Major
intergovernmental agreements and actors
Convention
for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East
Atlantic, OSPAR
The
OSPAR Convention of 1992 replaces the 1972 Oslo Convention
and the 1974 Paris Convention, but Decisions, Recommendations
and all other agreements adopted under those Conventions will
continue to be applicable, unaltered in their legal nature, unless
they are terminated by new measures adopted under the new Convention.
Executive body of the new 1992 OSPAR Convention is the OSPAR
Commission. See OSPAR information on Ministerial meetings,
Contracting Parties, Rules of Procedure, Strategies & Action
Plan (see below), Meetings and Documents, Publications, the Quality
Status Report (see below), etc. At
the 1998 Ministerial Meeting of the OSPAR Commission the Ministers
adopted the Sintra
Statement setting out the political impetus for future action
by the OSPAR Commission with a view to ensuring the protection
of the marine environment of the North-East Atlantic.
North-East
Atlantic Fisheries Convention
The Convention was adopted in 1959 and entered into force in 1963.
The objective of the Convention is to ensure the conservation
of the fish stocks and the rational exploitation of the fisheries
of the North-East Atlantic Ocean and adjacent waters. The
origins of the North East Atlantic
Fisheries Commission (NEAFC) lie in the former Permanent Commission,
founded in 1953 and formed under the 1946 Convention for the Regulation
of Meshes of Fishing Nets and the Size Limits of Fish. In the
early 1960s it was considered that the Commission needed a wider
range of powers to regulate for the effects of the technological
advances in fishing methods. In 1963 the North East Atlantic Fisheries
Commission (NEAFC) was formed under the North East Atlantic Fisheries
Convention to succeed the Permanent Commission. In addition to
the powers of the Permanent Commission, NEAFC could also establish
closed fishing areas and seasons, and regulate catch and fishing
effort.
Convention
for the Conservation of Salmon in the North Atlantic Ocean
The objective of the Convention, adopted in 1982 and in force
in 1983, is to prohibit fishing of salmon beyond areas of fisheries
jurisdiction of coastal state, and also to prohibit fishing of
salmon beyond 12 nautical miles from the baseline from which the
breadth of the territorial sea is measured except within the area
of fisheries jurisdiction of the Faroe Islands and in the West
Greenland area. See also NASCO Council Resolutions.
The
Convention establishes the North
Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization, NASCO. The objective
of NASCO is to contribute through consultation and cooperation
to the conservation, restoration, enhancement and rational management
of salmon stocks subject to the Convention taking into account
the best scientific evidence available to it. Regional commissions
of NASCO are the North
American Commission, the North-East
Atlantic Commission, and the West
Greenland Commission.
International
Convention for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas
The Convention (see also pdf
file) was adopted in 1966 and entered into force in 1969.
The purpose of the Convention is the conservation of the resources
of tuna and tuna-like fishes of the Atlantic Ocean. The International
Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT)
was established in 1969, under the Convention, as an inter-governmental
fishery organization responsible for the conservation of tunas
and tuna-like species in the Atlantic Ocean and its adjacent seas.
ICCAT
is the only fisheries organization that can undertake the range
of work required for the study and management of tunas and tuna-like
fishes in the Atlantic. The Commission's work requires the collection
and analysis of statistical information relative to current conditions
and trends of the fishery resources in the Convention area.
International
Council for the Exploration of the Sea, ICES
ICES
is the oldest intergovernmental organisation in the world concerned
with marine and fisheries science. Since its establishment in
Copenhagen in 1902, ICES has been a leading scientific forum for
the exchange of information and ideas on the sea and its living
resources, and for the promotion and coordination of marine research
by scientists within its member countries. Since the 1970s, a
major area of ICES work as an intergovernmental marine science
organization is to provide information and advice to Member Country
governments and international regulatory commissions (including
OSPAR and the European Commission)
for the protection of the marine environment and for fisheries
conservation.
UN
Economic Commission for Europe, ECE
The Environment and Human Settlements Division is part of the
secretariat of the UN ECE. It brings together economists, scientists,
urban planners and other experts, and organizes the regular intergovernmental
meetings of the Committee on Environmental Policy, the Executive
Body for the Convention
on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution, the Meeting of
the Parties to the Convention
on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International
Lakes and the Committee on Human Settlements. At these meetings,
government representatives from Europe, North America, Central
Asia and Israel address environmental and human settlements issues,
such as environmental impact assessment, air and water pollution,
urban renewal or land registration.
