- Email: [email protected]
Society and sustainable use of the Exclusive Economic Zones
Society and sustainable use of the Exclusive Economic Zones Jan H. Stel
International Centre for Integrative Studies, University Maastricht, the Netherlands
Abstract The development of the Global Ocean Observing System, GOOS, is one of the most challenging issues of the action plan of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. Since this conference in Rio, a large number of regional and national initiatives such as EuroGOOS were started to implement GOOS. Progress in this field was reviewed during the 2002 Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development. GOOS and its regional bodies are seen in this paper as an information system for ocean space that provides state-of-the-art descriptions and forecasts of processes and resources. As such, GOOS is a high-technology answer to a complex societal issue in which aspects of climate change, climate forecasting and sustainable use of ocean space are central issues. Moreover, GOOS can be seen as a decision support system and a management tool for ocean governance. Sustainability is a key concept in international, national and local policy-making for the coming decades. However, the concept is also highly normative, value loaded, and subject to many interpretations. Yet, the various definitions have in common that they emphasise the need to address human development and environmental imperatives simultaneously. As such, the issue of sustainable development requires an integrated approach.
Keywords GOOS, EuroGOOS, Exclusive Economic Zone, human activity, sustainability, policy-making, stakeholders 1. Introduction The Bahamas flagged, single hull, 26-year-old Liberian but Greek operated tanker Prestige sank some 150 miles off the Spanish coast on 19 November 2002. It was damaged in a severe storm near Cape Finisterre, a famous landmark on the Spanish North Atlantic coast on its way from Riga in Latvia to Singapore. Carrying 77000 tons of heavy fuel oil, a tragedy developed in the Spanish Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in which governments, the European Commission, NGOs, News Agencies and citizens played a role. Around 10000 tonnes of the cargo leaked from the tanker after it was first damaged, blackening the waves and covering the Spanish coast between Finisterre and Coruna with oil slicks. This has severely damaged the fishery and tourist industry and killed marine life. Spanish authorities refused to let the vessel be towed inshore or into a port. They insisted that the doomed vessel should be towed out to sea. The result was a three * Corresponding author, email: [email protected]
Jan H. Stel
593
day salvage operation mainly involving towing the Prestige away from the Spanish coast and eventually South towards Portuguese waters. This was, however, prevented by Portugal sending a frigate to make the tugs turn westward again out of the EEZ into the open ocean. Finally the ship broke by the twisted seas. Watched by a Spanish and Portuguese frigate as well half of the world's media it disappeared from the surface of ocean space. The wreck, with some 60000 tonnes of oil, came to rest near a seamount at a depth of 3600m. It lies in a hostile environment where the cargo is slowly leaking from the wreck.
Figure I The sinking of the Prestige Spain arrested the captain of the ship as he refused to start the engines of the weakened vessel and to move it away from the coast. Neither Spain nor Portugal would allow the vessel to enter their ports. France insists that the leaders of the European Union countries discuss maritime security at their Copenhagen summit this December. The European Commission used the accident to stress again the need to enforce the new inspection rules, which were agreed upon after the 1999 Erika sinking off the west coast of France. But even today most European countries, among which France and Ireland stand out, do not even reach the present agreed inspection targets. In retrospect Spain should have allowed the ship to come inshore so that the oil could have been transferred to another vessel. Instead both Spain and Portugal used 'force' by sending frigates, to ensure that the vessel would leave or not enter their EEZ. This "Not in My Backyard" type of reaction again stresses the need for new ocean governance in which Arvid Pardo's notion of the 'common heritage of mankind' replaces Hugo de Groot's concept of the freedom of the seas. In the meantime soldiers and citizens again started to clean the pristine Spanish beaches, while CNN started a participative process about the question "who is to blame and who should pay" on the internet. The estimated direct economic costs of this tragedy are around three billion Euros (http:t/www.greenpeace.at/). The ecosystem costs are, however, not yet taken into account. The Prestige story is one of the many examples of the lack of a clear and integrated European policy towards sustainable use of its ocean space consisting of the national EEZs. It also demonstrates again that ocean space is still a blind spot in our land-trained mind. The French president only wanted to discuss maritime safety, apparently not an integrated approach in which environmental protection, fisheries, pollution, tourism panning, exploitation of mineral resources and control of hazardous maritime traffic are
594
Society and sustainable use of the Exclusive Economic Zones
taken into account. Moreover, the simple question of what would happen with the cargo in the deep ocean could not be answered directly. This also shows the need for more information about ocean space as well as the involvement of a better-informed public. Human activities have an ever-increasing effect on ocean space. These effects can be traced everywhere in the ocean. They rapidly increase when we enter the EEZs and the coastal waters. Although overfishing and habitat destruction tend to overshadow pollution, it has enormous effects on health and the environment (GESAMP, 2001). Sewage pollution ruins large areas for fisheries, recreation and tourism. Eutrophication and algal blooms cause major economic loss, while one in every twenty bathers in officially declared 'acceptable waters' will become ill with a societal loss of 1.6 billion US$ (GESAMP, 2001). The pressure on the coastal areas--the interface between ocean space and the l a n d m i s only increasing. The coast with its rapidly growing population is an area of paradoxes and poorly planned, badly regulated human activities. On the one hand habitats are altered or destroyed by human activities, while on the other hand humankind needs the ecosystem services of these habitats to survive!
2. Sustainable use of the EEZ From a terrestrial perspective the coast or coastline is often seen as the dividing line between land and sea. Yet, from an ocean perspective the interface between ocean space and the continents is highly complex. It involves different time scales and levels. At a global level for instance processes, such as the thermohaline circulation, influence climate change and the development of human cultures. At a regional level E1 Nifio type processes directly influence human prosperity, while the hydrological cycle links water management at a river basin level with ocean space. At a national or local level processes such as storm surges and floods directly influence human activities. The United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which came into force in November 1994, and the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) provide a new framework for ocean governance. UNCLOS introduced the 200 nautical miles EEZ bringing some 37% of ocean space (Stel, 2002), an area that equals the total land surface of the earth, under national jurisdiction. The seven largest EEZs of the world are given in Table 1. In the EEZ each country has the fight to explore, exploit, manage and conserve the natural resources as well as the obligation of protecting them. UNCED through its Agenda 21 gives a vision, among others, on how to reach a more sustainable and equitable global society. It also underpins the need for a marine information system, being GOOS, for ocean space and integrated coastal zone management. In 1987 the Brundtland Committee introduced the concept of sustainable development in their report "Our Common Future". Due to the difference in human perspectives and values among cultures, societal sectors and interest groups, the concept lacks a uniform definition. It may, however, not even be desirable to use only one specific definition of sustainable development at all (Yin et al., 2000). As a rule, sustainability is seen as a long-term (at least two generations) planning or development process that incorporates a holistic view of developments in different societal domains (social, ecological and economic) and at different levels: macro, meso, micro (Rotmans et al., 2001).
Jan H. Stel
595
Table 1 The seven largest ocean states of the world State
EEZ surface (in km 2)
Land surface (in km 2)
Population (estimate: July 2001)
France
9 956 400
547 030
59 982 295
USA
7621 300
9629091
278058881
Australia
7 008 300
7 686 850
19 357 594
Indonesia
5410000
1919440
228437 870
New Zealand
4834400
268680
3864129
Canada
4699000
9976140
31 592805
Russia
4491 500
17075200
145470197
Integrated assessment is a relative new paradigm for sustainable development of the EEZ. It is a multi- or interdisciplinary process of structuring knowledge elements from various scientific disciplines and stakeholders in such a manner that all relevant aspects of a complex societal problem are considered in their mutual coherence for the benefit of decision-making (Rotmans, 2001). Although many analytical and participatory techniques of integrated assessment can be applied in sustainable development studies, we focus on the SCENE or triangular model (Rotmans et al., 1999; Van Asselt et al., 2000). The acronym SCENE stands for SoCial, Environmental and Economic sustainability-capital. This is a system type approach of thinking in terms of flows and stocks. The basic rationale is to consider the EEZ as a complex system that consists of a number interrelated stocks and flows. Stocks are described quantitatively and qualitatively. In an integrated system approach the flows will make all exchanges within and between the stocks explicit.
Figure 2 SCENE or triangular model of capital forms
596
Society, and sustainable, use
of..:the ,Exclusive. Economic, Zones
These flows are either tangibIe and related to physical or fip~anciM flows, or imangible and related to for instance information or knowledge flows. ~ the SCENE model (Figure 2) three forms of capital are distinguis:hed, namely: -
Social-cultural capitM that relates to ~ quality and q u ~ f i t y of the pop~ation or to social and cultural provisions such as d ~ a p h i c structure, knowledge s t r u c ~ e , cultural heritage, etc.
9
Ecological capital, which rdates to ~ . quality arm quantity of natural stock e.g. minerals, fish, water quailS, b i ~ v e r s i ~ , s~pping Iarres.
-
Economi'c capital, which relates: to the: q ~ t y and ~.antity of the e c o n o ~ c infra. structure ~ c h as resources and mat.erials,: labour structure, transport infrastrucm~ (ports), etc.
Human activities affect the stocks in these three forms of capital. This influences both the amount as well as the quality of these stocks. S h ~ - t e r m changes are expressed in terms of flows, being i n t ~ o w s for flows: within a capitM form and interflows for exchanges between different capital forms. The stoc:~ have a number of characteristics: quamity, quality, spatiM clMm and function that: express l o n g - t e ~ changes The status of any stock is based upon these four:~~ t e r i s t i c s . Indicators are used for describing these characteristics or properties of a stock. Indicators describe c o ~ [ e x phenomena in a (quasi-)quantitative way by simp[i~ing them in such a way that communication with specific user groups is possible. A detaiMd description of the SCENE: model is given in paper of Grosskurth and Rotmans (in press). Moreover, renewable and non-renewable st~ks, as well as stock that can be directly or indirectly influenced or can be. influenced in ~ short or-long ~ r m should be ~ e n into account. If we consider a system such as an EEZ, as a combi~tion of stocks and flows then its condition can be judged based on an as s~sment of the stocks and the changes of these stocks (flows) in a similar way as the: position of a company is assessed in terms of a balance sheet (stocks) and a statemem of profits and losses (flow).~ With the SCENE model a number of important deve[oymems can be made explicit: 9
The development of the total amount of c a p i ~ of a system by analysing the changes in the total surface of the triangle, wM:ch~could decrease, increase or remain the same.
9
The development of the exchanges, between the different capitM forms through changes in the sufface-distribmiort within the triangle.
In analysing the d y n ~ c s of changes in the overMl capital of an E ~ "and the underlying stocks and flows, different system leve[s (macro, meso and micro as welt as their imerreladonships) need to be considered. At a macro~ieveI onIy a rough indication of the rna~or stocks and flows is needed whAIe at the lower levels an ever-increasing detMled su~;ivision in stocks and flows is needed. When for instance the complex problem of fisheries is studied with this model we could read social-cultural capital, ecological capital and economic capital as information at a hi~: ~-tracfion level about fisherrr,en, fish and fishery. If, however, the isst~e is studied at a lower abstraction level detailed information is needed about for instance the sociM-cultural structure of the fishermen community or of the fish stocks, etc.
Jan H. Stet
59-7
3. Conclusions As demons~ated by the' Prestige accident, there is a need: dating the d i s ~ o ~ n of ~ese problems to keep in: min'd the multi, level (l'ocaL national: and reg~on~) aspects and interrelations, At a European level there is a need for an integrated European EEZ policy and legislation towards the sustainable use and exploitation of the European waters:. On the other hand this policy and Iegislation has to t ~ e the intem~ona~ regn~ons: and convenrions into account, but should also be expressed in: national, etc. policies. Despite the fact that: the doomed vessel, could be followed from space, and despite the' fact that oiI spill models and some observation systems were avaitable, ~ s i n f l a t i o n was not used adequately when the Spanish and Portuguese governments decided to tow the vessel away from the coast. The Prestige example forms a striking contrast with a s i ~ l ~ situation off the Belgian coast. Based on oil spill and wea~er forecast model information, the Belgian authorities decided in this case to allow the vessel to~ enter port. By doing so they prevented a ~saster where the t a ~ e r would have sank~ and pdtuted the Belgian and Dutch coasts, ~ s clearly demonstrat~ the~need for an ocean space irfformarion system on a gtobal, regional, national: and local ~evek To so~ve t~s compIex societal problem of sustainable: use of Europe's ocean space, t h e e also is a need to develop innovative policies through a pamcipatory ~process~ m which sociaI-cultural, ecological and economic aspects as well as technology and institutional consequences~ are taken into account. This is one of the objectives of the Global Monitoring of Environment and Security-(GMES)initiative of the European~ C o ~ s s i o n and European Space Agency. If implemented, Europe wilI have the technical, insrituri~onal and legal capabilities for integrated marine envkonmental policies towards sustainable use of its vast EEZ, in 2008.
References GESAMP Repot, 2 ~ 1 , A sea of trouble, UNEP; p. 1-35. Grosskurth, J. and J. Romans, in press. The S C ~ modeE getting a grip on sustainable development in policy-making. Envkon,ment, DeveIopmem and Sustainabflity. Rotmans, J., 2001, Integrated assessment: a bird's eye view, in A provisiona~ handbook for integrated assessment, Van Asselt, M.B.A., Rotmans, J., Greeuw, S.C.H., ICIS, p. 20-68. Rotmans, J., J. Grosskurth, M.B.A. Van Asselt, and D. Loorb~h, 200I, Duurzarne ontwikkeling van concept n a ~ uitvoering, ICIS, p. 1-59 (in Dutch). Stel, J.H., 2002, Mare Nostrum-Mare Libemm-Mare sit Aetemum, duu~aam gebruik van de ocean~sche mimte, oratie, Universiteit Maas~cht, p. 1-34 (in Dutch). Van As:selt, M.B.A., N. Rijkens-Klomp, and K. Molend~jk, 2 ~ 0 , Werken met het der~kmodeL tCIS working paper I 0 0 - ~ 2 , p. 1-89 (i~nDutch), Yin, Y., S. Cohen, and G.H. Huang, 2 ~ , Global climate change and re~onat sustainable ~ development: The case of Mackenzie Basin in Canada, Integrated Assessment 1, p. 21-37.
International Centre for Integrative Studies, University Maastricht, the Netherlands
Abstract The development of the Global Ocean Observing System, GOOS, is one of the most challenging issues of the action plan of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. Since this conference in Rio, a large number of regional and national initiatives such as EuroGOOS were started to implement GOOS. Progress in this field was reviewed during the 2002 Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development. GOOS and its regional bodies are seen in this paper as an information system for ocean space that provides state-of-the-art descriptions and forecasts of processes and resources. As such, GOOS is a high-technology answer to a complex societal issue in which aspects of climate change, climate forecasting and sustainable use of ocean space are central issues. Moreover, GOOS can be seen as a decision support system and a management tool for ocean governance. Sustainability is a key concept in international, national and local policy-making for the coming decades. However, the concept is also highly normative, value loaded, and subject to many interpretations. Yet, the various definitions have in common that they emphasise the need to address human development and environmental imperatives simultaneously. As such, the issue of sustainable development requires an integrated approach.
Keywords GOOS, EuroGOOS, Exclusive Economic Zone, human activity, sustainability, policy-making, stakeholders 1. Introduction The Bahamas flagged, single hull, 26-year-old Liberian but Greek operated tanker Prestige sank some 150 miles off the Spanish coast on 19 November 2002. It was damaged in a severe storm near Cape Finisterre, a famous landmark on the Spanish North Atlantic coast on its way from Riga in Latvia to Singapore. Carrying 77000 tons of heavy fuel oil, a tragedy developed in the Spanish Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in which governments, the European Commission, NGOs, News Agencies and citizens played a role. Around 10000 tonnes of the cargo leaked from the tanker after it was first damaged, blackening the waves and covering the Spanish coast between Finisterre and Coruna with oil slicks. This has severely damaged the fishery and tourist industry and killed marine life. Spanish authorities refused to let the vessel be towed inshore or into a port. They insisted that the doomed vessel should be towed out to sea. The result was a three * Corresponding author, email: [email protected]
Jan H. Stel
593
day salvage operation mainly involving towing the Prestige away from the Spanish coast and eventually South towards Portuguese waters. This was, however, prevented by Portugal sending a frigate to make the tugs turn westward again out of the EEZ into the open ocean. Finally the ship broke by the twisted seas. Watched by a Spanish and Portuguese frigate as well half of the world's media it disappeared from the surface of ocean space. The wreck, with some 60000 tonnes of oil, came to rest near a seamount at a depth of 3600m. It lies in a hostile environment where the cargo is slowly leaking from the wreck.
Figure I The sinking of the Prestige Spain arrested the captain of the ship as he refused to start the engines of the weakened vessel and to move it away from the coast. Neither Spain nor Portugal would allow the vessel to enter their ports. France insists that the leaders of the European Union countries discuss maritime security at their Copenhagen summit this December. The European Commission used the accident to stress again the need to enforce the new inspection rules, which were agreed upon after the 1999 Erika sinking off the west coast of France. But even today most European countries, among which France and Ireland stand out, do not even reach the present agreed inspection targets. In retrospect Spain should have allowed the ship to come inshore so that the oil could have been transferred to another vessel. Instead both Spain and Portugal used 'force' by sending frigates, to ensure that the vessel would leave or not enter their EEZ. This "Not in My Backyard" type of reaction again stresses the need for new ocean governance in which Arvid Pardo's notion of the 'common heritage of mankind' replaces Hugo de Groot's concept of the freedom of the seas. In the meantime soldiers and citizens again started to clean the pristine Spanish beaches, while CNN started a participative process about the question "who is to blame and who should pay" on the internet. The estimated direct economic costs of this tragedy are around three billion Euros (http:t/www.greenpeace.at/). The ecosystem costs are, however, not yet taken into account. The Prestige story is one of the many examples of the lack of a clear and integrated European policy towards sustainable use of its ocean space consisting of the national EEZs. It also demonstrates again that ocean space is still a blind spot in our land-trained mind. The French president only wanted to discuss maritime safety, apparently not an integrated approach in which environmental protection, fisheries, pollution, tourism panning, exploitation of mineral resources and control of hazardous maritime traffic are
594
Society and sustainable use of the Exclusive Economic Zones
taken into account. Moreover, the simple question of what would happen with the cargo in the deep ocean could not be answered directly. This also shows the need for more information about ocean space as well as the involvement of a better-informed public. Human activities have an ever-increasing effect on ocean space. These effects can be traced everywhere in the ocean. They rapidly increase when we enter the EEZs and the coastal waters. Although overfishing and habitat destruction tend to overshadow pollution, it has enormous effects on health and the environment (GESAMP, 2001). Sewage pollution ruins large areas for fisheries, recreation and tourism. Eutrophication and algal blooms cause major economic loss, while one in every twenty bathers in officially declared 'acceptable waters' will become ill with a societal loss of 1.6 billion US$ (GESAMP, 2001). The pressure on the coastal areas--the interface between ocean space and the l a n d m i s only increasing. The coast with its rapidly growing population is an area of paradoxes and poorly planned, badly regulated human activities. On the one hand habitats are altered or destroyed by human activities, while on the other hand humankind needs the ecosystem services of these habitats to survive!
2. Sustainable use of the EEZ From a terrestrial perspective the coast or coastline is often seen as the dividing line between land and sea. Yet, from an ocean perspective the interface between ocean space and the continents is highly complex. It involves different time scales and levels. At a global level for instance processes, such as the thermohaline circulation, influence climate change and the development of human cultures. At a regional level E1 Nifio type processes directly influence human prosperity, while the hydrological cycle links water management at a river basin level with ocean space. At a national or local level processes such as storm surges and floods directly influence human activities. The United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which came into force in November 1994, and the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) provide a new framework for ocean governance. UNCLOS introduced the 200 nautical miles EEZ bringing some 37% of ocean space (Stel, 2002), an area that equals the total land surface of the earth, under national jurisdiction. The seven largest EEZs of the world are given in Table 1. In the EEZ each country has the fight to explore, exploit, manage and conserve the natural resources as well as the obligation of protecting them. UNCED through its Agenda 21 gives a vision, among others, on how to reach a more sustainable and equitable global society. It also underpins the need for a marine information system, being GOOS, for ocean space and integrated coastal zone management. In 1987 the Brundtland Committee introduced the concept of sustainable development in their report "Our Common Future". Due to the difference in human perspectives and values among cultures, societal sectors and interest groups, the concept lacks a uniform definition. It may, however, not even be desirable to use only one specific definition of sustainable development at all (Yin et al., 2000). As a rule, sustainability is seen as a long-term (at least two generations) planning or development process that incorporates a holistic view of developments in different societal domains (social, ecological and economic) and at different levels: macro, meso, micro (Rotmans et al., 2001).
Jan H. Stel
595
Table 1 The seven largest ocean states of the world State
EEZ surface (in km 2)
Land surface (in km 2)
Population (estimate: July 2001)
France
9 956 400
547 030
59 982 295
USA
7621 300
9629091
278058881
Australia
7 008 300
7 686 850
19 357 594
Indonesia
5410000
1919440
228437 870
New Zealand
4834400
268680
3864129
Canada
4699000
9976140
31 592805
Russia
4491 500
17075200
145470197
Integrated assessment is a relative new paradigm for sustainable development of the EEZ. It is a multi- or interdisciplinary process of structuring knowledge elements from various scientific disciplines and stakeholders in such a manner that all relevant aspects of a complex societal problem are considered in their mutual coherence for the benefit of decision-making (Rotmans, 2001). Although many analytical and participatory techniques of integrated assessment can be applied in sustainable development studies, we focus on the SCENE or triangular model (Rotmans et al., 1999; Van Asselt et al., 2000). The acronym SCENE stands for SoCial, Environmental and Economic sustainability-capital. This is a system type approach of thinking in terms of flows and stocks. The basic rationale is to consider the EEZ as a complex system that consists of a number interrelated stocks and flows. Stocks are described quantitatively and qualitatively. In an integrated system approach the flows will make all exchanges within and between the stocks explicit.
Figure 2 SCENE or triangular model of capital forms
596
Society, and sustainable, use
of..:the ,Exclusive. Economic, Zones
These flows are either tangibIe and related to physical or fip~anciM flows, or imangible and related to for instance information or knowledge flows. ~ the SCENE model (Figure 2) three forms of capital are distinguis:hed, namely: -
Social-cultural capitM that relates to ~ quality and q u ~ f i t y of the pop~ation or to social and cultural provisions such as d ~ a p h i c structure, knowledge s t r u c ~ e , cultural heritage, etc.
9
Ecological capital, which rdates to ~ . quality arm quantity of natural stock e.g. minerals, fish, water quailS, b i ~ v e r s i ~ , s~pping Iarres.
-
Economi'c capital, which relates: to the: q ~ t y and ~.antity of the e c o n o ~ c infra. structure ~ c h as resources and mat.erials,: labour structure, transport infrastrucm~ (ports), etc.
Human activities affect the stocks in these three forms of capital. This influences both the amount as well as the quality of these stocks. S h ~ - t e r m changes are expressed in terms of flows, being i n t ~ o w s for flows: within a capitM form and interflows for exchanges between different capital forms. The stoc:~ have a number of characteristics: quamity, quality, spatiM clMm and function that: express l o n g - t e ~ changes The status of any stock is based upon these four:~~ t e r i s t i c s . Indicators are used for describing these characteristics or properties of a stock. Indicators describe c o ~ [ e x phenomena in a (quasi-)quantitative way by simp[i~ing them in such a way that communication with specific user groups is possible. A detaiMd description of the SCENE: model is given in paper of Grosskurth and Rotmans (in press). Moreover, renewable and non-renewable st~ks, as well as stock that can be directly or indirectly influenced or can be. influenced in ~ short or-long ~ r m should be ~ e n into account. If we consider a system such as an EEZ, as a combi~tion of stocks and flows then its condition can be judged based on an as s~sment of the stocks and the changes of these stocks (flows) in a similar way as the: position of a company is assessed in terms of a balance sheet (stocks) and a statemem of profits and losses (flow).~ With the SCENE model a number of important deve[oymems can be made explicit: 9
The development of the total amount of c a p i ~ of a system by analysing the changes in the total surface of the triangle, wM:ch~could decrease, increase or remain the same.
9
The development of the exchanges, between the different capitM forms through changes in the sufface-distribmiort within the triangle.
In analysing the d y n ~ c s of changes in the overMl capital of an E ~ "and the underlying stocks and flows, different system leve[s (macro, meso and micro as welt as their imerreladonships) need to be considered. At a macro~ieveI onIy a rough indication of the rna~or stocks and flows is needed whAIe at the lower levels an ever-increasing detMled su~;ivision in stocks and flows is needed. When for instance the complex problem of fisheries is studied with this model we could read social-cultural capital, ecological capital and economic capital as information at a hi~: ~-tracfion level about fisherrr,en, fish and fishery. If, however, the isst~e is studied at a lower abstraction level detailed information is needed about for instance the sociM-cultural structure of the fishermen community or of the fish stocks, etc.
Jan H. Stet
59-7
3. Conclusions As demons~ated by the' Prestige accident, there is a need: dating the d i s ~ o ~ n of ~ese problems to keep in: min'd the multi, level (l'ocaL national: and reg~on~) aspects and interrelations, At a European level there is a need for an integrated European EEZ policy and legislation towards the sustainable use and exploitation of the European waters:. On the other hand this policy and Iegislation has to t ~ e the intem~ona~ regn~ons: and convenrions into account, but should also be expressed in: national, etc. policies. Despite the fact that: the doomed vessel, could be followed from space, and despite the' fact that oiI spill models and some observation systems were avaitable, ~ s i n f l a t i o n was not used adequately when the Spanish and Portuguese governments decided to tow the vessel away from the coast. The Prestige example forms a striking contrast with a s i ~ l ~ situation off the Belgian coast. Based on oil spill and wea~er forecast model information, the Belgian authorities decided in this case to allow the vessel to~ enter port. By doing so they prevented a ~saster where the t a ~ e r would have sank~ and pdtuted the Belgian and Dutch coasts, ~ s clearly demonstrat~ the~need for an ocean space irfformarion system on a gtobal, regional, national: and local ~evek To so~ve t~s compIex societal problem of sustainable: use of Europe's ocean space, t h e e also is a need to develop innovative policies through a pamcipatory ~process~ m which sociaI-cultural, ecological and economic aspects as well as technology and institutional consequences~ are taken into account. This is one of the objectives of the Global Monitoring of Environment and Security-(GMES)initiative of the European~ C o ~ s s i o n and European Space Agency. If implemented, Europe wilI have the technical, insrituri~onal and legal capabilities for integrated marine envkonmental policies towards sustainable use of its vast EEZ, in 2008.
References GESAMP Repot, 2 ~ 1 , A sea of trouble, UNEP; p. 1-35. Grosskurth, J. and J. Romans, in press. The S C ~ modeE getting a grip on sustainable development in policy-making. Envkon,ment, DeveIopmem and Sustainabflity. Rotmans, J., 2001, Integrated assessment: a bird's eye view, in A provisiona~ handbook for integrated assessment, Van Asselt, M.B.A., Rotmans, J., Greeuw, S.C.H., ICIS, p. 20-68. Rotmans, J., J. Grosskurth, M.B.A. Van Asselt, and D. Loorb~h, 200I, Duurzarne ontwikkeling van concept n a ~ uitvoering, ICIS, p. 1-59 (in Dutch). Stel, J.H., 2002, Mare Nostrum-Mare Libemm-Mare sit Aetemum, duu~aam gebruik van de ocean~sche mimte, oratie, Universiteit Maas~cht, p. 1-34 (in Dutch). Van As:selt, M.B.A., N. Rijkens-Klomp, and K. Molend~jk, 2 ~ 0 , Werken met het der~kmodeL tCIS working paper I 0 0 - ~ 2 , p. 1-89 (i~nDutch), Yin, Y., S. Cohen, and G.H. Huang, 2 ~ , Global climate change and re~onat sustainable ~ development: The case of Mackenzie Basin in Canada, Integrated Assessment 1, p. 21-37.