Marine mammals and Good Environmental Status: Science, Policy and Society; Challenges and Opportunities

The Marine Strategy Framework Directive has become the key instrument for marine conservation in European seas. We review its implementation, focusing on cetacean biodiversity, using the examples of Spain and the Regional Seas Convention, OSPAR. The MSFD has been widely criticised for legal vagueness, lack of coordination, uncertainty about funding, and poor governance; its future role within EU Integrated Maritime Policy remains unclear. Nevertheless, the first stages of the process have run broadly to schedule: current status, environmental objectives and indicators have been described and the design of monitoring programmes is in progress, drawing on experience with other environmental legislation. The MSFD is now entering its critical phase, with lack of funding for monitoring, limited scope for management interventions, and uncertainty about how conservation objectives will be reconciled with the needs of other marine and maritime sectors, being among the main concerns. Clarity in governance, about the roles of the EU, Member States, Regional Seas Conventions and stakeholders, is needed to ensure success. However, even if (as seems likely) good environmental status cannot be achieved by 2020, significant steps will have been taken to place environmental sustainability centre-stage in the development of Integrated Maritime Policy for EU seas.Postprin

The ability of societies to adapt to twenty-first-century sea-level rise

Against the background of potentially substantial sea-level rise, one important question is to what extent are coastal societies able to adapt? This question is often answered in the negative by referring to sinking islands and submerged megacities. Although these risks are real, the picture is incomplete because it lacks consideration of adaptation. This Perspective explores societies' abilities to adapt to twenty-first-century sea-level rise by integrating perspectives from coastal engineering, economics, finance and social sciences, and provides a comparative analysis of a set of cases that vary in terms of technological limits, economic and financial barriers to adaptation and social conflicts

Decentralization, regionalization and co-management. A critical view on the viability of the alternative management models for fisheries in Spain

From the recession that marked the 1980s onward, the search for new management systems for the fishing sector has been one of the main aims of the forces in charge of devising and settling the guidelines for fishing industry development. Among the different choices that may be presented (centralization, devolved management, self-management of fishing communities, etc), co-management--understood as strong cooperation between the different participants of the fishing industry--is seen as one of the most favoured and practicable options. However, acting as a counterbalance to the advantages offered by a co-management system, there are many problems that make its implementation difficult: the inflexibility of the civil administration system, the lack of cohesion between fishermen's organizations, the unreliability of statistics about the fishing sector, and the lack of channels of communication between the different authorities in charge of the management of the sector. This article will analyse the particular instance of Spain, where the fishing sector is marked by diversity, and where fishing co-management stands as an alternative for the territories that aredependent on this industry.fisheries management decentralization regionalization comanagement

Sectoral Views on Migration and Border Cooperation

This chapter contains short expert views on migration, asylum and border cooperation. Roos shows how the end of freedom of movement in the UK could lead to EU migrants coming into the country illegally or slipping into semi-legality or illegality post-entry, and Wolff explores Brexit’s impact on asylum seekers in the UK, arguing that an extensive and generous asylum and migration policy is crucial for the UK to remain a global player. Regarding border governance, Orsini compares current and possible future cooperation at the borders of Dover and Gibraltar; Gomez Arana calls for pragmatism and identity politics being taken into account to manage the border of Gibraltar in the future; and lastly, Irrera warns that Brexit could interrupt the peace process in Northern Ireland, to which the EU has contributed