Gap analysis on the application of the FAO’s voluntary guideline for marking of fishing gear in the OSPAR area

Beskrivning

OSPAR’s strategic marine litter objective is to “Prevent inputs of and significantly reduce marine litter, including microplastics, in the marine environment to reach levels that do not cause adverse impacts to the marine and coastal environment with the ultimate aim of eliminating inputs of litter”. The North-East Atlantic Environment Strategy (2010 – 2020) committed OSPAR to “develop appropriate programmes and measures to reduce amounts of litter in the marine environment and to stop litter entering the marine environment, both from sea-based and land-based sources”. To fulfill this objective OSPAR 2014 agreed a Regional Action Plan (RAP) for Marine Litter for the period 2014-2021. The RAP contains 23 national actions and 32 collective actions which aim to address both land based and sea based sources, as well as education and outreach and removal actions. Each of the actions is driven by specific Contracting Parties or groups of Contracting Parties, and progress on actions is assessed each year at the meeting of the Intersessional Correspondence Group on Marine Litter (ICG-ML).