Advancing tuna catch allocation negotiations: an analysis of sovereign rights and fisheries access arrangements

Regional fisheries management organisations (RFMOs) determine conservation measures for transboundary fsheries resources. They are also a forum for collective action toward the management of marine resources. One of the most complex and controversial aspects of this process is the allocation of catches between RFMO members. There are a variety of processes that can be used for catch allocation. In recent years, there has been a trend in some RFMOs towards establishing a system of criteria or indicators to determine the volume or percentage of catch that should be allocated to each RFMO member. Establishing such a system is challenging and the position of countries negotiating at RFMOs is also shaped by fisheries access arrangements. The debate on allocation has been ongoing at the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission for more than a decade, where one key point of disagreement is the treatment of historical catch taken in the waters of a coastal State. On the one hand, coastal states claim that catches historically taken in their exclusive economic zones (EEZ) should be attributed to them based on their sovereign rights over living resources. On the other, some fishing countries from outside the region claim catch history based on fishing conducted in the coastal State’s waters pursuant to access agreements. We analysed UNCLOS articles, publicly available fisheries access agreements, and national legislation to unpack the linkage between fisheries access arrangements and catch allocation discussions, and we also explored examples from other regions and RFMOs. We point out that the sovereign rights of coastal states over their EEZ provide a strong basis for allocation negotiations. In the absence of specific agreements to the contrary, any catch history that arises from foreign vessels fishing inside the EEZ should be attributed to the coastal State. We also argue that it is time for members of RFMOs—and especially of the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission—to move beyond the historical catch debate. They need to resolve their differences or consider other ways to allocate participatory rights in shared fisheries

Evaluation of the Snowmelt Runoff Model in the Moroccan High Atlas mountains using two snow-cover estimates

In the centre of Morocco, the High Atlas mountain range represents the most important water storage for the neighbouring arid plains through liquid and solid precipitation. In this context, we evaluated the performance of the Snowmelt Runoff Model (SRM) on the five main tributary watersheds of the High Atlas range. Due to the very low density of climate stations in the High Atlas, snowfall and snowmelt processes are difficult to monitor using meteorological data alone. In order to compensate for the lack of in situ data, snow maps are also derived from remotely-sensed data. We compared the streamflow forecasting performance when the model is driven by one or the other estimate of snow-covered area. Both estimates are generally comparable in all watersheds, and satisfactory streamflow simulations were obtained at seasonal time scales using both snow-cover products. However, significant differences can be observed for selected storms, with more accurate streamflow predictions being obtained when the remotely-sensed data are used

Assessment of daily MODIS snow cover products to monitor snow cover dynamics over the Moroccan Atlas mountain range

In semi-arid Mediterranean areas, the snow in the mountains represents an important source of water supply for many people living downstream. This study assessed the daily MODIS fractional snow-covered area (FSC) products over seven catchments with a mixed snow-rain hydrological regime, covering the Atlas chain in Morocco. For this purpose, more than 4760 daily MODIS tiles (MOD10A1 version 5) from September 2000 to June 2013 were processed, based on a spatio-temporal filtering algorithm aiming at reducing cloud coverage and the problem of discrimination between snow and cloud. The number of pixels identified as cloudy was reduced by 96% from 22.6% to 0.8%. In situ data from five snow stations were used to investigate the relative accuracy of MODE snow products. The overall accuracy is equal to 89% (with a 0.1 m. threshold for snow depth). The timing of the seasonal snow was also correctly detected with 11.4 days and 9.4 days of average errors with almost no bias for onset and ablation dates, respectively. The comparison of the FSC products to a series of 15 clear sky FORMOSAT-2 images at 8 m resolution in the Rheraya sub-basin near to Marrakech showed a good correlation of the two datasets (r = 0.97) and a reasonable negative bias of -27 km(2). Finally, the FSC products were analyzed through seasonal indicators including onset and melt-out dates, the Snow Cover Duration (SCD) and the maximum snow cover extent (SCAmax) at the catchment level: (1) the dynamic of the snow cover area is characterized by a very strong inter-annual signal with a variation coefficient of the SCAmax reaching 77%; (2) there is no evidence of a statistically significant long-term trend although results have pointed out that the SCD increased in February-March and, to a lesser extent, decreased in April-May for the 2000-2013 period. The study concludes that the daily MODIS product can be used with reasonable confidence to map snow cover in the South Mediterranean area despite difficult detection conditions

Earth Observation products for operational irrigation management in the context of the PLEIADeS project

Controlled and efficient agricultural irrigation management is required to avoid negative effects of the increasing world water scarcity and therefore to assure a sustainable production. Within this context, the project 'Participatory multi-Level EO-assisted tools for Irrigation water management and Agricultural Decision-Support' (PLEIADeS: http://www.pleiades.es) addressed the efficient and sustainable use of water for food production in water-scarce environments. The project aimed at improving the performance of irrigation schemes by means of a range of measures, made possible through wide space-time coverage of Earth Observation (E.O.) data and interactive networking capabilities of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). Project partners, represented by a set of pilot case-studies, included a broad range of conditions characteristic for the European, Southern Mediterranean and American regions. Algorithms for a number of basic products for the estimation of Irrigation Water Requirements (IWR) have been defined in an operational framework. In this study a review of application of these algorithms, applied and validated within different case-studies during the project, is presented