Latest meeting of OSPAR's marine litter group

OSPAR’s marine litter group met last week in Brussels. The meeting was opened by Belgium’s Secretary of State for the North Sea, Philippe De Backer, who welcomed participants and informed of Belgium’s recently published national action plan to combat marine litter.

With a packed agenda, discussions included issues such as improving the accuracy of OSPAR’s assessment and monitoring of marine litter, updating OSPAR’s Guideline for monitoring marine litter on beaches (OSPAR Publication 526), developing new assessments of microplastics in the marine environment, and progress on fulfilling the commitments in OSPAR’s Marine Litter Regional Action Plan.

Before leaving Brussels, the OSPAR Secretariat also met with other Regional Sea Conventions (HELCOM and the BARCELONA CONVENTION) and the EU to discuss similarities between activities happening across the different regions, and to look for potential opportunities to collaborate.

OSPAR’s new Regional Action Plan Project Coordinator, Jennifer Godwin, attended the meeting, as her new post will support the implementation of the plan with the aim to ensure strong progress in 2018.