2 Introduction – integrated, ecosystem-based management

Over the past 20 years, the management plan system has been developed into the most important political tool for an integrated Norwegian ocean policy. Norway has a long tradition of sustainable management of the ocean environment and its resources, using a long-term approach for the benefit of society as a whole. Value creation from Norway’s ocean-based activities now and in the future depends on maintaining good ecosystem condition and high biodiversity in the marine and coastal environment. Future growth of the ocean economy requires sustainable harvesting of resources and integrated ocean management.

Many problems in the marine environment are transboundary in nature, and the distribution of many living marine resources extends across national borders. Moreover, the ocean is under growing pressure from human drivers of change. Changes in the ocean environment resulting from climate change, ocean acidification, the loss of biodiversity and inputs of pollutants not only have environmental impacts, but also have consequences for food security and nutrition. There is also growing international recognition that the ocean offers part of the solution to major global problems such as hunger, malnutrition and climate change.

2.1 Norway’s system of integrated, ecosystem-based ocean management plans

The purpose of the management plans is to provide a framework for value creation through the sustainable use of marine natural resources and ecosystem services and at the same time maintain ecosystem structure, functioning, productivity and diversity. The management plans are thus a tool both for facilitating value creation and food security, and for maintaining the high environmental value of Norway’s seas and oceans. They clarify an overall framework and encourage closer coordination and clear priorities for the management plan areas. They increase predictability and facilitate coexistence between industries that are based on sustainable use of these areas and exploitation of their resources. Activities in each management plan area are regulated on the basis of existing legislation governing different sectors. The various sectoral authorities have the main responsibility for implementing the measures set out in the management plans, under relevant legislation that they administer.

Integrated, ecosystem-based ocean management is an approach to managing ecosystems and resources that involves finding a balance between use and protection of rich, productive ecosystems and the ecosystem services they provide, and thus promoting an equitable system of conservation and sustainable use. Ecosystem-based management uses available knowledge as a basis, and considers ecosystems as a whole, including people, when decisions are needed on ocean management and marine ecosystem management. The management plans implement an integrated, ecosystem-based management regime by evaluating the cumulative impacts of all human activities on the marine environment and by managing the use of the oceans in a way that maintains the natural functions of ecosystems and ecosystem services. Ecosystem services are a vital basis for long-term value creation.

Source: Norwegian Environment Agency/Ministry of Climate and Environment

The basis for Norway’s system of integrated, ecosystem-based ocean management plans was laid in the white paper Protecting the Riches of the Sea (Report No. 12 (2001–2002) to the Storting). The white paper described how an integrated, ecosystem-based ocean management regime could be developed based partly on the Malawi Principles under the Convention on Biological Diversity and on experience gained from the environmental and fisheries cooperation between the North Sea countries. The first of Norway’s ocean management plans was published as the white paper Integrated Management of the Marine Environment of the Barents Sea and the Sea Areas off the Lofoten Islands (Report No. 8 (2005–2006) to the Storting). It has served as a model for subsequent management plans. The national target that integrated, ecosystem-based management plans were to be presented for all of Norway’s sea areas by 2015 was adopted in connection with the Storting debate on another white paper, The Government’s Environmental Policy and the State of the Environment in Norway (Report No. 26 (2006–2007) to the Storting). This target was achieved with the publication of the first management plans for the Norwegian Sea in 2009 and the North Sea and Skagerrak in 2013. In 2016, in connection with its debate on the white paper Nature for life (Meld. St. 14 (2015–2016)), the Storting decided that the ocean management plans were to be updated ever four years. Ocean management plans for all three areas were published together for the first time in the white paper Norway’s integrated ocean management plans (Meld. St. 20 (2019–2020)). Including this document, nine white papers have since 2002 been presented to the Storting on integrated management of Norway’s ocean areas. The system has been under continual development, and has been developed, improved and modernised with each white paper on the ocean management plans. In this white paper, the Government is continuing and consolidating the system, which includes publishing an integrated, ecosystem-based ocean management plan for all of Norway’s ocean areas every four years.

2.2 Key trends and developments

Key trends and developments both in Norway and internationally form an important backdrop to this update of the Norwegian ocean management plans.

2.2.1 Progress in international ocean cooperation

Recognition of the crucial importance of ensuring integrated, sustainable ocean management is a key element of Norway’s foreign and development policy. At the same time, developments and progress in international ocean cooperation are important for the further development of Norway’s ocean management regime.

Since the previous white paper on the management plans was published, important progress has been made in international ocean cooperation, particularly as regards the marine and coastal environment. The new UN Agreement on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (the BBNJ Agreement) was formally adopted by consensus in June 2023. The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework was adopted in Montreal in December 2022. One of its global targets is as follows: ‘Ensure and enable that by 2030 at least 30 per cent of terrestrial and inland water areas, and of marine and coastal areas, especially areas of particular importance for biodiversity and ecosystem functions and services, are effectively conserved and managed through ecologically representative, well-connected and equitably governed systems of protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures, …’

Norway has for some years been working to enhance international cooperation to address the problem of marine litter and plastic waste. A negotiation process for a legally binding global instrument to end plastic pollution is now in progress, and the aim is to conclude the negotiations in the course of 2024. Norway is playing an active role and seeking to achieve a binding, effective global instrument with the aim of ending plastic pollution by 2040. As regards climate action, in summer 2023 the International Maritime Organization (IMO) adopted the common ambition of reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions from international shipping by 2050. Norway played a key role in the development of IMO’s strategy on greenhouse gas emission reductions, which includes checkpoints for reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from international shipping in 2030 and 2040, to reach net-zero in 2050.

International cooperation to strengthen integrated, ecosystem-based ocean management is an essential basis for achieving several of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, particularly SDG 14, which is ‘to conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources’.

There is emerging international consensus on a description of the state of the ocean, and what needs to be done to protect it better and ensure that we can continue to use ocean resources sustainably in the future. The UN Ocean Conferences are an important meeting place, and Norway is spearheading efforts to ensure that knowledge-based, sustainable ocean management stays high on the agenda of the next conference in 2025. Norway’s participation in the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development and its work within the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (UNESCO-IOC) play a key role in this context.

As co-chair of the High-level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy (Ocean Panel), Norway has played a part in raising awareness internationally about the key links between the state of the ocean and economic development, and the need to ensure that the ocean as a whole is managed sustainably.

2.2.2 The ocean as part of the solution to climate change, and green ocean-based industrial development

While climate change is a threat to life in the ocean, many of the solutions we need to limit anthropogenic climate change are linked to ocean management and the ocean economy. In managing Norway’s ocean areas, it is therefore vital both to tackle the challenges arising from the environmental impacts of climate change, and to make use of all ocean-based options for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing CO₂ uptake. This approach is crucial to success in the green transition, for achieving climate targets, and for improving the competitive position of the Norwegian ocean industries in a global market.

The previous white paper on Norway’s ocean management plans, Meld. St. 20 (2019–2020), identified climate change as the driver of change that is accelerating most rapidly, both globally and in Norwegian seas. It described how ocean management can play a significant part in the global transition to a low-emission future, by strengthening the ocean’s capacity for carbon uptake and facilitating a green transformation in the ocean industries. The white paper also pointed out that offshore wind, carbon capture and storage under the seabed and green shipping are three areas where Norway has much to offer and where a green transition can be promoted through the ocean management system. Marine ecosystems such as kelp forests, seaweed communities and eelgrass meadows absorb and store CO₂, and the conservation of such ecosystems is therefore important.

Climate change and ocean acidification are altering the ocean environment and the ecological basis for exploiting ocean resources; at the same time, action to achieve the necessary emission reductions will increase the need to make use of the oceans, for example to expand production of food with a low carbon footprint and renewable energy. This can further increase pressure on the environment in the areas that are used. It is therefore essential to ensure that activities linked to the green transition are also managed within a framework designed to maintain the productivity and biodiversity of ecosystems.

Natural uptake and storage of greenhouse gases in the ocean is discussed in Chapter 4. Chapter 5 includes an account of the role the ocean industries can play in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

2.2.3 Growing pressure on marine and coastal waters

The oceans contribute to human well-being by providing resources such as food, minerals and energy, transport routes and a basis for recreation and tourism. The oceans are affected by global warming, but also moderate it by absorbing heat and CO₂, and act as a sink for various types of pollutants and waste. Population growth and the expansion of the economy globally are creating a constantly growing need for ocean transport and for food, energy and other resources from the oceans. The goal of rapid reductions in greenhouse gas emissions is intensifying this need, for example by increasing demand for offshore renewable energy production, seafood production with low greenhouse gas emissions, and CO₂ storage under the seabed. This also means that the global ocean system, from the coastline to the deep sea, is under growing pressure from human activity – through the fisheries, pollution, developments in the coastal zone, the spread of alien species, and large-scale physical, chemical and ecological changes as a result of greenhouse gas emissions and global warming. Further development of Norway’s ocean management system must be based on an understanding of the environmental impacts of large-scale processes of change in Norway’s ocean areas, the types of change to be expected, and the long-term implications for management and use of the management plan areas. These large-scale processes will result in constantly changing environmental conditions and patterns of species distribution in different parts of Norwegian waters. In some cases, shifts in species distribution will result in new species replacing others that are currently present in an area, while many species and ecosystems will become more vulnerable, for example to human activity in the management plan areas. In these circumstances, there is much more uncertainty about environmental conditions in the future, which will alter the relationship between harvesting and other uses of Norway’s ocean areas.

Coastal and open ocean ecosystems are closely linked, and ecological processes in coastal waters have a strong influence on the marine environment in large parts of the management plan areas. There are many examples of species that move between coastal waters and the open ocean. Various fish species spawn in the fjords and coastal waters, while their nursery areas and feeding grounds are further out to sea. Similarly, many seabirds and marine mammals move between the open ocean and coastal waters to find food or as part of an annual cycle in which they use different areas at different seasons. The close links between coastal and open waters are also apparent when we consider environmental pressures from human activity. Continual movement in the water masses results in water exchange between fjords, coastal waters and the open ocean. Pollution from land-based sources can thus reach the open ocean and cause environmental impacts there as well. Conversely, pollution and waste carried by ocean currents can reach coastal waters and fjords. More knowledge is needed about interactions between coastal waters and the open ocean to improve understanding of the expected impacts of human activity combined with climate change both on various species and on ecosystem condition.

Chapter 3 gives an account of ecosystem condition in Norwegian marine and coastal areas, and Chapter 4 describes the management regime for these areas.

2.2.4 Growing awareness of the importance of ocean spatial planning

The 2019 Global Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) states that globally, land and sea-use change is the direct driver that is causing the greatest losses of biodiversity in terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems, and that this is also an important factor in the oceans. Under the global Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, countries have committed themselves to a set of targets, including one to ‘ensure that all areas are under participatory, integrated and biodiversity inclusive spatial planning and/or effective management processes addressing land- and sea-use change, to bring the loss of areas of high biodiversity importance, including ecosystems of high ecological integrity, close to zero by 2030, while respecting the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities.’

According to the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (UNESCO-IOC), more than 100 countries now have or are in the process of establishing national systems for marine spatial planning. Norway’s ocean management plans are considered to constitute an established marine spatial planning system.

The ocean management plans are intended to provide an overall balance between use and conservation, based on knowledge about ecological functions and the value and vulnerability of different areas together with information about economic activity now and forecasts for the future. Chapter 7 discusses how Norway is facilitating the conservation and sustainable use of ocean areas as part of an integrated ocean management regime.

2.2.5 Growing strategic importance of Norway’s ocean areas

The major security policy changes we are witnessing at present are influencing Norwegian and Allied needs for a military presence and surveillance in Norwegian waters. Norway’s geographical situation and the growing strategic importance of the Arctic are making the country more vulnerable. There is growing activity in waters under Norwegian jurisdiction and adjacent areas, and this trend is expected to continue. To ensure that it has the capacity to maintain both its influence in neighbouring areas and its own security, Norway must have a naval presence, a sound situational awareness, response capabilities and an emergency preparedness system. Norway must have the maritime capabilities to act in Norwegian territorial waters, in other marine areas where Norway has jurisdiction and in the Arctic, both alone and together with allies. The deteriorating security policy situation is creating a greater need for a maritime presence, both Norwegian and Allied, and for both surface and subsea activity. Moreover, the Armed Forces need access to areas where they can train and exercise. In addition, it is important to maintain a civilian presence in Norway’s waters, for example through environmental and resource mapping activities.

2.3 The Ocean Panel and sustainable ocean plans

The High-level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy (Ocean Panel) is co-chaired by Norway’s prime minister and Palau’s president. It consists of leaders from 18 coastal states: Australia, Canada, Chile, Fiji, France, Ghana, Indonesia, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Namibia, Norway, Palau, Portugal, the Seychelles, the UK and the US. The Norwegian Government wishes to make use of the Ocean Panel to create greater international understanding of the links between the economic importance of the ocean and of the state of the ocean. Norway endorsed the recommendations published by the Panel in 2020, and has undertaken a political commitment to sustainably manage 100 % of the ocean area under its jurisdiction by 2025, on the basis of sustainable ocean plans, or SOPs. The Ocean Panel has urged all coastal states to do this by 2030.

The Norwegian ocean management plans have received a great deal of international recognition and have served as a model for the sustainable ocean plans recommended by the Ocean Panel. At the UN Ocean Conference in Lisbon in 2022, the Norwegian Government stated that the planned 2024 white paper on the ocean management plans would be the key element of Norway’s plans for a sustainable ocean, and that it would use the white paper together with industrial development plans and other regulatory measures to achieve sustainable ocean management.

Textbox 2.1 The Norwegian Government’s ocean conference 2023

The Government’s ocean conference (‘Norge og havet’) was held in Bergen on 17 April 2023. One of its main themes was integrated, sustainable ocean management. The Prime Minister took part together with five ministers from other ministries with ocean-related responsibilities (Ministry of Climate and Environment, Ministry of Energy, Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries, Ministry of Labour and Social Inclusion and Ministry of Foreign Affairs). This highlights the cross-sectoral responsibility for ocean affairs in the Norwegian Government. In addition, a wide range of experts from the voluntary sector, the business sector and research institutes participated. The purpose of the conference was to put the Ocean Panel’s international work into a Norwegian context and highlight overall Government policy for a green ocean transition.

Photo: Paul S. Amundsen

According to the Ocean Panel, a sustainable ocean plan ‘… describes policies and mechanisms to facilitate sustainable use of the ocean and maximise benefits and value creation for current and future generations'. The Panel emphasises the importance of conservation as an instrument of a sustainable ocean economy. Sustainable ocean plans ‘provide a framework for reconciling conflicts related to different uses of the ocean and its resources’, and ‘enable long-term sustainable growth in the ocean economy’. The Ocean Panel also emphasises how important it is to develop and implement sustainable ocean plans through ‘an inclusive, participatory, transparent and accountable process’.

The Ocean Panel has also commissioned a guide to the development of sustainable ocean plans. Several countries that are members of the Panel, including Chile and Mexico, have already presented their plans, and these demonstrate that the process may involve considerable variation and a wide range of solutions, depending on national circumstances. Chapter 8 discusses the work of the Ocean Panel further.

2.4 Preparation of the white paper

In line with the routines established as an important element of the management plan system, work on this white paper has brought together all relevant parts of the public administration. Work on the management plans is coordinated by the interministerial Steering Committee for integrated ocean management, which is headed by the Ministry of Climate and Environment. Other ministries represented in the committee are the Ministry of Energy, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Justice and Public Security, the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development, the Ministry of Education and Research, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The management plans are knowledge-based. The scientific basis for the plans has been drawn up by two advisory groups: the Forum for Integrated Ocean Management and the Advisory Group on Monitoring. The Forum for Integrated Ocean Management (headed by the Norwegian Environment Agency) is responsible for drawing up an overall scientific basis for updating and revising the management plans in cooperation with the Advisory Group on Monitoring. The Advisory Group on Monitoring (headed by the Institute of Marine Research) coordinates monitoring programmes for marine ecosystems and reports on ecosystem condition in the management plan areas, see Figure 2.3.

The Forum for Integrated Ocean Management and the Advisory Group on Monitoring presented the main report on the updated scientific basis for this white paper in spring 2023. This was based on a report from the Advisory Group on Monitoring on ecosystem condition in the management plan areas and a number of other reports on various topics. Some of the reports are available in English or have an English summary and are available here: https://havforum.miljodirektoratet.no/en/knowledge-base/reports/.

Source: Ministry of Climate and Environment

The particularly valuable and vulnerable areas have been one of the main elements of the management plan system since it was initiated with the preparation of a scientific basis and then, in 2006, the first management plan for the Barents Sea–Lofoten area. Knowledge built up about these areas, which have been identified as containing the most important and vulnerable ecological features in Norwegian waters, provides a sound basis for political assessments and decisions on the management plans, for example in determining the framework for petroleum activities in specific geographical areas.

The previous white paper on the ocean management plans (Meld. St. 20 (2019–2020)) stated that the ongoing review of valuable species and habitats and their vulnerability in all the particularly valuable and vulnerable areas identified in the management plan areas was to be completed. This has now been organised by the Forum for Integrated Ocean Management.

Regional dialogue meetings were held in Bergen, Trondheim and Tromsø in August–September 2023, and a conference was held at the Ministry of Climate and Environment on 27 September 2023 to give all interested parties an opportunity to discuss the reports. In all, 24 parties provided written responses during the preparation of the white paper, and these are available on the Government website regjeringen.no. A central theme in the responses was a call for more clarity and detail on what is involved when an area is designated as particularly valuable and vulnerable. In addition to clarification of what the designation means, this white paper gives a thorough account of the new scientific method of identifying particularly valuable and vulnerable areas, see Chapter 4.

2.5 Geographical and thematic scope

Geographically, Norway’s ocean management plans cover all marine areas off the Norwegian mainland and around Jan Mayen and Svalbard that are under Norwegian jurisdiction, delimited to coincide with three large marine ecosystems: the Barents Sea–Lofoten area, the Norwegian Sea and the North Sea and Skagerrak. Along the mainland coastline, the management plan areas extend to the baseline. The area considered in the scientific basis extends beyond the actual management plan areas to allow a satisfactory description of status and trends, such as pressures and impacts associated with land-based activities, ecosystem components in the coastal zone, and links with ecosystems, activities and ecosystem condition in adjacent marine areas.

Norway, Denmark/the Faroe Islands and Iceland have concluded three bilateral agreements on the delimitation of the continental shelf in the area known as the ‘Banana Hole’ in the Norwegian Sea. These entered into force in 2022, thus clarifying the maritime delimitation between the three countries’ continental shelves in the southern part of the Banana Hole. The boundary of the Norwegian Sea management plan area has been altered to reflect this. The extent of the Norwegian continental shelf as recommended by the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf has been used as a basis for determining the new boundaries of the management plan areas in the northern part of the Banana Hole (Norwegian Sea) and north of Svalbard (Barents Sea–Lofoten area), with the exception of areas where there may be some overlap between Norway’s and Denmark’s continental shelf.

The measures proposed in this white paper focus mainly on the management plan areas from the baseline outwards towards the open sea, but also take into account factors such as how external drivers may have impacts inside the management plan areas or vice versa. This is for example relevant when considering the interplay between coastal waters and the open sea.

Source: Norwegian Environment Agency

Norwegian ocean areas in the Antarctic are managed through the Antarctic Treaty system, including the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR). The Norwegian Polar Institute monitors the fur seal and penguin colonies on Bouvet Island as part of the CCAMLR ecosystem monitoring programme (CEMP). These areas are completely separate from Norway’s northern ocean areas, and no scientific basis has been prepared to include the waters around Bouvet Island and the Norwegian dependencies in Antarctica (Dronning Maud Land and Peter I’s Island) in the current white paper.

New white paper on biodiversity

Norway will implement the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, which was adopted in Montreal in December 2022, through a new biodiversity action plan. The action plan will be presented to the Storting in the form of a white paper, according to plan in autumn 2024. Norway’s plans for following up the global targets set out in the Biodiversity Framework, including those relating to the ocean, will be described in the action plan.

New white paper on climate policy

In view of Norway’s statutory target of being a low-emission society by 2050, meaning that emissions will have been reduced by 90–95 %, the Government also intends to present a white paper on climate policy for the period up to 2025. The white paper will set out a long-term, integrated framework for Norway’s climate policy in the years ahead.