WWF and Wallenius Wilhelmsen Lines

WWF and Wallenius Wilhelmsen Lines

Corporate Supporter Agreement

Report 2nd Semester, 1 March – 31 August 2005

Introduction

WWF’s Global Marine Programme is working to secure a healthy marine environment, placing a special focus on the conservation and wise use of the high seas - the vast areas of open ocean outside national jurisdiction. The immense biodiversity of the high seas is under serious threat from a range of human activities such as deep sea fisheries, seabed mining, oil and gas extraction and shipping.

WWF’s High Seas Strategy encompasses many elements and recognizes that building international support for the protection of the high seas is a complex process. In the short term, we are leading global efforts to immediately protect vulnerable habitats and address the unsustainable exploitation of the resources of the open ocean. WWF promotes solutions that work for industry, government and conservation including promoting the use and application of existing legal regimes for high seas protection, identifying urgent priority sites and pilot areas on the high seas for conservation and engaging governments and stakeholders in support of this. WWF is also a keen participant in any efforts to stamp out illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing and is a member of the OECD Ministerial-led Taskforce on IUU Fishing on the High Seas.

The generous funding provided by WWL under the Corporate Supporter agreement 2004-07 is allowing WWF to move from a legal to an advocacy phase as the primary focus, in order to promote the concept of responsible High Seas governance and Marine Protected Areas (HSMPAs) to the international community. It is fitting that a the NGO and commercial shipping company most interested in the responsible and sustainable use of the oceans have come together in a partnership to combine their different skills, experience and perspectives.

WWF’s Global Marine Programme Activities

The High Seas Programme is going from strength to strength. Recent successes include:

• WWF is participating in a Canadian Prime Minister driven initiative which will contribute to a high seas governance plan (L20 International Fisheries Governance Initiative)
• completion of an overview of the legal framework needed for establishing high seas marine protected areas, Legal Challenges for the Conservation and Management of the High Seas, with a Case Study of the Grand Banks, sponsored by Wallenius Marine, that will be published at the end of September, by Charlotte Breide, WWF’s legal advisor on high seas issues, until June this year
• an agreement from nine CEOs of the world's major NGOs to work for networks of marine protected areas,including on the high seas
• an evaluation of how well governments are doing to manage the high seas is proving more successful than even we suspected and will be used by the OECD
• WWF International’s Director General Claude Martin is a member of the Ministerial-led High Seas Task Force on IUU Fishing, and will continue to play this role after he steps down as Director General of WWF International, in the end of 2005
• a report on illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing commissioned as a partnership between the International Transport workersFederation, Australian Department of Forestry and Fisheries and WWF, is due for release on October 21st. It traces pirate fishing operations back not just to countries but companies and well known funding institutions. It has been researched and written by independent consultants Walt Simpson and Matthew Gianni

In this phase we are using more of the WWL funds for operational purposes rather than staff employment. Following Charlotte's departure in June 2005, our high seas work continues under the direction of a core team led by Simon Cripps. Alistair Graham, a world renowned ocean advocate based in Australia, will continue to work as a consultant for WWF International, helping to guide our oceans governance strategy, with Katherine Short providing guidance on fisheries issues, and Jessica Battle providing communications and coordination support.

Environment Club

Sian Pullen, Head of WWF’s European Marine Programme, represented WWF at the first Environment Club for maritime journalists, organized by Robert Minton-Taylor.

High Seas Legal Workshop

A high seas workshop was organizedin Canberra, in April, by Charlotte Breide, WWF International and Margaret Moore, WWF Australia, with the support of the Australian Government. The workshop gathered international lawyers, government officials and industry. The main focus was discussions of issues related to the current state of and future prospects for the development of high seas conservation and management measures, as well as providinga basis for exploring common interests and experience of Canada and Australia.

Expo 2005

Arata Izawa, Marine Programme Officer at WWF Japan, attended Expo2005 in Japan, to present WWF’s High Seas Programme at the WWL-Toyota stand in the Nordic Pavilion.

UN Fish Stocks AgreementMeeting

Parties to the UN Fish Stocks Agreement met in New York, May 3 – June 3.Anna Willock, from TRAFFIC, and Dorothy Zbicz, from WWF US,funded by WWL represented WWF, and Alistair Graham was on the Australian government’s delegation.The main outcome for our high seas work is the fact that the Regional Fisheries Management Organisation(RFMO) modernization agenda that WWF is pushing is starting to gain some currency with key governments. Whilst RFMOs currently usually focus in fisheries they have been identified by our work as a key step towards reforming maritime governance more generally.

Conference on the Governance of High Seas Fisheries and the UN Fish StocksAgreement

Participants from 49 States and regional economic integration organizations, fisheries management organizations, industry, civil society and academic communities attended the Conference, in St Johns, Canada, May 1–5. Katherine Short and Alistair Graham represented WWF.WWF presented its position on high seas management at the meeting.

Convention for Biological Diversity meeting

The CBD held a meeting on protected areas, in Montecatini, Italy (June 13–17), with a session on high seas MPAs. Alistair Graham represented the Global Marine Programme. Significant progress was made in discussions around two key issues:

• Who gets to establish high seas MPAs?
• How do governments construct a regime that would allow any such management arrangements, to be legally established and compliance with such arrangements effectively enforced?

Law of the Sea meeting

The 6th Session of the United Nations Open-ended Informal Consultative Process on Oceans and the Law of the Sea (UNICPOLOS) took place in June 6–10, in New York, with AlistairGraham, Anna Willock and Dorothy Zbicz representing WWF.During the week, two topics were addressed by speakers and discussion panels: the contribution of fisheries to sustainable development, and marine debris. WWF, together with the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) and Greenpeace, published a statement on the opening day, calling on the UNICPOLOS meeting to take strong, resolute action to ensure:effective implementation and enforcement of flag state responsibilities; the existence of a genuine link between beneficial ownership and control of vessels; and respect for human rights in the fisheries and shipping sectors and its imminent inclusion on the agenda for a future UNICPOLOS meeting.

The main outcomes of the meeting were:

• An agreement that illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing (IUU) and flags of convenience were the greatest threat of all, complicating all fisheries management.
• Modernization and assessment of existing regional fisheries management bodies (RFMOs) as well as the creation of new RFMOs, for example in the Southern Pacific, must be high priority, as States rely on these for fisheries conservation and management.

OSPAR Commission meeting

Two years after the Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Northeast Atlantic (OSPAR) Ministerial meeting, WWF, led by Stephan Lutter, WWF Germany, used the 2005 OSPAR Commission meeting in Ireland (June 27 – July 1) as a platform for scaling up deep-water and high seas conservation measures. Recalling the 2003 Ministerial commitment to prevent further damage to cold-water coral reefs from fishing, WWF presented a review of progress which revealed that only a handful reefs in the convention area had been afforded permanent protection since then. The opening speech of the Irish Minister of Marine, Mr. Gallagher, was highly welcome as he announced four cold-water coral and/or carbonate mound areas in the Irish Exclusive Economic Zone to be nominated in due course and fisheries protection measures to be established for three sites beyond.

WWL workshops

Staff from WWF International and WWF Norway participated in two of WWL’s staff workshops, in Oslo and in Stockholm, during this period.

Crab on cold water coral off Ireland.

© ResearchCentreOcean Margins, Bremen

Update from WWF-Norway

The Barents Sea –campaigning for oil free zones

The Barents Sea is home to the world’s largest cod and herring stocks, some of Europe’s largest seabird colonies, rare whale species and the world’s largest cold-water coral reef. The Norwegian and Russian governments are now opening up this fragile and relatively undisturbed part of the Arctic Ocean for petroleum exploration. After hard campaigning from WWF, in December 2003 and June 2005, two big victories were won, as the most valuable sea areas around the LofotenIslands were temporarily closed for petroleum exploration when the Norwegian Government announced new blocks for oil and gas in the Barents Sea. However, this “protection” is only until 2006. WWF’s campaign aims to protect the most critical areas before oil and gas exploration and production goes ahead. WWF has produced a report, Petroleum Free Zones in the Barents Sea,proposing five petroleum free zones in the Norwegian part of the Barents Sea.

IMO work

WWF attended the work of the Marine Environment Protection Committee’s 53rd session in July, focusing on Particularly Sensitive Sea Areas (PSSAs) and follow-up on the Ballast Water Convention. WWL funded Shipping Officer Anne-Beth Skrede participated in the ballast water work. WWF Norway will in the future give priority to the IMO work, and in particular the issues mentioned above in addition to emissions to air and anti-fouling systems.

Escaped farmed fish

Stocks of wild Atlantic salmon are already depleted due to dams and pollution. The increased number of farmed salmon escaping into Norway’s open waters puts wild salmon under greater threat of disease, breeding difficulties and genetic contamination. Around half a million farmed fish escape into Norwegian waters every year, therefore one out of every four salmon or trout found in Norwegian coastal waters are fish farm escapees. In May 2005, WWF-Norway published the report Escaped farmed fish in Norwegian watersand now uses the findings to work for fish farm free zones around the most valuable and vulnerable wild salmon rivers in Norway. We are also lobbying for more strict regulations and technical requirements for fish farms.

WWF volunteer oil-combating troops

WWF Norway is now starting the project of establishing and train volunteer oil spill combating troops. The first training session is scheduled to take place in mid-November this year. The two first training sessions will be held in northern Norway, and will seek to engage the local population on these issues. There is a huge need for trained personnel that can be mobilized on short notice and for the proper equipment that can ensure safe and efficient operations in the region. The oil combating resources established by the authorities are insufficient to handle oil pollution that has reached shore. The Norwegian coastal response authorities therefore welcome our initiative. The volunteers will be mobilized and the services of “troops” offered to the authorities responsible for a clean up operation. All together, around 150-300 volunteers will receive training annually. The project will enhance the capacity of civil society with regards to the challenges from oil activities and is a real contribution to the oil spill clean up capacity in the Russian Barents and along the northern Norwegian coast.

Oil transport from the Russian part of the Barents Region

Oil transportation along Norway’s northern coastline is one of the hottest topics discussed in Norway. It is also one of the most important issues of today’s political agenda and bilateral discussions between Norway and Russia. WWF, together with partners, published areport, Oil transport from the Russian part of the Barents Region,tobe used to promote the establishment of PSSAs in the Barents Sea, and to raise awareness in Norway and Russia about the need for better oil spill contingency plans and increased security along the coast.

Norwegian governmental strategy for sea safety and oil spill response

The Government put forward a white paper on this subject in January. WWF worked together with the seafarers’ associations to give our views to the paper. We managed to highlight the bad state the present preparedness and response is in, and achieved some promises through the Parliament’s decisions to the paper, that these issues will be prioritized. However, no government money is set aside through this process, and we will follow the subjects closely when the national budget is discussed during next month. Some of our demands are; tugboats, routeing, traffic separation schemes, oil spill response equipment and training.

Fisheries seminar in Murmansk

In August WWF arranged a conference in Murmansk about fisheries in the Barents Sea, where we presented a report by WWF-Russia on illegal fishing. For the first time it is confirmed from the Russian side what Norwegian authorities long has claimed about illegal cod fishing: Every year cod to a value of at least 120 million Euros disappear from the Barents Sea. The seminar attracted a lot of attention in the press.

WWF also presented a report on the status of the fisheries in the Barents Sea, Fisheries in the Russian Barents Sea and the White Sea: Ecological challenges.

Activities and targets during the next six months

WWF will further increase its advocacy activities to promote high seas conservation and management.

A number of events and conferences are planned, including:

• 12 October - Launch of ITF/WWF pirate fishing report at the UN, New York. The report is jointly commissioned by the Australian Ministry of Fisheries, the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) and WWF. It is to be launched in the preparation for the next UN General Assembly discussion of the subject of Ocean Governance. It is the first report we know of which joins the dots between the flag of convenience countries, the companies that profit from flags of convenience, the vessels they use and the companies that support the system.

• 23–27 October - First International Marine Protected Areas Congress (IMPAC), Geelong, Australia.

• 24 October – 4 November - CCAMLR (Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources) Scientific Committee meets, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. WWF participates as a member of ASOC, the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition (the only environmental NGO with formal observer status) and through NGO representatives on national delegations.

• 17 November – United Nations General Assembly debate on Oceans and Sustainable Fisheries, New York, to which WWF will have prepared a position statement on the governance of the high seas.

• WWF Norway will continue the petroleum free zones campaign for the Barents Sea, witha crucial opportunity inearly October, when the new Norwegian Government is appointed.

Conclusion

In summary it can be seen that through this WWL-WWF partnership we have been able to identify the key issues, elements and stakeholders which we need to influence to get a sea change in the world’s thinking about how they use the ocean and its resources in a more responsible and sustainable way. Building on the detailed legal work from the first phase of sponsorship already only one year into this advocacy phase we are influencing several major steps and getting some exciting and important results.

Additionally, the profile of both partners has been greatly raised as global leaders in wise ocean management.