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Stakeholders were asked to list priorities as highest to lowest for the four major issues addressed in this TDA. The priorities are presented by all surveys combined, and then by specific groups. Overall the highest priority issue was chemical pollution by a significant margin. All groups listed this as a high to medium priority, with the exceptions of the Environment Ministry stakeholder group and the Agro-industry stakeholder group. Further, only minor difference are found amongst the ranking priorities of different Environmental Ministries respondents. Agro-industry repondents prioritized nutrient over-enrichment as the most important issue, again with limited variation between the rankings provided by individual respondents.
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Figure 7.8 Stakeholders’ prioritisation of ‘pollution’ as a transboundary issue |
The second highest priority for all stakeholders was decline in fisheries (Figure 7.9). Though there was more variation in this among stakeholders than the concern about pollution, the average stakeholder ranked this as high level concern, though not the top priority. Many groups also listed this as a higher level priority, though Defence Ministry officials, planners, regulators, shipping industry, nature preserve staff, students, and public health care providers all ranked this as a low priority concern. Small scale fishermen rank this as their top priority by a significant margin.
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Figure 7.9 Stakeholders’ prioritisation of ‘decline in fisheries resources’ as a
transboundary issue |
The third ranked priority of all stakeholder groups is the habitat and biodiversity changes (Fig. 7.10). This was ranked at the top priority concern by Defence Ministry officials, planners, regulators, parliamentary committees for environmental protection, and nature reserve staff. These results are as expected for these groups, and may indicate a positive trend for habitat conservation, especially as planners and regulators view this as a high-level concern. In turn, this may indicate a willingness towards tighter regulation of harmful activities in sensitive areas.
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Figure 7.10 Stakeholders’ prioritisation of ‘changes in biodiversity’ as a
transboundary issue |
The lowest priority concern among all combined stakeholders is nutrient over-enrichment/eutrophication (Fig.7.11). This may be as a result of lower levels of awareness of information or weaker understanding of the implications of this problem for the Black Sea ecosystem. Only the agro-industry and fishery industry ranked this as a top priority concern. The average agro-industry responses were driven by Romanian surveys where this issue may have greater traction than in other countries less immediately impacted by this issue. Agro-industry respondents may have been exposed to awareness raising issues arising from Romanian EU accession.
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Figure 7.11 Stakeholders’ prioritisation of ‘eutrophication’ as a transboundary issue |
The full priority rankings for all surveys combined and by indvidual stakeholder group are
presented in Table 7.2.
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