1 Introduction
1.1 Protecting the riches of the seas
Norway has always been surrounded by a sea rich in resources. We have a long tradition of utilising these riches given to us by the sea. Fishing and harvesting of marine resources have been the basis for settlements along the coast. For a long time, the sea was the only way of transporting goods along the coast. The sea gave the coastal population a means of contact with the rest of the country and other countries and was a source of recreation and a better quality of life. The sea and the coastline have left their mark on our culture. The close contact with the sea was what led to the development of the Norwegian shipping industry. When oil was found in the North Sea around 1970, a completely new era in the utilisation of the riches of the sea began.
For a long time, the sea was also a clean sea and for a long time most people thought that the sea could stand anything: The sea could endure the dumping of waste and pollution from industry and other business activities, from settlements and from shipping without suffering any damage.
For a long time little was known about ocean currents carrying pollution from faraway countries to the Norwegian coast, and about the fact that discharges of hazardous substances on other continents could be transported all the way to Svalbard. Not until the last decade did we become aware that not only rivers, lakes and coastal areas can be seriously polluted. Only then did we realise that the environment on the high seas can be threatened by pollution.
This Government’s vision is to safeguard a clean and rich sea, so that future generations can harvest the wealth of resources that the sea has to offer. The challenges are many and they are daunting, but the rewards will also be huge if we succeed. There are great opportunities for industrial and commercial development in the aquaculture and fishing industries in the future.
This Parliamentary Report is a prelude to a long-term, comprehensive policy for the protection of the marine and coastal environment. Long-term because many of the measures proposed will only demonstrate their full effects after some time has elapsed. Comprehensive, because the goal can only be achieved by assessing pressures and encroachments on this environment in their overall context.
Figure 1.1 Areas covered by corals, like this in the Saltstraumen, can be found along the Norwegian coast. Here you can find plumose anemone, dahlia squid, starfish, sponges and dead men’s fingers.
Source Erling Svensen
Norway has legal rights to marine areas containing substantial amounts of oil and gas deposits. In the last few decades the petroleum industry has been the main element shoring up the Norwegian economy. Oil and gas will continue to be of great importance in the future, even though they are not renewable resources. In the future Norway’s wealth and prosperity will have to be based on further development and growth in other industries as well. Our coastal and marine areas are among the most productive areas in the world in terms of living marine resources. The harvesting of these resources will not be limited in terms of time if they are managed in a long-term perspective. The aquaculture industry has huge potential for further industrial and commercial development along the coast of Norway.
Norwegian seafood must be competitive in a market where the consumers constantly are becoming more conscious regarding health and environmental issues. The consumers want to be confident that the food they are eating is healthy. Food from a clean ocean is a great competitive advantage for Norway, but we have to maintain the conviction among the consumers that our products really are clean and environmental friendly: That they don’t contain poisonous substances, and that they are not harvested in ways that are exhausting the sea’s resources.
A healthy marine environment is a condition for future industrial and commercial development and settlement based on living marine resources. There are many threats and trends that could put obstacles in the way of a healthy marine environment. To trigger off the potential for industrial and commercial development so that good conditions for habitation and a high standard of living along the coast can be maintained in the long run, a substantial effort must be made to secure clean and productive ecosystems along the coast and in the sea. Industrial and commercial development, human settlements and a good environment are mutually dependent on each other. It is therefore crucial for an overall policy on the marine environment to be developed in collaboration between the Government and trade and industry along the coast.
1.2 The purpose of this parliamentary report
The purpose of this Parliamentary Report is:
to display overall goals for a comprehensive policy on the marine environment;
to display tools and processes for how such a policy can be developed and implemented in the short and in the long-term, including ensuring a better co-ordination between the different sectors and industry; and
to display proposals for a new policy in areas of major importance for the marine environment.
The overall goal is to provide the prerequisites for a clean and rich sea, inter alia , through the establishment of external conditions that allow us to strike a balance between the commercial interests connected with fisheries, aquaculture and the petroleum industry within the framework of a sustainable development.
This Government intends to develop tools and processes which help lay the foundations for an overall policy on the marine environment, i.e . a policy where the sum of all influences is assessed on the basis of what is known about the structure of the ecosystem, the way in which it functions and its condition. Up until now different kinds of pollution, exploitation of the different species and different kinds of interference have been assessed and managed in relative isolation. This Government is therefore preparing a future system of management that will be ecosystem-based and that will extend across all sectors.
Chapter 2 gives an overview of the state of the environment in our marine and coastal areas and of the challenges ahead. The chapter ends with a description of how this Government will work towards an overall and integrated policy on the marine environment.
The overall target can only be reached by strengthening today’s policy for the areas of greatest importance for the environment and resource situation in the future. Many important players must contribute to this work; central, regional and local authorities, industry and other organisations such as industrial, environmental and other voluntary organisations.
Chapter 3 contains a report on measures that will be introduced by the Government for selected areas as part of the overall policy on the marine environment. Chapter 4 examines the international treaties and processes that have an influence on the environment and resources in the sea and coastal areas, while Chapter 5 looks at the economic and administrative consequences.
The marine environment is affected in many different ways and this Parliamentary Report does not deal with all areas of concern that might be relevant in a paper of this nature. Chapter 1.3 outlines the scope of the report and contains references to, inter alia , the Parliamentary Reports on the Government’s Environmental Policy and State of the Environment.
1.3 Delimitations of the contents in the parliamentary report
In this Parliamentary Report the Government wishes to focus on some areas and sources where there is a need for new policies, and/or that are not been dealt with thoroughly enough in previous reports.
Discharges of nutrients from households, agriculture and industry are not addressed. The problem of eutrophication is addressed in Parliamentary Report No. 24 (2000–2001) on the Government’s Environmental Policy and the State of the Environment (RM). The national target in this area is that discharges of the nutrients phosphorous and nitrogen into areas of the North Sea affected by eutrophication should be reduced by about 50 % between 1985 and 2005. The reduction target has been achieved for phosphorous, but Norway, like the other North Sea states, has not achieved the reduction target for nitrogen. The national target for discharges of nitrogen will be evaluated after the Fifth North Sea Conference in March 2002, where the ministers will discuss future goals in this area. The Government will get back to the Norwegian Parliament (Stortinget) concerning this issue in the next RM.
The marine environment is affected by hazardous substances from land-based sources, the petroleum industry and polluted sediments in coastal and fjord areas. Ambitious targets have been adopted for the work on reducing discharges and the use of chemicals harmful to health and the environment. The discharge of chemicals constituting a threat to health and the environment shall be phased out by 2020 (see Parliamentary Report No. 58 (1996–97) and No. 24 (2000–2001)); these Parliamentary Reports also outline strategies and measures adopted to achieve the targets in this area. The work on reducing the discharges of chemicals from land-based activities which are harmful to health and environment is not further addressed in this report. The discharge of chemicals harmful to health and the environment from the petroleum industry has taken on increased significance in terms of the state of the environment in the marine areas. This report therefore contains a description of measures and means for reducing this pressure on the marine environment.
Tidying up after hazardous substances discharged into the coastal and fjord areas in the past constitutes a particular challenge in the work to achieve a clean and rich sea. This is a problem area that offers substantial legal, technological and economic challenges. In this report the Government is therefore proposing an overall strategy for the future work on this area to ensure sufficient progress through cleanup operations.
When it comes to shipping, the Government has in this report, chosen to focus on preventive measures to reduce the danger of accidents that might lead to discharges of oil and subsequent damage to the environment. The discharge of ballast water will be treated as a source for introduction of alien species. Other kinds of pollution from shipping such as illegal discharges of oil and chemicals are, inter alia , described in Parliamentary Report No. 24 (2000–2001).
This report does not address the problem of marine litter. This issue will be discussed at the Fifth North Sea Conference in March, and the Government will return to this subject in the next RM. When it comes to outdoor life and recreation reference is made to Parliamentary Report No. 39 (2000–2001). Climate change that might be of significance for the state of the sea is not dealt with in this report. However, reference is made to Parliamentary Report No. 54 (2000–2001) on Norwegian climate policy and to the Government’s supplementary report that will be put forward this spring.