State Secretary, Johannes Nakken

”Management of marine resources”

Opening address at the Norway/UN Conference on the Ecosystem Approach for Sustainable Use of Biological Diversity, 6 – 10 September 1999, Trondheim

Ladies and gentlemen!

I am pleased to be here, and to have the opportunity at the opening of this conference to provide some information on Norwegian fisheries management and to present Norwegian views on the international management of marine resources. I am pleased to experience that the questions on conservation of biodiversity and sustainable use of the biological resources are receiving great international attention. The common attendance of the Convention on biological diversity, and a conference like this in Trondheim, tells me that there fortunately are many good forces working to create a better management of nature environment and to ensure the biological resources for future generations.

Within our fisheries management there is a growing consciousness on the importance of a good management of the marine environment. A good environment management is of vital importance in order to ensure the productivity of the oceans and to ensure healthy and good seafood. Therefore

we have an active co-operation with the environment authorities both nationally and internationally.

Norway is managing some of the most productive sea areas in the world. With a total catch of 3 million tonnes a year Norway is among the 10 largest producers of fish in the world. Cod, herring and mackerel are the three most economically important species. Over 90 per cent of the catch are exported.

Norway has a large and steadily growing production of farmed fish and shellfish. Most of the farmed products are also exported. Almost 40 percent of the total export of seafood come from aquaculture products. Today Norway is the largest exporter of seafood (in value) in the world.

I also like to mention that the fisheries industry is the second largest export industry in Norway. Only the petroleum industry is larger. This is illustrating the importance of the fisheries industry in the Norwegian economy. In some regions, especially in the north of the country, the fisheries industry is of vital importance for employment and settlement.

Management of the marine resources today is a global concern, as the world community in an increasing rate is setting the standards for management of the living marine resources and for management of marine environment as a whole. The first, and one of the most important international agreements, is the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, adopted in 1982. This agreement is further developed through the UN Agreement on fishing on the High Seas of 1993. With this agreement the precautionary principle as a guideline for management of marine resources is introduced for the first time in a convention on the global level. The convention is binding when 30 countries have ratified it. Seven countries are still lacking.

The Convention on biological diversity is the first global agreement that embraces conservation and use of all biological diversity. The convention will be a driving force on the global level for development of the precautionary approach and the ecosystem approach as tools for taking care of the living resources at sea and on land.

Together these global conventions constitute a framework that sets the standards for the future resource management, also within the national zones.

Increased fishing in international waters has threatened the regional management regimes that were established after the adoption of the Convention on the Law of the Sea. These fisheries have led to uncontrolled exploitation of fish stocks, which often occur both inside and outside the exclusive economic zones. Norway has made efforts to counteract the consequences of this kind of fisheries. A concrete example in our adjacent waters are the loopholes in the Norwegian Sea and the Barents Sea for which regional agreements on regulation of fishery now are established.

It is important that the exploitation of the resources in the sea is being related to the ecosystem. Our management strategy is based on the fact that we in order to reach an optimum management of the resources have to aim at balanced exploitation. In other words we aim at an ecosystem management and a food chain based exploitation.

Our management strategy thus includes exploitation of sea mammals, like seals and whales. This has lead to strong opposition from both the diversity of international environment organisations and from many governments. The Norwegian struggle to find understanding for catching sea mammals is not only tied to the need for a balanced exploitation of the resources, but also to the fact that this catching has long traditions along the coast and is an important part of our coastal culture.

Norway therefore by necessity has made a long lasting and costly diplomatic and scientifically struggle to defend and prove the justification of the catching of sea mammals. I would like to mention that we in this struggle have got support from most of the Norwegian environment organisations.

The struggle has been fruitful, but we have not yet reached our aims. There are still many nations that are not willing to accept that seals and whales should be object of catch, and are using so to speak all opportunities to make obstructions against sealing and whaling. This has made it necessary to impose strong restrictions on our catching, which has resulted in strong growth of the seal stocks in the Arctic Sea and made it a threat to our fisheries in the north and to the basis of existence of the people in this regions.

We will make strong efforts to make the management of sea mammals subordinated the general resources management, which is based on the principle of ecosystem management and balanced exploitation of the living marine resources. The long term strategy therefor is to work actively within the global environment processes, like the Convention on biological diversity, where it is agreed that both conservation and use of the diversity of species should be the basic principle for management of nature resources.

I wish you a successful conference. Thank you.

This page was last updated September 14, 1999 by the editors