Fisheries management and monitoring of environmental impact on fish resources in the Baltic sea

Report ID: 159

1. In 2008 the Supreme Audit Institutions of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, and Sweden conducted an audit of environmental monitoring and fisheries management and control in the Baltic Sea. The Supreme Audit Institutions in Estonia, Finland, Lithuania, Russia, and Sweden did not participate in the audit of the environmental monitoring in the Baltic Sea. The Supreme Audit Institutions of Latvia, Poland and Germany did not participate in the audit of fisheries management and control in the Baltic Sea. The audit was performed as a performance and compliance audit and covered the period 2005-2007.

2. The audit was divided into two parts: The first part was about environmental monitoring in the Baltic Sea and the second part was about fisheries management and control in the Baltic Sea.

3. The overall objective of the first part was to assess whether the signatory states of the Helsinki Convention are complying with the standards of the Cooperative Monitoring in the Baltic Marine Environment (COMBINE) and how the Baltic Sea Action Plan (BSAP) will affect national monitoring.

4. The overall objective of the second part was to conduct a review of fisheries management and control in the Baltic Sea.

5. The first and the second part of the audit share the following overall objective: How have the monitoring and fisheries control authorities contributed to preserve the marine environment and protect the fish stock in the Baltic Sea.

6. The relevant national legislation in the EU Member States is supposed to be within the frame set by the EU. However, the monitoring and fisheries management and control strategies may differ significantly among the individual countries, and comparative analyses may provide an overview of what is considered good practice. Furthermore, Russian fisheries legislation is, naturally, not adjusted to the EU-regulations. The Russian Federation’s national fishery legislation takes into consideration the requirements and provisions of nine international conventions and agreements related to fishery issues in the Baltic Sea. Moreover, Russia still adheres to the recommendations of the International Baltic Sea Fisheries Commission (IBSFC) in spite of the fact that it was dissolved in 2004.

7. The audit was planned and conducted as a parallel audit. A parallel audit means that the participating audit institutions audit the same audit objectives in their respective countries and identify relevant audit criteria and audit methods together. However, it is up to the individual supreme audit institution to decide how to conduct the audit and which audit criteria and audit methods to apply in the audit. The Joint Final Report is prepared on the basis of the data provided by the participating supreme audit institutions.

Global climate change audit Coordinated International Implications for Governments and their Auditors (UNFCCC Kyoto Protocol)

Report ID: 161

Worldwide, scientific communities consider climate change to be an important social, economic, and environmental issue that needs to be addressed through reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to the resulting climatic changes, both current and potential. Countries have made important commitments in this regard, through the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Kyoto Protocol, while negotiations on the issue continue internationally. In June 2007, 14 supreme audit institutions (SAIs) embarked on a project to cooperate in the design and undertaking of national audits of our respective governments’ climate change programs and performance. The project involved a diverse group of offices—from Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Indonesia, Norway, Poland, Slovenia, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States that have varying degrees of experience in auditing governments’ management of climate change.

The governments of all these countries have indicated that climate change is an important issue and have made commitments to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and to addressing adaptation to climate change.

As a result of the social, economic, and environmental implications of government policies and the magnitude of public expenditures related to climate change, the actions governments take in the coming years are likely to have significant and historic implications for generations to come. As advocates of good management, effective governance, and accountability, SAIs are compelled to treat climate change policies, programs, and projects as highly material (pertinent and necessary) audit topics.

We are pleased to present the results of our audit work in this report. We hope the results of the coordinated audit will provide all SAIs—not just the 14 represented in this report—with a summary of common issues to consider as they undertake work to scrutinize their governments’ achievement of climate change commitments and delivery of related policies and programs.

The report highlights areas that SAIs may wish to examine to improve the implementation of their governments’ climate change policies and programs. The results also provide legislatures with a means to assess the progress that governments have made and challenges they face in delivering their programs and targets.

Audit of EU Regional Funds projects focused on the environment and environmentally friendly energy

Report ID: 162

1. This report concerns a coordinated audit performed by National Audit Office of Denmark (Rigsrevisionen) and the Gdansk Regional Branch of the Supreme Audit Office of the Republic of Poland (NIK) on the EU Regional Funds projects focused on the environment and environmentally friendly energy for the programme period 2007-2013.

2. The report contains information about programmes co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) including their administration, control follow-up, and how they are organised in Denmark and the Pomorskie Voivodship (region). The report is based on information gathered from national audits, the internet and other open sources.

3. In February 2010, Rigsrevisionen and the NIK engaged in a coordinated audit of environmental projects accepted to receive grants from the ERDF. The objective of the cooperation was for both Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) to gain comparable knowledge about the regional fund and find out whether administration and management of regional fund projects focused on the environment and environmentally friendly energy were adequate in the two countries. This was done on the basis of samples from environmental projects accepted to receive grants from the ERDF in the period 2007-2009.

4. Furthermore, the purpose of conducting the audit as a coordinated audit was to identify examples of ‘good practice’ on the basis of the audit findings to the benefit of both SAIs and the administrations in the two countries.

5. Rigsrevisionen and the NIK have each performed the audit relating to Denmark and the Pomorskie Voivodship, respectively. These audits have been reported separately to the administrations in the two countries.

6. On the basis of these reports, this joint report with examples of “good practice” has been drawn up. The results of the Danish audit, the conclusions of the joint audit and the examples of ‘good practice’ will form part of Rigsrevisionen’s report to the Danish parliament on the audit of EU funds for 2009 while the findings of the Polish audit were included in the information on the audit results published by the NIK.

Environmental audit on the three-border area of Hungary Slovenia and Austria

Report ID: 190

The territory of Hungary includes the deepest parts of the Carpathian basin, the country’s rivers originate in the neighbor countries and their catchments areas are also located mostly there. Due to this fact of Hungarian natural geography and to the prevailing movement of air in the region, the water and air pollutions occurring in the neighbor countries can speedily reach Hungarian territory and the chance of prevention is small. Intensive international cooperation is required for the timely protection against, respectively the treatment of unfavorable environmental impacts, which can affect the country. The government is to coordinate the enforcement of citizens’ rights for a healthy environment with the implementation of environmental treaties and agreements concluded with other countries and international organizations. Interstate treaties were concluded with the aim to protect surface waters and source water bodies in the border areas, and continuous and organized cooperation is in place on the basis of treaties between the local and central agencies of the neighboring countries. The audit targeted primarily the activities of and cooperation between the institutions, authorities being responsible at the regional level. In addition, the total amount of resources coming into the region for funding the running and capital expenses of nature and environment protection was quantified, and the audit included also an assessment of the cooperation realized between the competent bodies of the countries. The audit strove to find an answer to the question of what influence the above-mentioned resources and activities had on meeting the objectives of environment and nature protection, on the condition of environmental elements (i.e. air, waters, soil). The audit assessed also the risk factors with a potential bearing on the environmental condition of the region in question. The audit covered the government ministry responsible for the governance and control of environment and nature protection, as well as the institutions being under its control and providing specific technical services regionally. Activities of concerned local governments were also covered by the audit. The years 2000-2004 and the first quarter of 2005 were subject to the audit.

Audit on the conservation of biodiversity on the area of the planned regional parks Sne?nik and Koevsko Kolpa and in Risnjak National Park

Report ID: 191

In the recent decades we witnessed the reduction of biodiversity and landscape diversity due to negative impacts on the animal and plant species, their habitats and habitat types. Therefore the reduction of the current rate of biodiversity loss at global, regional and national levels is an important step in the conservation and protection of biodiversity.

The countries that are aware of the importance of the conservation of biological diversity have agreed to implement the Convention on Biological Diversity. By signing the Convention they have decided to build up national strategies, plans and programmes in order to provide for the conservation and sustainable use of the biodiversity. For the conservation of biodiversity, i.e. »in situ «conservation, the Convention on Biological Diversity stresses the development of protected areas such as national, regional and landscape parks where the conservation of ecosystems, species and habitats is of high importance.

Croatia and Slovenia are countries with relatively high levels of the biodiversity; their biodiversity index (NBI) ranks them in the first quarter of the European countries. On the territories of Croatia and Slovenia there are wild animals that belong to the endangered European species, among them there are three large carnivores: brown bear, wolf and lynx. Despite the positive biodiversity situation both countries ratified the Convention on Biological Diversity in 1996 and agreed to implement its objectives in order to provide for the efficient protection of biodiversity.

The Supreme Audit Institutions of the two neighbouring countries decided to contribute to the implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity by auditing the establishment or management of the protected areas and by auditing the efficiency of the implementation of the measures for the conservation of biodiversity.

Because the audit findings and the conclusions were comparable, the SAIs published a joint audit report on the protected areas; i.e. Risnjak National Park in Croatia and planned regional parks Snežnik and Kočevsko Kolpa in Slovenia. The areas included in the audit are mainly covered by forests. The forests of Snežnik and Javornik linked with forests of Kočevje and Gorski Kotar com Europe. This is also the habitat of the three large carnivores.

The SAIs assessed the appropriateness of the institutional framework for the conservation and protection of biodiversity and the efficiency of the establishment or management of the protected areas. The special focus was placed on the implementation of the measures for the protection of the large carnivores that exist in those forests. When the audits were completed they issued national audit reports that are available on the web sites of the SAIs.

The audit of the Slovenian SAI included the period from 1996 to the end of 2005 and was implemented at the Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food and the Forestry Institute of Slovenia. The audit of the Croatian SAI included the period from 2003 to the end of 2005 and was implemented at the Ministry of Culture, the National Nature Protection Service, the Public Institution Risnjak National Park and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water management.

This report presents the common audit findings, recommendations and summaries of the most important findings. The Appendix includes the explanations of the used terminology.