ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΗ ΟΡΝΙΘΟΛΟΓΙΚΗ ΕΤΑΙΡΕΙΑ
HOS
Από την ίδρυση της έχει συνεχή και επιτυχημένη δραστηριότητα για την αποτελεσματική προστασία απειλούμενων ειδών και των βιοτόπων τους σε ολόκληρη την Ελλάδα.
ID: 662406837821-58
Lobbying Activity
Response to Action plan to conserve fisheries resources and protect marine ecosystems
11 May 2021
Seabirds are an important component of marine ecosystems foraging over large areas of sea and feeding on a variety of species within marine food chains. As umbrella species, actions to conserve seabirds have benefits for wider marine biodiversity. To restore and recover the oceans there is an urgent need to transition to low-impact fisheries by banning non-selective fishing gear and destructive fishing practices that harm biodiversity. Bycatch levels for sensitive species remain alarmingly high in Europe. It is estimated that more than 200,000 seabirds are killed each year as bycatch in EU waters, especially in gillnet and longline fisheries, involving at least 29 species listed in Annex I of the Birds Directive. Almost 10 years have passed since the publication in 2012 of the “Action Plan for reducing incidental catches of seabirds in fishing gears”. Little significant progress has been made to address the issue in the EU waters and by EU vessels. Yet seabird bycatch can be greatly reduced in most fisheries through relatively simple and inexpensive technical measures or adaptations of existing fishing practices. Considering the lack of measures to address seabird bycatch and ensure the protection of marine ecosystems, it is imperative that the upcoming “Action Plan to conserve fisheries resources and protect marine ecosystems” effectively addresses the problem of bycatch of seabirds in fishing gears and include a clear roadmap on urgent actions and compulsory measures for the next years to ban destructive fishing practices. The new Action Plan should include in priority the following specific actions:
- Immediately assess Natura 2000 sites’ management plans, existing mitigation measures to reduce bycatch, and MS compliance with existing rules.
- Urgently launch infringement proceedings against MS that did not take the appropriate management measures and adopt emergency measures to impose the immediate closure of fisheries that are not respecting the mitigation measures and fisheries with high bycatch rates without viable technical mitigation.
- Imperatively reduce the fishing effort in EU waters to sustainable levels and restricted to stocks that have been scientifically assessed, with ICES catch advice for stocks subject to the MSY and precautionary approaches treated as an upper limit for fishing mortality, ban non-selective fishing gear, and ensure fully documented fisheries with 100% monitoring and control of all vessels.
- Urgently strengthen the protection of seabirds, by ensuring consistent application of existing rules and mitigation measures, by improving the network and the management of protected areas, by establishing systematic and standardised monitoring programmes, and by implementing scientifically tested mitigation solutions.
- Pressingly improve the data collection of seabird bycatch with the development of standardised methodology at sea basins level with harmonised reporting formats applied in national programmes. EU should urgently require all vessels to record bycatch in Elogbooks and to use trained onboard observers or REM systems covering a sufficiently high percentage of fishing effort to ensure that the data is accurate, representative, and enables robust estimates of bycatch rates.
- Crucially increase education&training to fishermen in the use and benefits of mitigation measures and accurate identification of seabirds for reporting purposes & continually invest in research and development of practical and effective mitigation measures for all fishing methods.
The new Action Plan must not become another action plan without any concrete follow-up actions. It should:
- Identify the accountable party for each action.
- Include obligations for regular reporting by MS on its implementation.
- Include regular assessments & evaluations by the EC to establish an evidence base for infringements against MS that do not fulfill their obligations.
- Ensure all actions are supported by financial commitments
Read full responseResponse to Protecting biodiversity: nature restoration targets
30 Nov 2020
The Hellenic Ornithological Society welcomes the initiative for binding restoration targets and recommends the following:
A. Aspects guiding the next steps
1. With this restoration initiative, the Commission should focus on binding nature restoration targets.
2. The, also mentioned, possibility of an EU-wide methodology to map and assess ecosystems and their delivery on soil, pollination etc. should be addressed with specific initiatives such as the soil strategy or the follow-up to the Biodiversity Strategy (10% biodiverse landscape features, 50% pesticides reduction).
3. Given the time needed for the legislative process with the Co-legislators and implementation in the Member States, the Commission should speed up the process, to not only propose the law in Q4 2021 but earlier.
4. The Commission should assess putting forward the new legislation as Regulation, given that this saves transposition time. A Regulation often also leads to short, clear, and thus enforceable legislation.
B. Suggestions for the future restoration legislation
I. Objectives
1. As the main objective, the law must contribute to halting and reversing biodiversity loss, resulting in the large-scale (nature) restoration of habitats, species and ecosystem functioning, connectivity and resilience at landscape level across the EU.
2. In order to be of added value, the new legislation must explicitly go beyond what is already required by the Habitats Directive and other EU legislation. Therefore, the new legislation cannot merely add a deadline to already existing requirements in protected areas.
3. The new legislation should put a specific focus on biodiverse ecosystems with significant carbon storage and sequestration potential. Contributing to climate change mitigation and adaptation should hence be the supportive (but not primary) objective.
II. Restoration targets
The binding EU targets for nature restoration on land and sea should be expressed in quantitative and similar terms for each Member State (i.e. without effort sharing). EU-wide, the targets should be to restore by 2030:
1. at least 650.000 km2 of land and at least 1.000.000 km2 of sea (15% of the EU land and sea area, to be adapted to EU27 EEZ).
2. at least 25.000 km of free-flowing rivers, and to scale-up this ambition to achieve 15% of rivers restored to a free-flowing state in 2030 through inter alia barrier removal and floodplain restoration;
3. and should include a target for CO2 removal by sinks, in addition to the 2030 emissions reduction target.
III. Restoration criteria
1. Restoration measures should result in permanent change aiming to restore high quality and resilient nature, with a very significant improvement from the starting condition.
2. Restoration measures must result in significant management change that puts nature on a path towards sustaining ‘high quality’.
3. Action on restoration should not discriminate between restoration activities inside or outside already protected areas.
4. Restoration measures should also increase connectivity between habitats.
IV. Governance aspects
1. The new legislation should require MS to draft national restoration plans. The plans should include clear quantitative targets in terms of locations, areas, types of ecosystems to be restored, financial tools to be used, requirements for active public participation, deadlines, etc.
2. Restoration plans should be assessed by the Commission to ensure that the proposed measures contribute to the objectives of the restoration law.
3. The restoration law should explicitly include obligations for MS to actively engage the public at the start of and throughout the restoration plan process.
4. To be effective, the restoration law must contain clear deadlines regarding the establishment of the restoration plans and the implementation of all restoration measures.
5. The restoration law further needs to include safeguards to ensure the restoration and protection of the restored habitats is permanent.
Read full response