Environmental rejuvenation of the Gulf by compensation and restoration
Keywords:
Arabian/Persian Gulf, impacts, marine protected areasAbstract
The Gulf is considered to be a young sea in decline, with poor prognosis for continuing production of abundant natural resources. We compare and contrast ‘monetary’ and ‘environmental’ compensation as mechanisms for addressing ecosystem damage in the Gulf. The 1992 International Oil Pollution Compensation Conventions settle claims financially, but only for certain categories of oil spills. For example, aside from inherent difficulties of valuing ecosystem services and their losses, ecological damage from the time of injury to recovery (interim losses) is not compensated. Another approach involves reimbursement for environmental action/projects to restore affected resources and offset impacts until recovery. In habitat equivalency analysis, mitigation requirements are calculated from the type(s), severity, duration and extent of resource impacts. This approach was utilized to resolve several claims for damage from the 1991 Gulf War oil spill. Various compensatory projects resulted, including direct oil spill remediation and other environmental projects such as the establishment of ≥1 protected area (x ha for y years). Besides compensation, in this paper we advocate setting threshold levels for the protection of different coastal and marine ecosystems. This could be achieved by a proportion (c. 30%) of every major ecosystem becoming fully protected, through an expanded regional protected area network.
References
Abuzinada, A. H., Barth, H.-J., Krupp, F., Boër, B. and Al-Abdessalaam, T. Z. 2008. Protecting the Gulf's Marine Ecosystems from Pollution, Basel, Boston, Berlin: Birkhäuser.
Al-Ghadban, A. N. and Price, A. R.G. 2002. “Dredging and infilling”. In The Gulf Ecosystem Health and Sustainability, Edited by: Khan, N. Y., Munawar, M. and Price, A. R.G. 207–217. Leiden, The Netherlands: Backhuys.
Al-Ghais, S. M. and Pearson, W. H. 2008. “The compensation schedule approach for the assessment of oil spill damages to marine resources on the RSA”. In Protecting the Gulf's Marine Ecosystems from Pollution, Edited by: Abuzinada, A. H., Barth, H.-J., Krupp, F., Boër., B. and Al-Abdessalaam, T. Z. 223–236. Basel, Boston, Berlin: Birkhäuser.
Al-Yamani, F. Y. and Khan, N. 2002. “Changes in riverine input and loss of wetlands”. In The Gulf Ecosystem Health and Sustainability, Edited by: Khan, N. Y., Munawar, M. and Price, A. R.G. 235–251. Leiden, The Netherlands: Backhuys.
Briggs, R. 2005. “The International Oil Pollution Compensation Funds”. In Oil Pollution and Its Environmental Impact in the Arabian Gulf Region, Edited by: Al-Azab, M., El-Shorbagy, W. and Al-Ghais, S. 3–10. Amsterdam: Elsevier.
Clewell, A., Aronson, J. and Winterhalder, K. 2004. Society for Ecological Restoration International Science & Policy Working Group, Washington, D.C: Society for Ecological Restoration International. 2004. The SER International Primer on Ecological Restoration. www.ser.org & Tucson
Costanza, R., d’Arge, R., de Groot, R., Farber, S., Grasso, M., Hannon, B., Lamburg, K., Nazeem, S., O’Neil, R. V.O., Paruclo, J., Ruskin, R. G., Sutton, P. and Van den Belt, M. 1997. The value of world's ecosystem service and natural capital. Nature, 387: 253–260.
EU Parliament. 2004. Directive 2004/35/CE of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 April 2004 on environmental liability with regard to the prevention and remedying of environmental damage. Official Journal of the European Union, 30.4.2004, I 143/56-I 143/75
French McCay, D. P. 2003. Development and Application of Damage Assessment Modeling: Example Assessment for the North Cape Oil Spill. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 47: 341–359.
French McCay, D. P. 2004. Oil spill impact modeling: development and validation. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, 23: 2441–2456.
Hamza, W. and Munawar, M. 2009. Protecting and managing the Arabian Gulf: Past, present and future. Aquat. Ecosyst. Health Mgmt., 12(4): 429–439.
Huguenin, M. T., Donlan, M. T., van Geel, A. E. and Paterson, R. W. 2011. “Assessment and valuation of damage to the environment”. In Gulf War Reparations and the UN Compensation Commission: Environmental Liability, Edited by: Payne, C. and Sand, P. 67–94. USA: OUP. 2011
IOPC. 2011. State Parties to both the 1992 Civil Liability Convention and the 1992 Fund Convention; 1992 Fund Member States which are Party to the Supplementary Fund Protocol; States Parties to the 1992 Civil Liability Convention but not the 1992 Fund Convention International Oil Pollution Compensation Conventions (as of 1 Dec. 2011). (http://www.iopcfund.org/92members.htm)
Jones, D. A., Price, A. R.G., Al-Yamani, F. and Al-Zaidan, A. 2002. “Coastal and marine ecology”. In The Gulf Ecosystem Health and Sustainability, Edited by: Khan, N. Y., Munawar, M. and Price, A. R. G. 65–103. Leiden, The Netherlands: Backhuys.
Jones, D. A., Ealey, T., Baca, B., Livesey, S. and Al-Jamali, F. 2007. Gulf desert developments encompassing a marine environment, a compensatory solution to the loss of coastal habitats by infill and reclamation: The case of the Pearl City Al-Khiran, Kuwait. Aquat. Ecosyst. Health Mgmt., 10(3): 268–276.
Jones, D. A., Nithyanandan, M. and Williams, I. 2012. “Sabah Al-Ahmad Sea City Kuwait: development of a sustainable man-made coastal ecosystem in a saline desert”. In Aquat. Ecosyst. Health Mgmt. Vol. 15, 82–90. S1
Khan, N. Y. 2008. “Integrated management of pollution stress in the Gulf”. In Protecting the Gulf's Marine Ecosystems from Pollution, Edited by: Abuzinada, A. H., Barth, H-J., Krupp, F., Boër, B. and Al-Abdessalaam, T. Z. 57–92. Basel, Boston, Berlin: Birkhäuser.
Khan, N. Y. and Price, A. R.G. 2002. “Legal and institutional frameworks”. In The Gulf Ecosystem Health and Sustainability, Edited by: Khan, N. Y., Munawar, M. and Price, A. R.G. 399–424. Leiden, The Netherlands: Backhuys.
Khan, N. Y., Munawar, M. and Price, A. R.G. 2002. The Gulf ecosystem: Health and sustainability, Leiden, The Netherlands: Backhuys.
Krupp, F. 2002. “Marine protected areas”. In The Gulf Ecosystem: Health and Sustainability, Edited by: Khan, N. Y., Munawar, M. and Price, A. R.G. 447–473. Leiden, The Netherlands: Backhuys Publishers.
Lee, V. A., Bridgen, P. A. and Environmental International, Ltd. 2002. The Natural Resource Damage Assessment Deskbook: A Legal and Technical Analysis, Washington, D.C: Environmental Law Institute.
Munawar, M., Price, A. R.G., Munawar, I. F., Carou, S. and Niblock, H. 2002. “Aquatic ecosystem health of the Arabian Gulf Status and research needs”. In The Gulf Ecosystem Health and Sustainability, Edited by: Khan, N. Y., Munawar, M. and Price, A. R.G. 303–325. Leiden, The Netherlands: Backhuys.
NOAA. 1999. “Discounting and the Treatment of Uncertainty in Natural Resource Damage Assessment”. Technical Paper 99-1. Prepared by the Damage Assessment and Restoration Program, Damage Assessment Center, Resource Valuation Branch, NOAA, 1305 East-West Highway, SSMC #4, Silver Spring, MD
Parrish, J. D., Braun, D. P. and Unnasch, R. S. 2003. Are We Conserving What We Say We Are? Measuring Ecological Integrity within Protected Areas. BioScience, 53: 851–860.
Payne, C. R. 2011. “Oversight of environmental awards and regional environmental cooperation”. In Gulf War Reparations and the UN Compensation Commission: Environmental Liability, Edited by: Payne, C. and Sand, P. 150–138. USA: OUP. 2011
Payne, C. and Sand, P. 2011. Gulf War Reparations and the UN Compensation Commission Environmental Liability, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Price, A. R.G. 1998. Impact of the 1991 Gulf War on the coastal environment and ecosystems: Current status and future prospects. Intern. Env., 24(1/2): 91–96.
Price, A. R.G. 2002. Simultaneous ‘hotspots’ and ‘coldspots’ of marine biodiversity and implications for global conservation. Mar. Ecol. Progr. Ser., 241: 23–27.
Price, A. R.G. and Robinson, J. H. 1993. The 1991 Gulf War: Coastal and Marine Environmental Consequences. Mar. Poll. Bull., 27: 1–380.
Price, A. R.G. and Khan, N. Y. 2002. “Integrated coastal zone management”. In The Gulf Ecosystem Health and Sustainability, Edited by: Khan, N. Y., Munawar, M. and Price, A. R.G. 425–446. Leiden, The Netherlands: Backhuys.
Price, A. R.G. and Izsak, C. 2005. Is the Arabian Gulf really such a lowspot of biodiversity?: Scaling effects and management implications. Aquat. Ecosyst. Health Mgmt., 8(4): 363–366.
Price, A. R.G. 1993. The Gulf: Impacts and management initiatives. Mar. Poll. Bull., 27: 17–27.
Price, A. R.G., Sheppard, C. R.C. and Roberts, C. M. 1993. The Gulf: Its biological setting. Mar. Poll. Bull., 27: 9–15.
Price, A. R.G., Keeling, M. J. and Stewart, I. N. 2007. A robustness metric integrating spatial and temporal information: application to coral reefs exposed to local and regional disturbances. Mar. Ecol. Progr. Ser., 331: 101–108.
Reilly, T. J., French-McCay, D., Grant, J. R. and Rowe, J. 2012. Application of ecosystem-based analytic tools to inform natural resource damage assessments and environmental impact assessment in the ROPME Sea Area. Aquat. Ecosyst. Health Mgmt., 15(S1): 12–22.
Rezai, H., Wilson, S., Claereboudt, M. and Riegl, B. 2004. “Coral Reef Status in the ROPME Sea Area: Arabian/Persian Gulf, Gulf Of Oman and Arabian Sea.”. In Status of coral reefs of the world: 2004. Vol. 1, Edited by: Wilkinson, C. 155–170. Townsville, Queensland, Australia: Australian Institute of Marine Science.
Roberts, C. M., Andelman, S., Branch, G., Bustamante, R., Castilla, J. C., Dugan, J., Halpern, B., Lafferty, K., Leslie, H., Lubchenco, J., McArdle, D., Possingham, H., Ruckleshaus, M. and Warner, R. 2003a. Ecological criteria for evaluating candidate sites for marine reserves. Ecological Applications, 13(Supplement): S199–S214.
Roberts, C. M., Andelman, S., Branch, G., Bustamante, R., Castilla, J. C., Dugan, J., Halpern, B., Lafferty, K., Leslie, H., Lubchenco, J., McArdle, D., Ruckleshaus, M. and Warner, R. 2003b. Application of ecological criteria in selecting marine reserves and developing reserve networks. Ecological Applications, 13(Supplement): S215–S228.
Sale, P. F., Feary, D. A., Burt, J. A., Bauman, A. G., Cavalcante, G. H., Drouillard, K. G., Kjerfve, B., Marquis, E., Trick, C. G., Usseglio, P. and Van Lavieren, H. 2011. AMBIO. A Journal of the Human Environment, 40: 4–17.
Sheppard, C. and Lougland, R. 2002. Coral mortality and recovery in response to increasing temperature in the southern Arabian Gulf. Aquat. Ecosyst. Health Mgmt., 5(4): 395–402.
Sheppard, C. R.C., Price, A. R.G. and Roberts, C. M. 1992. Marine Ecology of the Arabian Region: Patterns and Processes in Extreme Tropical Environments, London, U.K: Academic Press.
Sheppard, C., Al-Husiani, M., Al-Jamali, F., Al-Yamani, F., Baldwin, R., Bishop, J., Benzoni, F., Dutrieux, E., Dulvy, N. K., Durvasula, S. R.V., Jones, D. A., Loughland, R., Medio, D, Nithyanandan, M., Pilling, G. M., Polikarpov, I., Price, A. R.G., Purkis, S., Riegl, B., Saburova, M., Namin, K. S., Taylor, O., Wilson, S. and Zainal, K. 2010. The Gulf: A young sea in decline. Mar. Pollut. Bull., 16: 13–38.
Van Lavieren, H., Burt, J., Feary, D. A., Cavalcante, G., Marquis, E., Benedetti, L., Trick, C., Kjerfve, B. and Sale, P. F. 2011. Managing the growing impacts of development on fragile coastal and marine ecosystems: Lessons from the Gulf, Hamilton, ON, Canada: UNU-INWEH. A policy report
Published
Issue
Section
License
Manuscripts must be original. They must not be published or be under consideration for publication elsewhere, in whole or in part. It is required that the lead author of accepted papers complete and sign the MSU Press AEHM Author Publishing Agreement and provide it to the publisher upon acceptance.
