Cooperation in action: OSPAR and NEAFC adopt joint narrative to enhance protection of the North-East Atlantic

3 April 2025

In November 2024, the OSPAR Commission and the North-East Atlantic Fisheries Commission (NEAFC) adopted a joint narrative that:

  • highlights how existing complementary measures adopted by NEAFC and OSPAR contribute towards the protection and conservation of marine biodiversity and ecosystems in areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ) of the North-East Atlantic; and
  • sets the basis to further develop cooperation between the two organisations on area-based management measures.

NEAFC is a regional fisheries management organisation that has the mandate to manage fishery resources in the North-East Atlantic. OSPAR is the regional sea convention for the North-East Atlantic with a mandate to protect and conserve the marine environment. While NEAFC and OSPAR have different competences, membership and objectives, they have the same maritime area and a shared overarching objective to protect and ensure sustainable use of the marine environment and its resources.

The ground-breaking joint narrative explains how NEAFC and OSPAR measures (see Figure 1) interact and complement each other in the marine environment of the North-East Atlantic and paves the way for both organisations to work jointly to further harmonise their work. This joint narrative also highlights that effective protection of the marine environment requires an ecosystem-based approach that recognises its complexity and the inter-connection between the seafloor, water column and sea surface.

Figure 1: Overlaps between NEAFC measures for the protection of VMEs from bottom fishing and OSPAR area-based measures (including information about the scope of the area-based protections).

OSPAR Ministers committed in October 2021 to further cooperate with other competent bodies, including through the Collective Arrangement, and to expand OSPAR’s network of MPAs and OECMs to cover at least 30% of OSPAR’s Maritime Area by 2030, with a view to achieving a high level of protection over time. This joint narrative therefore represents an important step forward and a unique opportunity for OSPAR and NEAFC to pioneer this collaborative work and to contribute towards the delivery of international targets under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), including the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ Agreement).

One of the main outcomes of the joint narrative is the identification of collaborative actions that can help ensure a more comprehensive and coherent network of area-based management measures in the North-East Atlantic:

  • OSPAR can determine the conservation objectives and measures that are needed to protect biodiversity in certain areas (MPAs). It can draw relevant issues to the attention of NEAFC to identify and implement appropriate fisheries measures where necessary to deliver these conservation objectives; and
  • NEAFC can set out fisheries measures which deliver conservation benefits, in particular area-based fisheries measures (OECM). OSPAR can complement NEAFC’s OECM by providing measures under its competence in the same areas and in providing relevant biodiversity and environmental data to NEAFC’s scientific advisor, ICES.

Combined, these actions can help enhance NEAFC’s and OSPAR’s shared objectives to protect the marine environment.

The elements proposed by OSPAR and NEAFC in this joint narrative will also be discussed with other relevant management or regulatory bodies of the North-East Atlantic, with the aim that, where relevant, they can similarly identify measures within their competence that further enhance the protection of the marine environment provided for by OSPAR and NEAFC.

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See: NEAFC’s press release – ‘NEAFC the first Regional Fisheries Management Organisation to report an Other Effective Conservation Measure in the high seas’