By Latoya Johnson
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By Latoya Johnson |
| MONTEGO BAY,
8 October 2004 (Panos):
More than 80% of the pollution in the seas originate from our
societies on the land. Research shows also that 44 percent of
the world's population live within 150 kilometres of a coast,
imposing disproportionate pressure on coastland and sea. Much
waste and sewage is being sluiced out into coastal waters. Sewage
pollution can ruin large fishing areas, weaken coastal defences
and trouble recreation spots. The damage to tourism can cause
additional economic loss. Since many years, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) conducts special projects to deal with the threats to the marine environment from land-based sources. A Global Programme of Action (GPA) was established to protect the marine environment from land-based activities. This GPA has an office in the Netherlands. Head of the GPA Secretariat, Veerle Vanderweerd, attended the 11th Intergovernmental Meeting on the Caribbean Environment Programme, held last week in Montego Bay. She commends the Caribbean on being a forerunner. The region has not only set up the "Convention for the Protection and Development of the Marine Environment of the Wider Caribbean Region" (the Cartagena Convention), but also works together on its implementation. This is a big achievement on its own, she says. The Wider Caribbean Region includes all countries bordering the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. "It's easy to say we are going to do something. There are hundreds or maybe thousands of action plans but after working on it in a conference, we return home and there are other pressing needs and often nothing is implemented." Vanderweerd says the Caribbean realizes the economical importance of safeguarding sustainable development and is moving ahead from assessment to action. She believes that the Caribbean countries are able to mobilize the needed resources and help each other to address problems in an integrated way. However, she also highlighted a major problem all over the Caribbean: the laying of wastewater pipes straight into the sea. "While the hotels seek to attract guests, they sometimes forget that these guests want to swim in the sea," she says. Furthermore, in their protection of coastal zones, Caribbean countries need to focus much more on the 80 percent of pollutants affecting marine life that come from the land. This is particularly important when setting up attractions. Approximately one in twenty persons who enter the sea get sick due to pollution from land based sources, according to Vanderweerd. Such pollutants come from coastal factory and sewage works, fertilizers, pesticides, metals or chemicals emitted from car exhausts and carried by the wind far out into the ocean. Much human activity on land is also a contributing factor to marine pollution, such as the covering of wetlands with garbage, selling curios from coral reefs or the felling of mangrove forests. One of the aims at the conference last week in Montego Bay, was to agree on how to tackle land-based pollutions over the next two years. Some projects, she says, include mobilizing domestic agencies and looking at legislation. In 1999, the Caribbean Environment Programme signed the Protocol concerning pollution from land based sources and activities. Vanderweerd believes that this protocol is a good example of how a region can address common problems. Till date, only two countries are parties to the Protocol, and six others are signatories. However, most of the Caribbean has expressed interest. "This willingness to join is a positive sign. All the countries at the conference work together and agree on comprehensive activities to address land based sources of marine pollution." The Global Programme of Action came to the fore in 1983 when a group of countries joined forces to create the Montreal Guidelines to address the issue of land based marine pollution. From then on, a number of initiatives were undertaken to develop a global legal instrument. At the World Summit on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, various Governments asked UNEP to take the lead in developing this. After three years of negotiations, in 1995 a special protocol was adopted by 180 countries across the world. |