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Prosjektleder: Jannike Falk-Andersson Denne rapporten oppsummerer innspill fra deltagere under workshop holdt med norske interessenter på temaet «Overvåkning av forsøpling, med fokus på makroplast». Formålet med workshopen var å diskutere utfordringer og muligheter knyttet til å utvikle et helhetlig overvåkningsprogram for makrosøppel i Norge. Kartlegging av kunnskapsbehov identifiserte blant annet at det er viktig med overvåkningsdata som kan si noe om mengder og tilførsel av søppel, identifisere kilder, bidra til å identifisere målrettete tiltak, inkludert følge opp produsentansvar, samt måle effekten av tiltak. Disse kunnskapsbehovene er i noen grad dekket av data som hentes inn i dag på strandsøppel, men det er behov for å øke kvaliteten og mengden av data både i tid og rom. Norges Forskningsråd

Prosjektleder: Vilde Snekkevik Engangsprodukter som bind og tamponger og deres negative påvirkninger på natur, miljø og helse har hatt lite fokus. Dette til tross for at det finnes mer miljøvennlige alternativer. Oslo kommunes tiltaksordning har som mål å minimere plast- og marinforsøpling i Oslo. Basert på deres plastvedtak har vi i dette prosjektet identifisert hvordan Oslo kommune kan bidra til å redusere bruke av engangs menstruasjonsprodukter, samt utviklet et undervisningsopplegg. Undervisningsopplegget har gjennom kreativ læring og gruppearbeid som mål å informere om miljøproblemene engangs menstruasjonsprodukter representerer og introdusere mer miljøvennlige alternativer som kan gjenbrukes. Oslo Kommune

Modeling studies illustrate the potential for long-range transport of plastics into the Arctic, although the degree to which this occurs remains relatively undocumented. We utilised a teaching exercise at a UArctic summer school graduate course in Nuuk, Greenland to conduct a preliminary in-depth analysis of beach litter sources in the Nuup Kangerlua fjord. Students and instructors collected and analysed 1800 litter items weighing 200 kg from one location in the fjord and another at its mouth. The results suggest a predominance of local sources to macrolitter, rather than long-range transport from Europe. Fisheries-related items and rope were common. Packaging which could be identified was largely suspected to be products distributed in Greenland, and soft plastics, which rarely disperse far from its source, were also common. The results suggest local measures to reduce mismanaged waste and emissions from fisheries are important for reducing marine litter in West Greenland.

Prosjektleder Jannike Falk-Andersson The Norwegian Environment Agency (NEA) aims to strengthen environmental monitoring of macroplastic and litter pollution in Norway. Macroplastic and litter are items above 25 mm. Monitoring of litter in the Northern Fulmar is included (1-25 mm) as this is an established indicator representing biota. The other environmental compartments covered in this report are coastal waters, oceans, lakes, rivers, and terrestrial environments. This report identifies international obligations and national needs for knowledge on litter, reviews international harmonisation efforts for monitoring of litter and evaluates their technological readiness levels for implementation in monitoring programs. Data availability, on-going monitoring activities and initiatives that could contribute to collecting data on litter in Norway is mapped, and the cost of expanding existing monitoring is evaluated. Based on this mapping recommendations are given on how monitoring of macroplastic and litter could be strengthened in the future in Norway. Norwegian Environment Agency

Engen, S., Hausner, V., Mikkelsen, E., Gundersen, H., Christie, H., Falk-Andersson, J., Espinasse, J., Lennert, A.E., Olsen, E. og Fauchald, P. 2020. Bærekraftig kyst: utvikling av et Kystbarometer for Nord-Norge. NINA Rapport 1736. Norsk institutt for naturforskning. Forskningsrådsprosjektet Ocean Health under Blue transitions (BlueTrans) har som mål å lage et Kystbarometer hvor lokalbefolkning, interessegrupper og beslutningstakere kan få kunnskap om utviklingen i nordnorske kystkommuner knyttet til kyst- og havøkosystem og om denne er bærekraftig. Dette innebærer å utvikle indikatorer som skal gjenspeile status for ulike bærekraftsmål og at disse blir utviklet i samråd med lokale aktører. I denne rapporten har vi oppsummert innspill fra ulike samfunnsaktører som vi innhentet våren 2019 gjennom spørreundersøkelser, intervju og fokusgruppemøter i seks kystkommuner i Nord-Norge. Basert på innspillene har vi identifisert lokale prinsipper for bærekraft og kriterier som kan brukes for å vurdere om prinsippene etterleves. Vi har også vurdert om det finnes tilgjengelige data for å måle disse kriteriene, identifisert områder med datamangler og sett på mulighetene for å skaffe til veie manglende data ved hjelp av spørreundersøkelser som vi skal gjennomføre i løpet av prosjektperioden.

The bio economy is a wide phenomenon encompassing a broad resource base on land and in the oceans. The possibilities for future developments are huge. Traditionally each sector in the bio economy (forestry, agriculture, fisheries, aquaculture and related industries) operates separately and there have been few cross-sectoral studies. This report contributes to remedy this shortcoming by offering a “wide-angle” view on the bio economy studying industries in all the major sectors in parallell. The study concerns bio economy in Norway. The report answers these questions: 1) What types of products are produced in the different (industrial) sectors when it comes to main products and by-products? 2) What are the capacities and types of businesses in the various sectors? 3) What kind of connections can be observed between different industrial sectors in the bio economy? The report builds on a previous report on resources in the primary sectors of the bio economy (Falk-Andersson et al., 2016). The report starts with a definition of central terms, such as main product, by-product and waste and a discussion of the value pyramid. For each sector, we provide a description of main products and by-products. The sectors differ hugely in character, from agriculture and reindeer herding as predominantly domestic industries, to forestry, fisheries and aquaculture, which are aimed at export. We combine different types of secondary data for the descriptions: public statistics, especially business statistics from Statistics Norway, and various reports, public documents and web information. By-products represents an increasingly important product category because of the need to focus simultaneously on sustainability and economy in society. Another major issue is the balance between specialization and integration. Much of the development of products and processes in the bio economy occurs in the form of specialization in the sectors. However, integration is necessary to avoid a total atomistic bio economy. In recent years we observe interesting examples of developments across sectors in the bio economy, such as production of biogas from by-products from aquaculture and forest industry. Another example is the combination of food products from agriculture and seafood to enhance the service product in the tourism and hospitality industry. The bio economy has a large potential to fill societal needs in the future, when it comes to food, feed, and fiber, as well as energy, new materials, health and recreation.

Management decisions must be taken despite large knowledge gaps regarding the impacts of ocean acidification on marine ecosystems. This report presents a framework for economic assessment and valuation of ocean acidification and its effects, illustrating how management can be informed by knowledge about ecosystem services and associated values. This can form the basis for decisions on adaptation or mitigation policies. We give an overview of different management options. Application of the precautionary principle is also discussed. The case of cold water corals is used to illustrate how the framework for economic valuation of ocean acidification can be applied. We identified five types of information needed to assess the socio-economic impact of ocean acidification on cold water corals and evaluated the status of knowledge of each of these types. It was concluded that the knowledge gaps made it impossible to assess the full impact of ocean acidification on cold water corals both qualitatively and quantitatively. Due to the large uncertainties, expert opinion elicitations were used to determine likely direct physical, chemical and biological impacts of ocean acidification on cold water corals, resulting impacts on ecosystem functions and services, and possible mitigation and adaptation measures. The experts used a traffic light approach to assess their confidence regarding their suggestions. We sum up by recommending which knowledge gaps are most urgent to fill for a reasonable social and economic assessment of the effects of ocean acidification on CWCs. While the methodology to use expert opinion for assessing impacts in a high-uncertainty setting needs to be refined, this study was valuable in identifying a framework for assessment to identify key knowledge gaps and give input to management. The experts also expressed that it was a useful exercise for them to see the relevance of their basic research into management.

This paper explores management challenges in relation to human impacts on cold water corals (CWC) in Norway. CWC are a slow growing organism about which there is uncertainty regarding distribution and values. We discuss area closures to protect this environmental public good against destructive fishing practices. Focus groups were combined with questionnaires to inform precautionary management measures that can be used to protect known CWC as well as areas where CWC are thought to exist. The research finds that respondents believe CWC are valuable and should be protected, but that this requires information on their presence and importance. Furthermore, priorities for protecting CWC differed between group discussions and the questionnaire responses. Use-values, particularly habitat supporting fish production, dominated the focus group discussions, while non-use and intrinsic values were emphasised in the questionnaire responses. Respondents rejected the use of the precautionary measure of temporary closures to gain information on CWC presence. Reasons were costs to fishers, and the rejection of the premise that precautionary closures would prevent further damage. This study shows that both use- and non-use values are effective arguments motivating people to support policies for nature protection. However, they are not sufficient to motivate support for precautionary measures that would provide significant but uncertain benefits for known costs. To motivate support for precautionary policies, there is a need to communicate better the types of organisms, services and values that may be lost without protection.

A systematic review of research on marine macrolitter densities in the past five years (2015–2020) revealed considerable knowledge gaps in the field. Nearly half he reviewed studies were on stranded litter. Data are scarce from many of the regions estimated to mismanage the largest amounts of plastic waste. In regions where data are available these are typically from coastal areas with few data from the high and deep seas; 57% and 87% of studies on pelagic and seafloor litter, respectively, took place within 100 km from shore. Data on pelagic litter are generally constrained to the sea surface and only two of 30 pelagic studies have measured macrolitter deeper in the water column. Reported litter densities are generally highest for stranded litter, although seafloor litter densities by weight are high in some areas. Reported densities of floating litter are several orders of magnitude lower. However, a lack of standardisation of methods makes it difficult both to assess and to compare litter densities within and across the different environmental compartments in time and space. The review illustrates a great need for survey design development within the field of macroplastics and point to some long-established considerations from ecological research pertaining to independence of data points, spatial autocorrelation, sampling scale, and plot size and shape which are highly relevant also for marine litter research. These considerations are relevant both for global standardisation efforts and for independent studies. Furthermore, the knowledge gaps created by geographic and compartment biases in research needs to be addressed to identify further research needs, validate models and inform policy.