Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
assessment of the impacts of ongoing activities
to facilitate early
detection of the possible unforeseen effects of activities carried on both
within and outside the Antarctic Treaty area
'
and
'
.
33
Article 11(1) of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive also
requires Member States to
'
'
establish and implement coordinated mon-
itoring programmes for the ongoing assessment of the environmental
status of their marine waters
. The programmes must be capable of
achieving a variety of ends set out in Annex V to the Directive, including
the provision of information from which the status of waters under
review and its distance from or progress towards the Directive
'
'
s objective
of a
'
good environmental status
'
for the marine environment can be
identi
ed. The establishment of capacities for monitoring would facili-
tate the adaptive management of activities affecting Europe
sseas.
However, the Directive does not build on this platform by requiring
that management measures and other aspects of marine strategies
(including the programmes for monitoring themselves) be reviewed in
light of new information. This is surprising as the Water Framework
Directive with which it shares many features does provide for targeted
investigation, the review of prior decisions and monitoring programmes,
and consideration of whether additional controls are needed where
monitoring data indicates that its objectives for improving the environ-
mental quality of terrestrial and coastal waters are unlikely to be
achieved.
34
Provisions that trigger focused research into how controls might be
modi
'
ed in light of systemic change are a necessary corollary to obligations
to monitor. They provide a stimulus for the production and analysis of
information with a view to tailoring regulation to changing conditions.
Accordingly, I suggest that power should be conferred on a scienti
c
advisory body under ecological governance to undertake the review of
existing controls where monitoring data indicates that they are not achiev-
ing desired ends or that natural changes in systemic conditions require a
new approach. The inclusion of provisions for the immediate review of the
ecological effects of activities is, as discussed below, required in existing
ecological regimes if these diverge from what was predicted. It is, in any
event, clearly appropriate for a systemwhose main purpose is to prevent the
33
Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty, Articles 3(2)(d) and 3(2)(e)
respectively.
34
Council Directive 2000/60/EC of 23 October 2000 establishing a framework for
Community action in the
eld of water policy [2000] OJ L 327/1, Article 11(5).
