Latest developments in ICZM in Estonia

By Maret Merisaar

Estonian Green MovementCCB Annual Conference, Jurmala, May 2011

Main findings

• Estonia has not developed any specific legal acts under the EC Recommendation on ICZM. The position of the Ministry of Environment is, that ICZM must be dealt together with the planning of marine areas. Accrding to the words of Mr. Silver Vahtra, the vice councillor of the Marine bureau of the Ministry of Environment, special working group is need that would consider the proposals from the county level and make adjustments to the state level general plan “Estonia 2030”. Ecosystem approach, the concept of ecosystem services and the need to take account of human activities as part of ecosystem are being better undrstood by all ministries.

Areas for better cooperation

• Information exchange between different administrative levels: State, county and municipality

• Information exchange between different sectoral ministries contributing to the coastal and marine activities.

• Better public participation

Some examples of the scattered activities by various institutions:

Ministry of Inferior:National Spatial Plan “Estonia 2030+”

• Legal basis: Planning Act;

• Launched in February 4, 2010 by the Government of Estonia

• Strategic Assessment of Environmental Impacts for the National Plan was launched in February 11, 2010 by the Minister of Regional Affairs.

“Estonia 2030+”

• Planning should be complete by the end of 2011.

• Drafting has been more transparent than the one for the currently valid “Estonia until 2010”, in addition to participation in working group meetings, a special homepage allows any interested party to submit proposals or ask questions.

• ICZM is not much mentioned in the present drafts, still.

“Estonia 2030+”

• Main aspects: transport and energy, connectivity to Europe.

• Focus on aging population (“silver economics”) and knowledge based society (“green economics”)

• Dealing both with land and maritime areas.

• “Despite efforts on cooperation of ministries, regional unions, municipalities, experts, public and party fractions in the Parliament the strategic decisions tend to be born elsewhere as a result of other processes” (Tavo Kikas, main coordinator of the NSP, Ministry of Economic affairs, February 2011)

Ministry of Economic Affairs:

Maritime Policy Action Plan

• In addition to international commerce, shipping and ship building, marine transportation safety, liquidation of marine pollution and network of small ports, fisheries, the action plan mentions also coastal management and tourism.

• The Head of the Marine department , Ms Gerli Koppel is dealing with solutions to small ports, coastal tourism, education of the staff on small ships etc.

• Materials from WG meetings on 7 Jan 2009 and Conference of European Maritime Day on 20 May 2009 are available on the internet.

• Main coordinator of the policy compilation is Mr Peeter Tiks. Measures and activity plan was circulatied in other ministries in December 2009 and reached the Government in March 2010.

• Finances for fisheries, shipping etc until 2013 can be found in this document.

• Tables with all proposed amendments to the marine policy and action plan from invited stakeholders , both accepted and rejected are accessible in the internet.

Ministry of Environment, Marine bureau

• M. Iur. Agnes Pilv has compiled an overview of the legal conflicts and regulations concerning the ICZM and Marine Spatial Planning (MSP).

• The international principles of MSP neglect liabilities in case the principles are not followed. Often the MSPs are focused on only one human activity ( e.g.windparks in Denmark, site selection of ports in Ireland), but the summary impact of all different possible areas (marine transport, fisheries, energy, tourism, dredging, dumping, military activities and reseach is presented in special matrixes only in some countries.

• UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) Art 1 (1) provides a uniform right for marine transport and it is only the start of discussing the limitations of this right in Natura 2000 areas by the EU. In Estonia the dense maritime transport in the Natura 2000 areas can be seen in the Väinameri (Sea of Straits)

Map of the Sea of Straits

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International legislation (continued)

• There are no international contracts but only Principles for MSP and ICZM Rio Declaration 1992 is not legally binding.

• Precautionary Principle (from Rio Decl. Art 15)• Ecosystem based approach• Freedom of Marine transportation• Polluter Pays Principle• Public participation• European Commission published its principles for MSP in

October 2009, where it mentions the unity of the planning procedures on the sea and in the coastal zone (http://ec.europa.eu/maritimeaffairs/spatial_planning_en.html#2 (05.09.2010)

Estonian legislation

• Martime activities are not much regulated and the relevant administration is quite scattered. Planning Law is regulating the relations between state, regional and local authorities during planning. Local municipalities are competent organs in planning marine areas. The organ conducting the planning and supervising the planning are often one and the same, that is not possible in some other countries.

Impact assessments

• The law on the EIA and SEA does not give much criteria for the assessment of the summary impact of different marine activities. It is mainly focussed on how the documentation should be made public while not so much on the content of the assessments. The process is supervised by Minstry of the Environment or the Environmental board.

• Exemptions: Objects with significant spatial impact(windpark with more than 5 windmills, a port on the coast etc.) Full list is (civil and military airports, ports with adopted in 2003.

• Constructions with state importance the task of national defence etc). The site selection proposal together with the EAIA is submitted by the ministry in who’s administration the future object is.

Regulated maritime activities

• Ports and waterways: should be easily accessible and well connected to landbased roads and railways. Historical locations were close to bigger settlements, but nowadays the size of ships may need deeper aquatories and pathways for entering the port. Competent authority: Government.

• Natural ressources and nature protection:Inadequate regulation for using the seabed and natural resources beneath it. Law on Nature protection stipulates the coastal zones on land where different activities are prohibited.

• Artificial islands and installations: Law on economic zone leaves that in the iurisdiction of the government.

Problems in Estonian laws:

• Different criteria for permitting or prohibiting maritime activities are missing.

• The mechanisms for (international and national) co-planning are not clear.

• Cultural aspects, e.g. taking into account the prerequisites for preserving historical coastal villages, are missing as well.

Problems in the mapping system

• The paragrapg 104 of the Constitution does not consider setting the maitime border a condtitutional activity, the extent of territorial sea can be changed with the simple majority of votes in the Parliament.

• The legal definition of the basic map is missing the Estonian legislation and the officials keeping the registers of sites, have problems in fixing the real location of the coastline, especially if the latter is changing due to natural or human activities. There are debates over the water border of the land properties.

• The author of the overview warns, that in case a state is not able to manage its coastal seas and coastal zones according to the international standards, it can be considered an incompetence to enforce public order and give a reason for the neighbouring states to interfere into the internal matters with the aim to protect internationally acknowledged values (likewise in the fight with pirates)

Suggestions of the ICZM report by the Marine bureau of the Ministry of Environment

• For balancing the economic interests, it is reasonable to make up a list of priority values of different activities in the coastal zone and to map the internal dependences.

• In defining the extent of necessary regulation, the factors affecting common values must be detected

• Possibilities for in the Baltic Sea Region and to make use of the strengths of each other should be joining activities internationally found.

• Cooperation inside a national state and joining all existing knowledge and skills can be even most difficult.

Conference on London Convention on Marine dredging in March 2011

• This international conference helped to map several gaps in the present legislation, related to dumping and dredging of various types of waste materials into the coastal sea.

Nature conservation and management plans for single protected areas

• Example : Nõva-Osmussaare on the Western coast of Estonia.

• The activity plan was compiled by the West-Estonian Ornithological Society. Inventory of valuable habitats and species and recommendations on regulating human activities in the area.

Strategic Environmental Assessments (SEA) for municipality planning documents

• Saarde Municipality in Pärnu County

• SEA done by ENTEC as a good example:

• Connections to other srtategic plans and acts like Natura 2000, Via Baltica etc.

• Alternative development scenarios and their impacts

• Measures for mitigating harmful impacts

• Indicators for monitoring the envionmental impacts

Funding for marine projects

• Environmental Investment Centre has published the next project application period for water related and marine projects on 26 April, deadline for submitting documents is August 15. Costs can already be made and necessary licences and plans ordered. Co-finacing from NGOs is 0%. Naitonal Activity Plan (2008-2011) for the Baltic Sea Action Plan (adopted on December 2008) should be followed, for example restoration of salmon spawning areas in rivers as well as various awareness rising campaigns on environmentally friendly farming etc. are very welcome.

Ministry of Culture

and Tallinn City Government:

• The programme Tallinn as the Cultural Capital of Europe in 2011 with the subheading “Seaside stories” has brought along active changes along the formerly closed coastal strip of the city. The so called “culture kilometre” includes the new fish market, several concert and performance places, renovation of the marine port for airoplanes etc. The programme of events can be viewed at http://www.tallinn2011.ee/eng

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Thank you for attention!