Agreement reached on marine protected areas and deficit analysis of deep-sea oil drilling
Today in Bergen (Norway) the Contracting Parties to the Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic (OSPAR) designated the first ever network of marine protected areas in the high seas beyond national jurisdiction. Furthermore, as a first, provisional consequence of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in April this year, they agreed on a timetable for a comprehensive deficit analysis of the disaster.
With today's decisions, the area covered by marine protected areas in the North-East Atlantic has been expanded to 433,000 square kilometres, which is equal in size to the Baltic Sea. Now a total of around 3 percent of the North-East Atlantic is under protection. Two of the six areas designated today lie beyond national jurisdiction in the high seas. OSPAR has thus carried out pioneering work in the International Year of Biodiversity. This decision is an important contribution to compliance with the goal agreed by the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) of establishing a representative network of effectively managed protected areas by 2012.
With the decision regarding a recommendation on "the prevention of significant acute oil pollution from offshore drilling activities" the OSPAR states agreed to carry out analyses of their relevant national regulations. Additionally, external reports such as the report for the US President and the review by the European Commission will be subject to comprehensive evaluation. At the next scheduled meeting of the OSPAR Commission in June 2011 there are plans to decide on possible improvement measures, depending on the outcome of the evaluations. The draft OSPAR recommendation submitted by Germany, which included the option of imposing a moratorium on new oil drilling after carrying out an appropriate deficit analysis, was not accepted due to opposition, particularly from the states affected. However, the proposal did launch a process that will give OSPAR cause to continue addressing this issue and that permits further measures.