Guidelines for Development of a National Ballast Water Management Strategy

J. Tamelander, L. Riddering, F. Haag and J. Matheickal GloBallast Monograph Series No.18 This manual has been prepared through collaboration between the GEF-UNDP-IMO GloBallast Partnerships Programme and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Global Marine Programme. It responds to requests from countries for assistance in strengthening and developing national regulatory frameworks related to marine Invasive Alien Species (IAS) in particular with respect to the transfer of potentially harmful aquatic organisms and pathogens in ships’ ballast water and sediments. The manual is directed at national level practitioners as a hands-on guide to the development of national ballast water management strategies. It is intended as a source of basic information and as step-by-step guidance in the development of national ballast water management strategies. As such it can be used as a ‘cook book’ throughout a process, or as a resource/reference book. Several other, related guidelines are being prepared by the GloBallast Partnerships Programme, together with IUCN and other institutions. These include Guidelines for National Ballast Water Status Assessments, Guidelines for Economic Assessments of the Impacts of Marine Invasive Alien Species, and Guidelines for Legal Reform. All Guidelines will be available from the GloBallast Partnerships website, http://globallast.imo.org. The manual is divided into six sections, the first two containing an introduction to the issue of invasive alien species and the role of shipping and ballast water in their spread. Section 3 provides and overview of international, regional and national policies and legislation related to IAS, section 4 information on why a national ballast water management strategy is needed. Section 5 details procedural guidance for the development of a national ballast water management strategy. References and sources of additional information are provided in section 6. The guidelines further provide a number of annexes, including templates for a national ballast water management strategy and related work plans, guidelines for national task forces and a sample national ballast water management strategy. This manual is based on numerous sources of information, listed in the references section, and draws heavily on Module 8 “Development of a National Strategic Framework for BWM” of the Introductory Course on Ballast Water Management developed by GloBallast.