The NERP Marine Biodiversity Hub will participate in the first global assessment of the state of the marine environment. The first regional workshop for the South Pacific is planned for early 2013.

The UN Regular Process was initiated in 2002 at the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development, with a plan to review the environmental, social and economic condition of the ocean every five years. A start-up phase began in 2006 to examine more than 500 existing marine environmental assessments.

In 2010, a Group of Experts was appointed to drive the First Global Integrated Marine Assessment (2010 to 2014), which will cover ecosystem services, food security, human activities, and biodiversity and habitats. Peter Harris of Geoscience Australia and the Marine Biodiversity Hub is a member of the expert group.

NERP Hub Director, Professor Nic Bax, says Australia will contribute knowledge and expertise in marine bioregional planning, and marine indicators and monitoring, including data compilations and contacts made during the Convention of Biological Diversity’s Ecologically or Biologically Significant Areas process for the Western South Pacific. Workshops facilitated by the Hub and supported by the Australian Government, will initiate the  contributions from many countries in the region.

The Regular Process will draw together information collected by the Census of Marine Life, the Food and Agriculture Organisation, the International Seabed Authority and many other initiatives. The need for capacity building in developing nations also will be reviewed.

An important aspect in developing the Regular Process assessment was the decision to include both environmental and socio-economic data, thus providing a much richer picture of the state of the marine environment. A measure of the success of the Regular Process will be how well it bridges the divide between different interests and jurisdictions to provide this desire for a comprehensive review. Its success will rely on the participation of marine specialists from around the world.

Drivers-Pressures-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) Framework as used by the United Nations Regular Process in relation to the ocean environment.
Drivers result in pressures that have an effect on the state of the environment. Monitoring is required to gauge the effectiveness of policy responses.

Further reading:

• Mapping marine conservation in the South Pacific (April 2012 newsletter)
   

Contact:
Prof Nic Bax, University of Tasmania