OSPAR's biodiversity and ecosystems committee

3 April 2019

The annual meeting of OSPAR's biodiversity and ecosystems committee (BDC) took place on the island of Jersey from 25-29 March 2019. The meeting considered a large number of documents, reflecting the extensive BDC work programme.

The review of progress made against the North-East Atlantic Environment Strategy 2010-2020 on biodiversity topics was agreed by BDC 2019. During the past ten years, OSPAR has made significant progress in enlarging the OSPAR network of Marine Protected Areas. OSPAR has also developed a framework for managing threatened and or declining features. In planning for the coming ten years and biodiversity aspects of the North East Atlantic Environment Strategy 2020-2030 BDC suggested that focus should be place on implementation and management of the systems that have been put in place.

BDC 2019 agreed on the guidelines for carrying out status assessments of OSPAR listed features. This will result in regular status updates on species such as blue whale and habitats such as maerl beds. Lead countries will deliver the first assessments in the meeting cycle 2019/2020.

Chair of BDC, Jeroen Vis (the Netherlands) was intereviewed on BBC Channel Islands News. You can watch his interview here

More information on the work of BDC can be found here