assessment process, the Group of Experts suggested that a list of issues or activities could include:

-- Intentional large-scale perturbations of the open ocean, such as deliberate fertilization and carbon sequestration;

-- Effects of habitat degradation in the marine environment on fisheries;

-- Assessment of deep-sea and open-ocean conditions (e.g., biodiversity, productivity) integrated across all oceans;

-- Increased atmospheric input of nitrogen to the oligotrophic open ocean;

-- Review of methodologies for the economic valuation of marine ecosystem services;

-- Implications of coastal degradation for human health and safety; and

-- Best practices for particular emerging uses of the ocean.

The Group also recommended the establishment of a Global Scientific Assessment Panel, consisting of a group of competent natural and social scientists with multidisciplinary expertise and experience in assessing the state of the marine environment, including scientists involved in regional GMA assessments.  The Panel would produce a general design for the global and regional assessments based, in part, on consultations with stakeholders.  It would also be responsible for synthesizing the results of the regional scientific reports, as well as other available information into a Global Scientific Assessment Report.

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