Cooperation WG GES WG ESA in the Netherlands

1. Cooperation WG GES WG ESA in the Netherlands The case of marine litter

2. Economists exaggerate costs to downsize measures because of political reasons Ecologists are far too idealistic. They want to save every animal Ecologists are far too detailed Economists should stress benefits of North Sea Economists already solved the environmental problems (in theory) long before ecologists knew they existed Economists want to put everything in €’s Economists are the problem, not the solution

3. (Dutch) Initial assessment: Marine Litter is environmental and policy issue we have to tackle No existing policy yet, thus search for additional measures MSFD requires social and economic analyses for additional measures Requires cooperation between ecologists and economists And stakeholder particpation

4. So let’s brainstorm on potential measures… • Impose the use of alternative material to protect nets • Deposit system on (parts of) used nets • Higher fines and more control on the beach and on sea • Fee on plastic bags in supermarkets • Compostable user plastic at bathing beaches • Ban on mass releases of balloons • Better port facilities • Extra fishing for litter (primary goal is litter, not fish) • Adding ID markers to fishing nets and wires • Additional beach cleaning • Deposit system on small plastic bottles Excuse me, who are you? Good ideas! You’re more than welcome! Stakeholder

5. So let’s implement this list of measures Well, I am afraid that would be too costly I knew those economists would destroy the MSFD with their focus on costs Do those ecologists really not understand there is an economic crisis going on?

6. But let’s look for measures that bring benefits at limited costs If that would be possible So, you are not against ecological measures? Not if they are cost effective and efficient And affordable, I hope

7. Costeffectiveness analyses • Main excercise: rank measures according to Effect (kg) / Costs (€) Measures with most impact at least costs are most interesting Could you tell me what the effects are? Not yet, may be in 4 years time But draft PoM needs to be ready halfway 2014! Yes, we would like to discuss results as well! So, please give me some guestimates

8. Experience in the Netherlands Main problem Difficult to estimate costs, but identification of sources and quantification of impacts of measures are even more challenging Solution Expert judgement (guestimates) Result Qualitative ranking of potential measures

9. Draft conclusions in Dutch case • More uniform waste handling procedures by port reception facilities in international harbours may stimulate waste disposal on land instead of at sea. • Awareness raising, on beaches but also at home, through Fishing for litter and near rivers • Source oriented measures (stimulate best practices; e.g. scrubs), deposit schemes What do you think of this list? Precautionary principle Looks like a nice first step to protect the environment And sounds socially acceptable

10. Are we done now? No. If we want to convince people to implement measures, we should be able to tell what the benefits are Does that have to be in monetary terms? Preferably yes, but a good qualitative story might be far more important and convincing than ambiguous monetary numbers. We have a story to tell! That’s interesting! That’s true!

11. Cost benefit analysis: Draft conclusions Dutch case • Why do we implement the measures? • Main objective: protection of the marine environment • Main message: litter does not belong in the sea • Main problem: Environmental benefits are hard to put in €’s Solution…

12. Cost benefit analysis • Solution: 1 Force monetary numbers by asking for willingness to pay for clean environment (UK approach) 2 Present environmental benefits in their own metric and or pictures and stories (Dutch approach) • General result: Environmental measures cost more money than they will bring! • Economic rationale: If environmental protection would have been profitable, there would already be someone doing it (and we would not have environmental problems in the first place!)

13. Monetary benefits of 50% reduction marine litter(draft results)

14. Eco points Quantification of impacts on the ecosystem The nature point method • Ecosystem is complex, but for tradeoffs, 40 indicators are too much • Nature Points = Σ all habitats (Surface x Quality × weighting factor) Weighting factor (rarity) Quality Surface area A simplified food web for the Northwest Atlantic (www.ifaw.org)

15. This is what we want to prevent The story in pictures:

16. That’s a nice story. We will have to tell our stakeholders, policy makers and everybody! If you could tell me what they think, then I can use that for my social analysis For what? Never mind. Just tell me what they think of it, so I can include that in our draft report I’ll do that By the way…

17. I never knew that working with economists is so much fun! Thanks! I always like to work together with ecologists; I always learn a lot! What would be the next issue we could work on? I heard they want us to look into hard substrate; the pro’s and con’s of protection of ship wrecks for biodiversity purposes Sounds interesting! Indeed!