The Stockholm Environmental Law and Policy Centre (SELPC) and Baltic Ecosystem Adaptive Management (BEAM) hosted a transdisciplinary conference looking at how countries around the Baltic Sea can move towards an ecosystem-based approach for managing fisheries and eutrophication and how this is to be implemented in the binding laws and regulations.
The conference, Towards an ecosystem-based legal framework for the Baltic Sea, which was jointly organise by SELPC and BEAN was held at Stockholm University on October 7th 2014. It gathered lawyers, scientists, representative from authorities and interest organisations to discuss and highlight aspects of ecosystem approaches and the law of the Baltic Sea.
The day was divided into three thematic sessions: i) law and ecology, ii) ecosystem-based laws on fisheries and eutrophication and iii) the laws of the Baltic Sea. With a concluding panel with special participation by the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management and the Swedish Ministry for the Environment.
Several of the speakers concluded that both EU, international and national laws are closely connected to the status of the Baltic Sea environment and that there is a common view that the Baltic Sea should be managed in an ecosystem-based manner. And that there has been a steam of ecosystem knowledge transferred into policies and strategies but that we now have come to a point where the adaptive approach needs to be implemented into a functioning regulatory framework.
Intergovernmental cooperation
Ida Reuterswärd from the Swedish Ministry of Environment shared some of her experience from intergovernmental cooperation from her work within HELCOM and on the EU-level. Giving an example from her work on eutrophication within HELCOM, and how “soft” law (HELCOM BSAP 2007) often is needed before the “hard” law (MSFD 2008) is/can be established. And believes that the focus of the ecosystem-based legal work should be on the Malawi principle 5 which states “A key feature of the ecosystem approach includes conservation of ecosystem structure and functioning”.
Ecosystem based law on fisheries
The connection of fishing and other effects connected to fisheries and how these are reflected in EU law is the key question for the research carried out by Garbiek Michanek and Anna Christensen from the Faculty of Law at the Uppsala University. They have found that there are few strict legal requirements other than the multiannual plans within the new CFP. When looking at how the CFP and Marine Strategy framework Directive (MSFD) complement each other under an ecosystem-based approach, they have found that there are no legal requirements within the CFP which takes into account standards or targets of the programmes of measures under the MSFD. They concluded that neither the MSFD nor the Water Framework Directive (WFD) ensures an adaptive ecosystem approach and the CFP does not require neither the MSFD nor WFD plans to be complied with or even considered.
You can watched all session online here.