Priorities in the Netherlands with respect to marine biodiversity

The Dutch government's target is to arrive at the sustainable conservation and use of marine resources in Dutch waters and by Dutch vessels in international waters, in accordance with international standards. The key priorities in this respect are a sustainable fishery sector and the designation of protected areas. Since the North Sea is a single indivisible ecosystem and the common fishery policy (CFP) is a community domain, national policy is of necessity strongly European in nature. Consequently, it is at that level in particular that the Netherlands must exert influence during negotiations in order to reach its objectives.

The government of the Netherlands aim is to have achieved the following results within the national waters no later than 2011:

• To have implemented the policy programme for sustainable fisheries by, among other things, employing measures to modernise and make the fishing fleet more sustainable, to promote innovation, and to reduce the fleet capacity under the European Fisheries Fund (EFF). The Operational Programme, which contains the measures for which the Netherlands will seek funding from the EFF,was submitted to the European Commission in September 2007 and approved at the end of that year. The programme's objective is to promote the sustainable development of the Dutch fishery sector, for example through innovation. The entire Dutch fishing sector will be required to make a significant effort to reduce its ecological impact in the coming years. Major changes in the way the sector operates will be inevitable. Here too, the government expects to make agreements with the sector on these change by 2011 at the latest.
• To have reduced discards of commercially uninteresting fish significantly. The indicator is a reduction of 50% in 2013 compared with known quantities in 2007. The negative impact of fishing on the seabed ecosystem must also be significantly reduced; here the Dutch indicator is that 40% of the current traditional trawl fishermen will be using a different method of fishing in 2013.
• To have declared the Nature Protection Act applicable in the Netherlands' Exclusive Economic Zone, one of the purposes being to create a network of marine protected areas in the Dutch section of the North Sea.
• No later than 2009, partly on the basis of its obligations under European law and other international commitments, to have designated and be protecting areas of special importance for biodiversity in the Dutch sector of the North Sea. The four areas concerned were already designated in the Integrated North Sea Management Plan 2015 (IBN 2015): the ‘Friese Front', the ‘Klaverbank', the ‘Doggerbank' and parts of the ‘Kustzee'.
• To have contributed to OSPAR's efforts to improve the quality of the marine environment, for example by operationalising the ecological quality objectives (ECOQOs), and to measures for the OSPAR list of threatened and declining species and habitats. Efforts made in this context will be more closely aligned with the EU directives (Birds Directive, Habitat Directive, the Marine Strategy Framework Directive).

To achieve these goals, the Netherlands will contribute actively to the uropean implementation and continuing development of marine iodiversity policy, including the greening of the EU's fishery policy. he Netherlands will press for a sustainable CFP, in which the ecosystem pproach is actually implemented. The Netherlands supports the steps taken n Europe to promote this approach, for example by providing funds to make he fishery sector more environmentally friendly, implementing a Maximum ustainable Yield as the point of departure for long-term management and ecovery plans for fish stocks, reducing discards, reducing the effects of ishing on non-target species (fish, birds,mammals) and on marine habitats, nd developing alternatives to the current system based on the otal Allowable Catch (TAC management).

Besides the European fishery policy, the Birds and Habitat Directives and he Marine Strategy Framework Directive are also relevant. The Dutch overnment will promote coordination on these issues within the EU and ith OSPAR. The government will also encourage innovation in the fishery ector and has accordingly set up the Fisheries Innovation Platform VIP) with representatives of the industry, the scientific community nd non-governmental organisations (NGOs).