Introduction  |  EBSA Status Assessment  |  Proposed Zoning and Management Recommendations

View the Status Assessment and Proposed Zoning and Management Recommendations per EBSA

 

Introduction

The environmental ask for EBSA inclusion into the upcoming Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) process is given as a proposed EBSA zoning with management recommendations per zone. Note that the current process (through the MARISMA Project) is scientific and technical, aimed at developing a coherent and evidence-based recommendation, and does not - in itself - make any ocean-zoning decisions. The actual decisions are part of the upcoming MSP process. Although the details of the MSP process have not yet been decided, it is required to include robust stakeholder engagement and negotiations among sectors. It is likely that the final negotiated Marine Spatial Plan will include significant compromises among sectors.

 

EBSA Status Assessment

To develop the evidence-based recommendations for EBSA management, EBSA threat status is assessed in terms of the pressures and threats to their key biodiversity features (based on data from the BCC Project BEH 09-01: Spatial Biodiversity Assessment and Spatial Management, including Marine Protected Areas - see associated paper here). These are the features that must remain intact to ensure that coastal and marine biodiversity and ecological processes persist into the future and, ultimately, contribute to sustainable ocean use. In order to safeguard these key biodiversity features, EBSAs or parts of EBSAs may require enhanced risk aversion, achieved by more strongly regulating human activities in specific zones.

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Proposed Zoning and Management Recommendations

Background

In the MSP process, EBSAs will likely comprise two Biodiversity Zones:

Conservation The management objective is strict place-based biodiversity protection aimed at securing key biodiversity features in a natural or semi-natural state, or as near to this state as possible
 
Impact Management The management objective is management of impacts on key biodiversity features in a mixed-use area to keep key biodiversity features in at least a functional state.

 

Activities within these two zones can be placed into one of four different categories depending on their compatibility with the management objective of that zone.

Primary An activity that supports the maintenance of biodiversity features. This activity should be encoraged in this zone, and should be prioritized when spatial management decisions are being made. These activities are still likely to be subject to reasonable controls and management measures.
 
General An activity that is allowed and regulated by current general rules and legislation.
 
Consent An activity which can continue in this zone subject to specific regulation and control. Careful controls are likely to be put in place to avoid unacceptable impacts on biodiversity features, or to avoid intensification or expansion of impact footprints of uses that are already occuring and where there are no realistic prospects of excluding these activities.
 
Prohibited An activity which is not allowed or should not be allowed because it is incompatible with maintaining the biodiversity objectives of the zone.

As noted above, decisions about the management of each activity within an EBSA will be negotiated during the MSP process, which is mandated to include a robust stakeholder process. The MARISMA Project is undertaking preliminary assessments to provide a coherent recommendation from the biodiversity sector that addresses as many initial concerns from other sectors as possible to streamline the negotiations during the MSP process. Again, the recommendations are not the final ocean-zoning decisions, but rather form the biodiversity sector’s input into the multi-sector process that will be negotiated during MSP.

 

Proposed EBSA zoning and management recommendations

Zoom in to view the proposed zonation of the Namibian EBSAs, which is still under discussion. Click on each EBSA zone to view the proposed management recommendations, per EBSA. Note that zonation and management of transboundary EBSAs is split at the national borders, with each country responsible for management in their jurisdiction only.

 

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View the Status Assessment and Proposed Zoning and Management Recommendations per EBSA

 Namibe | Cape Fria  |  Walvis Ridge Namibia 

  Namib Flyway  |  Namibian Islands  |  Orange Seamount and Canyon Complex

Orange Cone