2010 – 2011 Rational Statement; The Ocean and Islands Programme provides applied ocean, island and coastal geoscience services to support countries to govern and develop their natural resources, increase their resilience to hazards and facilitates data based approaches to adaptation. These vital

technical services will be strategically deployed in response to specific Member requests to assist in the development, management and monitoring of natural resources and unique island environmental

systems and processes.

2011 Heads of Fisheries Meeting - Maritime Boundaries Brief.

Dr Arthur Webb, Deputy Director OIP.

SPC SOPAC Division

Applied Geoscience & Technology Division – SOPAC l

Natural Resource Economics

Overview of the new Applied Geoscience & Technology Division “SOPAC Division”

ii

Directorate

Publications

Information Management

Disaster Reduction Programme

Ocean & Islands Programme

Water & Sanitation Programme

SPC SOPAC Division

GIS Remote Sensing

1Ocean and Islands Programme

Technical Workshop 3 M

ain

Tec

hnic

al

Pro

gram

mes

Tec

hnic

al S

uppo

rt

Ser

vice

s

Corporate Services

Ocean & Islands Programme organisational structure

Expected staff numbers in 2011 - 23

Programme Management

ESAT – EU Envelope C Project

EU EDF 10 Deep Sea Minerals Project

Technical Workshop

Data Management GeoNetwork, etc.

Maritime Boundaries South Pacific Sea Level & Climate Monitoring Project

Geology, Minerals & Hyrocarbons

Marine, Coastal Science & Survey

Administrative Support

SPC SOPAC Division

OIP delivery is supported & complemented by Technical Workshop & the Natural Resource Economics Sector.

Coastal Processes;

(planning, infrastructure, erosion, aggregates, vulnerability, etc)Oceanography

Habitat Mapping

Maritime Boundaries

Hydrodynamic Modelling; wave, current, inundation

Remote sensing & Sealevel Monitoring

Deep sea resources

Water Quality

(ecological maintenance)

Hydrography / Geophysics

Saline intrusion inundation

The Ocean & Islands Programme at a glance

SPC SOPAC Division

OIP also contributes to climate change science and understanding PIC vulnerability and adaptation in coastal and near shore systems.

Ocean & Islands Programme Collaborative & complementary work

1

• Collaboration on the SPC Coastal Fisheries Research Project on the Potential Impact of Climate Change on Fisheries in the Pacific Islands.

• SPC Coastal Fisheries has used OIP Hydrographic Products to assist in the placement of FADs (fish aggregating devises).

• Assistance to SPC Coastal Fisheries to understand Trochus larvae distribution in Tongatapu lagoon.

• Collaborating with the SPC Lands Division on research and supervision of a postgraduate student working on salinity tolerance of swamp taro.

• OIP and SPC Coastal Fisheries Programme have, albeit independently, provided complementary expert review of major development proposals and EIA documents for PI Governments.

SPC SOPAC Division

Ocean and Islands Programme

Some existing collaborative / complementary efforts between FAME and the new Applied GeoScience & Technology Division - SOPAC;

Geodetic survey, image processing, mapping / charting, remote sensing

Bathymetric mapping (habitat mapping), geophysics, coastal processes

Oceanography, hydrodynamic modelling, water quality, coastal processes

Ocean & Islands Programme Maritime Boundaries Sector

PIC maritime boundaries lodged in acordance with

the provisions of UNCLOS as of Oct. 2010

Baseline Survey 2010

Baseline Survey 2010

eCS hydrographic survey 2010

eCS workshop 2010

Notional PIC Maritime Zones & eCS Claim Areas – 2010

SPC SOPAC Division

Maritime Boundaries Establishment of maritime zones and boundaries (EEZ) in the Pacific Islands Region in accordance with the provisions of UNCLOS and development of extended continental shelf (eCS) claims.

200 300100

Baseline

Territorial Sea 12nm Contiguous Zone 24nm

Delimitation

EEZ 200nm

Delineation

ECSFoS

EEZstatus

unknownown

arrangements

eCS PICs with eCS potential

SPC SOPAC Division

Baseline

Maritime Boundaries Extended Continental Shelf Claims, so far.

Palau FSMRMI

KiribatiNauruKiribati KiribatiPNG

Vanuatu

Solomon IsTuvalu

FijiTonga

Niue Cook Is.

Samoa

Tokelau

1.86million km2 presently under eCS claim.

SPC SOPAC Division

SPC SOPAC Division

Maritime Boundaries EEZ development

Ocean and Islands Programme

SPC SOPAC Division

The challenge of developing enduring solutions to PIC maritime boundaries.

• At this time only 3 PICs have declared their outer 200nautical mile zones and 4 have declared their archipelagic baselines. Less than half of the region’s shared boundaries are subject to treaty (21 of 48).

• The development of maritime boundary solutions is a technical / legal / diplomatic process with multiple stakeholders – all components must equally interact to produce enduring solutions.

• SOPAC and our technical partners (Geoscience Australia, Commonwealth Secretariat & UNEP GRID Arandal) have built excellent capacity in 8 PIC during our ECS work. It is our intension to continue to use these technical teams to progress boundaries development as well however these technical teams often lack legal and Govt. support.

• Enduring boundary solutions must be developed in a way to serve multiple needs, not only fisheries management, e.g. security, biodiversity, conservation, research, deep sea minerals development, transport, vessel monitoring, support ECS claims, etc.

• The 2010 Oceanscapes initiative raised issues regarding the possible threat to boundary baseline features through climate change stress and sealevel rise.

Ocean and Islands Programme

Palau FSM

RMI

KiribatiNauru

Kiribati KiribatiPNG

Vanuatu

Solomon IsTuvalu

FijiTonga

Niue Cook Is.

Samoa

Tokelau

Lowest Astronomical Tide = Baseline in many PICs

Precise determination & delimitation of maritime zones, EEZ, archipelagic status, shared boundaries & eCS, in accordance with UNCLOS.

Baseline

boundary

island reef

“New” Lowest Astronomical Tide & Baseline??

Sea level rise

PIC baseline features - potential impact of climate change Few PICs have declared their baselines or boundaries and there is considerable urgency to undertake this work due to present resource use and governance needs – the present work to characterise and declare boundaries is the best possible way of addressing such CC concerns.

SPC SOPAC Division

High tide

Low tideFuture low tide

Tasks CK FJ FSM KI RMI NR NU PW PG SI TV TN VU WS

Baseline Reports

developed

Yes Yes Status unknown

?

Work in progress

Status unknown

?

Yes Yes Own arrangements – being

reviewed at PW request.

Yes Yes Yes Status unknown/

own arrangem

ents?

Yes Status unknown

/own arrangements

?

Achiapelagic Status defined report

developed

NA Yes – being

reviewed at FJ request

? Work in progress

? NA NA Yes – being reviewed at PW request

Yes Yes In progress ? Yes ?

Boundaries computed &

reports developed

Yes Review in progress

? Work in progress

? Yes Yes Yes – being reviewed at PW request

Work in progress

Work in progress

Yes ? Work in progress

?

ECS claims complete

Yes Yes - work in progress

Yes - work in

progress

Work in progress

NA NA NA Yes - work in progress

Yes Yes - work in progress

Work in progress

Yes - work in

progress

Yes - work in

progress

NA

Baseline Gazzetted

No NA No No No Yes No NA NA NA No No NA No

Achiapelagic Baseline

Gazzetted

No Yes – being

reviewed

No No No NA NA Yes – being reviewed

Yes – being

reviewed

Yes – being

reviewed

No No Yes – being

reviewed

NA

Boundaries / Zones

Gazzetted

No Yes – being

reviewed

No No No Yes No Yes – being reviewed

No No No No No No

Baselines deposited

with UNCLOS

No Yes – being

reviewed

No No No Yes No Yes – being reviewed

Yes – being

reviewed

Yes – being

reviewed

No No Yes – being

reviewed

No

Boundaries deposited

with UNCLOS

No Yes – being

reviewed

No No No Yes No Yes – being reviewed

No No No No No No

ECS claim deposited

with UNCLCS

Yes - work in progre

ss

Yes - work in progress

Yes - work in

progress

Deadline 03/01/13 - work in progress

NA NA NA Yes - work in progress

Yes - work in

progress

Yes - work in progress

Deadline 26/03/13 -

work in progress

Yes - work in

progress

Yes - work in

progress

NA

SO

PA

C D

ivis

ion

Re

sp

on

sib

ilit

yC

ou

ntr

y R

es

po

ns

ibil

ity

SPC SOPAC Division

The way ahead ……….

• Recognise that successful boundary development is not just SOPAC’s responsibility – this process must be country lead.

• The processes is technical, legal and diplomatic and is ultimately an issue of lasting sovereign importance.

• This is not just a fisheries issue, each country has many potential stakeholders with an equal interest in boundary development and governance of marine resources.

• Effective in-country progress requires a “multi-stakeholder” approach where all relevant parties have a clear understanding of the status, obstacles and requirements to progress towards baseline and boundary declaration.

• The SPC SOPAC Division & technical partners welcomes FFA into the existing boundaries development partnership and the opportunities this brings.

• A small boundaries team will be available throughout this week. If countries wish to meet to discuss the specific status of their maritime boundaries please come and talk to us - we can also arrange sit down meetings.

SPC

SPC SPC

Many thanks - any questions ………..

For more information email - arthur@sopac.org or arthurw@spc.int

Ocean and Islands Programme

PIC extended continental shelf & maritime boundaries development teams & technical partners, Sydney 2010