In 2020, the Norwegian Centre for Oil Spill Preparedness and Marine Environment will monitor the seven regional OSPAR beaches in Norway.
OSPAR is an abbreviation for the Oslo-Paris Convention on the preservation of the marine environment in the Northeast Atlantic Ocean.
The Norwegian Centre for Oil Spill Preparedness and Marine Environment has been assigned the responsibility for coordinating the cleanups, registration of information and the reporting to the OSPAR database.
Seven OSPAR beaches will be managed
In practice, we will be ensuring that the seven national OSPAR beaches are cleaned up and that litter is registered and reported to OSPAR.
We will also arrange a workshop for those who are currently responsible for the cleaning and recording of OSPAR beaches in Norway. The workshop will be arranged this autumn, if possible.
The Norwegian Centre for Oil Spill Preparedness and Marine Environment will present a proposal to increase the number of OSPAR beaches in Norway, in order to ensure good coverage of the mainland coastline in Norway, as well as Svalbard. Salt has prepared a report that forms part of the basis for this work.
The OSPAR method
One of the initiatives to preserve the marine environment is to monitor beach pollution using the OSPAR method. This involves counting and removing all litter in the same 100-metre section of a selected beach four times a year. 112 different categories of litter will be recorded.
This is OSPAR
The convention was finalised in 1992 and the work is led by the OSPAR Commission, comprising representatives of the 15 member states and the European Commission.
OSPAR implements the necessary measures to protect the ecosystems and natural diversity in the Northeast Atlantic.
The Norwegian Ministry of Climate and the Environment is the administrative authority for OSPAR in Norway and is responsible for compliance with the OSPAR convention. The Norwegian Environment Agency is responsible for following up on all other work on marine pollution in OSPAR.