Marine Strategy Framework Directive - Review and analysis of Member States’ 2018 reports Descriptor 1: Species biological diversity

• Main Authors: PALIALEXIS Andreas, BOSCHETTI Simona
• Language: English
• Published: Publications Office of the European Union 2021
• Subjects: North East Atlantic
• Online Access: https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC124085; https://doi.org/10.2760/27700

The report analyses the information provided by the European Union’s Member States (MS) for the species theme of Descriptor 1 (D1) – species groups of birds, mammals, reptiles, fish and cephalopods (relating to Descriptor 1) – of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). The reported information by the MS follows the MSFD Article 17 requirement to update Articles 8, 9 and 10 of the Directive, for the current 6-year MSFD reporting cycle. By September 2020, 20 MS reported on D1 in electronic format. The MS made a huge and respectable effort to fulfil the demanding requirements of an environmentally ambitious Directive like the MSFD. The second reporting obligation for Art. 8, 9 and 10 was remarkably improved compared to the 2012 reporting, especially regarding the regional coordination, the consistency in the reporting (which can be further improved) and good understanding of the reporting and assessing requirements. Regarding the species groups, marine mammals had more complete assessments and good regional coordination for the GES determination. For marine reptiles, there were no agreed methods for assessments and GES determination, and this was reflected in the poor reporting. Seabirds are well coordinated in terms of methods and assessment in the Baltic and North East Atlantic Seas, however important gaps exist in data availability in the Mediterranean and Black Sea. For fish and cephalopods reported under D1, critical gaps in assessment methods, species selection and data did not allow a comprehensive EU GES evaluation. The input from other EU policies, mostly the Habitats and Birds Directives, and the Regional Sea Conventions was critical for the improvement between the two reporting cycles. However, there is still room for aligning the EU policies and further develop regional indicators and methods towards harmonised and comparable regional GES assessments for the highly mobile species.With regards to Article 9, a general lack of harmonization in the GES determination was evident. In most cases, GES was not specified in a quantitative manner or associated to a threshold values to discriminate good from bad status. With regards to Article 10, discrepancies were observed in the way the Member States have set their targets, while many of the reported targets were not consistently assigned to the Descriptor and to the GES components. Targets were not harmonised across MS and they were rarely measurable and/or associated with specific thresholds. The present report provides recommendations for the implementation of MSFD for D1 species. As an overarching recommendation for D1 species, the GES Common Implementation Strategy should prioritise the work to harmonise the GES determination and the common understanding on how to develop quantitative GES description with agreed thresholds, which will be regionally coordinated. Although these key actions for the harmonised MSFD implementation are conceptually well developed in the GES Decision (2017/848/EU) and in the SWD(2020) 62, more should be invested to harmonise their operationalisation. This work will positively affect the target setting for Art. 10. Obviously, across the species groups, criteria and regions there are significant differences regarding the developed methodological standards for GES and data availability. JRC.D.2 - Water and Marine Resources