deep sea mining marine conservation perspectives · iucn in a nutshell • > 1,000 organizations...

IUCN Oceania Regional Office

Deep Sea Mining -

Marine Conservation Perspectives

Jan H. Steffen IUCN Oceania

ISA - International Workshop on Environmental Management Needs

for Exploration and Exploitation of Deep Seabed Minerals Fiji, 29.11.-02.12.2011


IUCN in a Nutshell

•  > 1,000 organizations

–  81 States

–  110 government agencies

–  > 800 NGOs

•  10,000 individual scientists and experts in 6 Commissions

•  Secretariat with 1,100 staff in more than 60 countries


The Deep Sea

•  Oceans cover 71% of the Earth’s surface

•  50% of the surface of the Earth covered

by ocean more than 3,000 meters deep •  One of the largest reservoirs of

biodiversity on the planet •  One of the least studied ecosystems

–  Only 0.0001% of the deep seafloor has been subject to biological investigations

–  About 50% of animals collected from areas deeper than 3,000m are new species

–  Gold corals (Gerardia spp.) found on seamounts live for up to 1,800 years


Marine Biodiversity Marine Phyla Marine & Non - Marine Phyla Non - Marine Phyla Placozoa Porifera * Onychophora Ctenophora Cnidaria * Mesozoa Platyhelminthes Gnathostomulida Nemertina * Kinorhyncha Gastrotricha Loricifera Rotifera Phoronida Acanthocephala Brachiopoda Entoprocta * Priapulida Nematoda Sipunculida Nematomorpha Echiurida Ectoprocta * Pogonophorida Mollusca Echinodermata Annelida Chaethognatha Tardigrada Hemichordata Pentastomida

Arthropoda Chordata

15 17 1


Direct Mining Impacts On Deep Sea Biodiversity

Dredging for nodules –  Disturbance of large seabed areas

–  Dispersal of sediment clouds

Polymetallic sulphide mining –  Destruction of active and inactive

hydrothermal vents and their associated communities

Extraction of cobalt rich crusts –  Destruction of benthic seamount

communities and dependent fauna

Sediment accumulation rates in the abyssal zones are low, approximately 0.5mm per thousand years

High rate of endemism on hydrothermal vents

–  ~ 500 species described, 90% are endemic

–  Biomass around vents can be 500–1,000 times higher than in surrounding deep sea areas

High rate of endemism on seamounts –  30% - 50%

–  200 of 100,000 seamounts sampled

–  Rocky substrates are rare habitats, occupying 4% of the sea floor


CBD on EIAs and SEAs in Marine and Coastal Areas

•  Decision X/29 –  facilitate the development of voluntary guidelines for the

consideration of biodiversity in environmental impact assessments (EIAs) and strategic environmental assessments (SEAs) in marine and coastal areas

–  using the guidance in annexes II, III and IV to the Manila workshop report (UNEP/CBD/SBSTTA/14/INF/5)

–  provide for technical peer review of those guidelines

•  Draft voluntary guidelines, after incorporating the comments and suggestions through technical peer review, will be submitted for consideration to the 16th meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA), scheduled for April 2012.


Wider EIA Concerns

•  Public participation relevant in all stages of EIA •  Legal requirements for and the level of participation differ

among countries and regions •  Generally accepted that public consultation at the scoping and

review stage is essential •  Participation during the assessment study generally

acknowledged to enhance the quality of the process

•  Information •  Participation •  Transparency of decision-making


Civil Society Concerns

•  Uncertainty about risks –  Environmental, social, cultural, health, economic

impacts

•  Potential environmental impacts expected at various steps in the mining process

•  Lack of trust in EIAs •  Uncertain benefits •  Perceived lack of voice and power by local

communities and civil society representatives

•  Importance of transparency and consistent efforts on stakeholder engagement allowing for informed prior consent


Level of Public Involvement

•  Informing - one-way flow of information •  Consulting - two-way flow of information •  “Real” participation - shared analysis

and assessment


Potential Constraints on Effective Public Participation

•  Deficient identification of relevant stakeholders •  Poverty

–  Involvement requires time spent away from income-producing tasks

•  Illiteracy –  or lack of written command of non-local languages, can inhibit representative involvement if print media are

used

•  Local values/culture –  behavioural norms or cultural practices can inhibit involvement by some groups, who may not feel free to

disagree publicly with dominant groups

•  Languages –  in some areas a number of different languages or dialects may be spoken, making communication difficult

•  Legal systems –  may be in conflict with traditional systems, and cause confusion about rights to and responsibilities for

resources

•  Interest groups –  conflicting or divergent views, vested interests

•  Confidentiality –  can be important for the proponent, who may be against early involvement and consideration of alternatives


IUCN –Facilitated Processes

Model Conserva-on Outcome Time

The Western Grey Whales Advisory Programme (WGWAP)

Site specific/ Species specific

5 years

IUCN Holcim Panel Company Policy 4 years

Mauritania Panel Site specific 2 years

LNG Yemen Panel Site specific 3 years

ICMM Dialogue’s Round Table on Indigenous People

Sector Policy 4-‐6 months

Nespresso Alucycle Forum Sector policy 6 months

The Forests Dialogue Global Policy 6-‐24 months


IUCN & Environmental Law

•  CEL

•  ORO Environmental Law Programme

•  Collaboration with national Env. Law Associations

•  FELA


Voluntary Action on Mining

•  IUCN-ICMM Dialogue since 2004 •  Priority Areas - 11.2010 Meeting

Gland –  Increase understanding of ecosystem

services in the context of mining –  Focus on regional landscape scenarios

and better planning and adaptive management tools

•  World Heritage Sites and Extractive Industries


Impact Monitoring

Voluntary code of conduct

•  Control sites

•  Observer regimes

•  Involvement of independent scientists

•  Provision of access to equipment/infrastructure

•  International Marine Minerals Society - Code for Environmental Management of Marine Mining Nautilus Minerals Inc.


Scale of Diversity

Within patch 1 m - 100m

Among patches within site 10 m - 10 km

Between sites 1 km - 100 km

Bioregion 500 km - 2,500 km

Biogeographic Province 500 km – 5,000 km

Depth zone 100 m / 500 – 1,000 m


ISA - Dinard Guidelines for Chemosynthetic Ecosystem Reserves

•  Call for network of CERs –  managed with various levels of

protection –  achieving conservation while enabling

rational use •  Suggestions on

–  spatial design of CERs –  Management of CERs

•  Conservation Goal –  protect natural diversity, ecosystem

structure, function and resilience of seep and vent communities


Conservation objectives

•  Biodiversity –  Ensure long-term maintenance of vent and seep ecosystems (noting those of particular scientific interest and value), including

their habitat heterogeneity and biodiversity, particularly their genetic diversity, which allows for evolutionary novelty and adaptation to extreme environments .

•  Connectivity –  Ensure ecological connectivity within and between vent and seep communities and external functional linkages across

ecosystems (for example, pelagic, non- chemosynthetic seafloor communities) .

•  Replication –  Conserve multiple vent and seep ecosystems within management units to address uncertainty, natural variation, catastrophic

events, limited scientific understanding and adaptive management .

•  Adequacy / Viability –  Ensure protected sites are of sufficient size and spacing through network design to allow for sustained ecosystems, including

regional levels of biodiversity and ecosystem function, while accounting for management practicalities .

•  Representativity –  Ensure that multiple sites include examples of species, habitats and ecological processes that occur in a bioregion to account for

uncertainty, natural variation and the possibility of catastrophic events .

•  Sustainable Use –  Incorporate measures that allow for well-managed human uses, such as energy and other resource extraction, fishing, education,

research and bioprospectingwithin and outside of vent and seep managed areas, when consistent with conservation goals –  Provide scientific reference (control) sites with long-term monitoring to help differentiate the effects of direct human activities from

natural variability and other indirect stressors (for example, ocean acidification and climate change, etc .) . –  Maintain the potential of vent and seep ecosystems to provide future services (for example, industrial, medical and other benefits),

as well as the evolutionary potential for biota to cope with change .


Guidance on Approaches


CBD Guidance on MPAs

CBD-COP 8, Curitiba 2006   Encourage the establishment of MPAs beyond

national jurisdiction

  Devise new mechanisms/instruments to achieve effective and enforceable MPAs and networks

CBD-COP 9, Bonn 2008   Adoption of CBD criteria for identifying ecologically

or biologically significant areas (EBSA) in need of protection

  Adoption of scientific guidance for designing representative networks of MPAs


GOBI

A global partnership

•  To establish and support international scientific collaboration to assist States and relevant regional and global organisations to identify EBSAs using the best available scientific data, tools, and methods

•  To provide guidance on how the CBD’s scientific criteria can be interpreted and applied towards management, including representative networks of marine protected areas

•  To assist in developing regional analyses with relevant organisations and stakeholders www.gobi.org


EBSA Criteria

•  Uniqueness or rarity

•  Special importance for life history of species

•  Importance for threatened, endangered or declining species and/or habitats

•  Vulnerability, fragility, sensitivity, slow recovery

•  Biological productivity

•  Biological diversity

•  Naturalness


GOODS

•  Biogeographic classification

•  Assist governments in further identifying ways to safeguard marine biodiversity in marine areas beyond national jurisdiction and in support of ocean management measures, including MPAs

•  Planning tool to assimilate multiple layers of information and extrapolation of existing data into large “bioregions” or provinces

–  assemblages of flora, fauna and the supporting environmental factors contained within distinct but dynamic spatial boundaries


SW Pacific CBD EBSA WS 11.2011


Marine Spatial Planning – Status & Needs

Geological resource mapping vs biological resource mapping

–  Applications/granting of exploration licenses in Fiji, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Palau, Federated States of Micronesia, Cook Islands, Kiribati

–  Biological data, as well as related policy, legislation, regulations required on regional and national level

–  Need for regional marine biodiversity (meta-) data repository

–  Insufficient funding & technical / human capacity for biological data collection

–  Integration of environmental assessment costs in license fees and fiscal frameworks


Progress Towards MPA Targets

•  5096 Designated MPAs worldwide (WDPA), 377 proposed •  Pacific Region: 2576 MPAs •  0.8 % of oceans protected, 0.5 % in high seas (12.8 % terrestrial) •  Most MPAs are under-resourced, offering little in the way of real protection

2012 WSSD/CBD goals

•  An effectively managed, representative, global system of marine protected areas (MPAs) covering 10% of all marine ecological regions, comprising both multiple use areas and strictly protected areas


How long will it take ?

CBD: 17% by 2020


Pacific MPA networks

•  Most PICs are currently in the process of establishing representative MPA networks

•  Many PICs do not have the data to inform this process fully

•  Bold decisions:

–  Phoenix Islands Protected Area

–  Cook Islands Marine Park


DSM - Environmental Priorities

•  Strategic environmental assessments of the likely impacts of deep-sea mining on the marine environment, including the potential cumulative effects in conjunction with other human activities

•  Ecosystem-based ocean management strategies, laws and regulations that: –  Collect adequate baseline information on the marine environment where mining

could potentially occur including the location of sensitive deep sea habitats/ecosystems

–  Establish a comprehensive network of well-managed protected areas to protect vulnerable marine ecosystems, ecologically or biologically significant areas, depleted, threatened or endangered species, and representative examples of deep-sea ecosystems

–  Adopt a precautionary approach that assumes that deep-sea mining will have adverse ecological impacts in the absence of compelling evidence to the contrary


Our Responsibility to Future Generations

“Humans changed the way the world works. Now they have to change the way they think about it, too … “

Vinaka


CBD - COP 8 Decision VIII/21

Curitiba, 20 - 31 March 2006 Marine and coastal biological diversity: Conservation and sustainable use of deep seabed genetic

resources beyond the limits of national jurisdiction The Conference of the Parties •  1. Notes that deep seabed ecosystems beyond the limits of national jurisdiction, including

hydrothermal vent, cold seep, seamount, coldwater coral and sponge reef ecosystems, contain genetic resources of great interest for their biodiversity value and for scientific research as well as for present and future sustainable development and commercial applications;

•  2. Recognizes that given the vulnerability and general lack of scientific knowledge of deep seabed biodiversity, there is an urgent need to enhance scientific research and cooperation and to provide for the conservation and sustainable use of these genetic resources in the context of the precautionary approach;

•  3. Concerned about the threats to genetic resources in the deep seabed beyond national jurisdiction, requests Parties and urges other States, having identified activities and processes under their jurisdiction and control which may have significant adverse impacts on deep seabed ecosystems and species in these areas, as requested in paragraph 56 of decision VII/5, to take measures to urgently manage such practices in vulnerable deep seabed ecosystems with a view to the conservation and sustainable use of resources, and report on measures taken as part of the national reporting process;



•  4. Also invites Parties, other Governments, research institutions and other relevant organizations to make available information on research activities related to deep seabed genetic resources beyond the limits of national jurisdiction and ensure that the results of such marine scientific research and analysis, when available, are effectively disseminated through international channels, as appropriate, in accordance with international law, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, and requests the Executive Secretary, in collaboration with relevant organizations, to compile and further disseminate such information through the clearing-house mechanism;

•  5. Expresses its awareness of a preliminary range of options which Parties and other States, individually or in cooperation, may utilize for the protection of deep seabed genetic resources beyond national jurisdiction, which may include: (i) the use of codes of conduct, guidelines and principles; and (ii) reduction and management of threats including through: permits and environmental impact assessments; establishment of marine protected areas; prohibition of detrimental and destructive practices in vulnerable areas; and emphasizes the need for further work in developing all of these options and other options, in particular within the framework of the United Nations;

•  6. Recognizes also that the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea regulates activities in the marine areas beyond national jurisdiction, and urges Parties and other States to cooperate within the relevant international and/or regional organizations in order to promote the conservation, management and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction, including deep seabed genetic resources;



•  7. Requests the Executive Secretary, in collaboration with the United Nations Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea, and other relevant international organizations, to further analyse and explore options for preventing and mitigating the impacts of some activities to selected seabed habitats and report the findings to future meetings of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice;

•  8. Notes the existence of the scientific information generated through other programmes of work including that on protected areas;

•  9. Emphasizes the urgent need, especially in developing countries, to build capacities relating to deep seabed biodiversity, including taxonomic capacity; to promote scientific and technical cooperation and technology transfer; and to exchange information regarding activities undertaken within the deep seabed beyond the limits of national jurisdiction.

deep sea mining marine conservation perspectives · iucn in a nutshell • > 1,000 organizations...

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