Governments
Meet to Chart Next Steps for Global Marine Protection
Programme — IGR2
16 October to 20 October - Beijing,
16 October 2006 – An international conference
to combat sewage, pesticides and other forms of
pollution coming from the land into the seas and
oceans got underway today in the Beijing, Peoples
Republic of China.
Some 700 delegates from around
115 countries are attending with the aim of charting
a new course for the Global Programme Action Global
(GPA) for the Protection of the Marine Environment
from Land-Based Sources-- a voluntary initiative
under the United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP).
Veerle Vandeweerd, Co-coordinator
of UNEP/GPA, said: “We are delighted to be holding
our second Intergovernmental review here in China
and among some of the most dynamic and rapidly
developing countries on the globe”.
“The Asian region crystallizes
the challenges and opportunities facing the global
community trying to balance economic development
and poverty eradication with social and environmental
factors. In terms of marine pollution, many successes
are being scored and awareness of the problems
facing countries has never been higher. But these
successes are being overwhelmed by booming populations,
rapid urbanization and industrialization and a
range of growing pressures in the coastal zones,”
she said.
“So governments need to hurry
up and step up action to reduce pollution from
land-based sources. Otherwise rapid development
will come at a high price as a result of losses
and damage to economically important habitats,
ecosystems and marine resources from coastlines
and coral reefs to mangroves and fisheries,” added
Ms Vandeweerd.
She said among the key outcomes
expected form this week’s review is a commitment
to link management of freshwaters including rivers
and lakes with the current effort to minimize
coastal-based pollution.
While a great deal of marine
pollution comes directly for cities and industrial
facilities on the coast, tremendous amounts also
come from inland areas via rivers and other freshwater
sources.
Other key outcomes include commitments
towards greater alliances and cooperation between
governments and civil society, local authorities,
private business and other non-governmental organizations.
“Tackling marine pollution is
the primary responsibility of national governments.
But it is also a responsibility of all sectors
of society from private business to local authorities.
We should and must enlist all these actors in
the quest to realize our common cause of cleaner
and healthier seas,” said the GPA Coordinator.
Success Stories
The ten year-old GPA can point
to a range of success stories underlining a growing
commitment by governments and donors to combat
land based sources of pollution.
So far more than 60 countries
have developed national programmes of action some
of which have involved revisions or enactments
of new laws in areas ranging from coastal policy,
water policy and integrated coastal management.
Examples include Bangladesh, Barbados, Costa Rica,
India and the Philippines.
Rehabilitation and conservation
of mangroves—important coastal ecosystems that
act as fish nurseries and natural pollution filters—are
happening in countries like Bangladesh, India,
Nigeria and Sri Lanka.
Many countries are also increasing
national budgets for GPA-related issues. India,
for example, spent more than $120 million in 2005
backed by over $700 million from the World Bank
and the Asian Development Bank.
Funds are flowing from other
sources. The Global Environment Facility (GEF),
a multibillion dollar project financing initiative
aimed at assisting developing countries meet environmental
challenges, has invested $1.2 billion through
it International Waters programme catalyzing co-financing
of a similar amount.
Meanwhile, the principles of
the GPA have been endorsed by key industry and
business bodies including the International Association
of Companies, the Central Dredging Association
and the International ports and Harbours.
New laws or Protocols aimed
at tackling land-based sources have been introduced
or revised by several regional seas programmes
including the Black Sea, Caspian Sea, the Nairobi
Convention covering east Africa and the Abidjan
Convention covering 18 countries in west and central
Africa.
The Global Programme of Action
with support from the GEF has catalyzed the establishment
of investment funds that should further progress
against land based pollution. A $400 million fund
now covers the East Asia seas; a $380 million
Mediterranean and another $400 million one covering
the Black Sea and the Danube.
The challenges facing countries
including those in Asia is underscored in a report—the
State of the Marine Environment --compiled for
governments attending this week’s review.
In Asia it highlights sewage,
sediments and coastal developments as among the
key threats facing the seas of the region.
Sewage
For example in the seas of East
Asia close to 90 per cent of sewage discharges
from the land to the marine environment are untreated.
In China, an estimated 25 per
cent of wastewater is treated. In Japan, the percentage
of the population connected to a sewerage system
was just under 60 per cent in the late 11000s.
Meanwhile, in the Republic of
Korea the level of treatment stands at close to
70 percent. However, in many rural areas in the
Republic of Korea the wastewater treatment supply
rate is lower at around 10 per cent.
Reported capacity elsewhere
in Asia is also generally low. Sewage capacity
in Mumbai, India, for example is around 15 per
cent and in Karachi, Pakistan, about six per cent.
Many big industrial plants also
discharge a variety of pollutants along with sewage
and other wastes. A case in point is in Ankleshwar
India, where liquid wastes are dumped into storm
sewers, canals and ditches entering rivers and
the coastal zone.
“The above situation is a common
feature in the vicinity of industrialized coastal
townships in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri
Lanka.
Nutrients
Traditional land use patterns
are changing as result of continued economic growth
leading to increased use of fertilizers which
along with sources like sewage and animal wastes
are increasing nutrient loads in coastal waters.
Nutrients can have a wide range
of impacts including the promotion of sometimes
toxic algal blooms and de-oxygenated areas of
sea known as ‘dead zones’.
River running through Cambodia,
China, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam deliver
at least 637,000 tonnes of nutrients to the coastal
waters of the Sunda Shelf.
Over 50 per cent of this comes
from China with around a fifth each from Vietnam
and Thailand, says the report.
The Bohai, Yellow and East China
seas received in 1999, a total of 1,500 million
tones of industrial wastewater which included
nutrients like nitrogen and phosphates from 12
major coastal Chinese cities.
In 2001, close to 80 red tide
events occurred affecting 15,000 square km of
coastal waters.
Persistent Organic Pollutants
There is no hard data on concentrations.
Oil
Up to 50 per cent of the oil
pollution in the South Asian marine environment
comes from the numerous river craft and steamers
plying the waterways.
Another sources of oil and toxic
pollutants are the big ship breaking yards in
countries like Bangladesh, India and Pakistan.
In India, ship breaking is carried out over a
distance of 10km on the beaches of Alang in Gujarat.
Shipping is a major source of
oil pollution in the East Asia region too. At
risk areas include the South China Sea and the
Straits of Malacca. Tests in the straits found
hydrocarbon concentrations around the Bintam and
Batam islands at levels deemed damaging to marine
life forms.
An estimated 30 per cent of
tar balls found on the coast of Peninsular Malaysia
came from oil produced in the Middle East underlining
the link between tanker traffic and pollution.
Land-based sources are also
of concern. In the Gulf of Thailand, the main
source of oil pollution is from cities, refineries
and other industrial facilities.
Sediments
Two thirds of the world’s total
sediment transport to the oceans occurs in South
and East Asia.
In Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines
and Thailand, deforestation occurs over 50,000
square km of forest adding to soil erosion and
sediment loads in waterways.
Studies in the Philippines and
Indonesia estimate that the damage to coral reefs
from logging-induced sedimentation greatly exceeds
the economic benefits of logging.
In the Mahakam River Delta,
around two million cubic meters of sediment is
dredged to maintain navigation with the siltation
linked to over logging in the interior of Kalimantan.
The Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna
Rivers system is, after the Amazon, the world’s
second largest hydrologic region. Sediments discharged
into the Bay of Bengal are the largest in the
world.
Physical Alteration and Destruction
of Habitats
Degradation of mangroves is
considered a serious problem in Bangladesh, India
and Pakistan as a result of factors from timber
extraction to coastal development.
There is concern that the proposed
River Linking project in India might impact on
river flows in Bangladesh and its Sunderbans mangroves.
Coastal erosion is wide spread.
In Malaysia, for example, coastal erosion has
affected every state and close to a third of that
country’s coastline is eroded.
Between a fifth to a quarter
of seasgrass beds in Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines
and Thailand have been damaged as a result of
impacts including clearance for commercial seaweed
farms, pollution, sedimentation and dredging.
Coastal and Marine Litter
The coastal population of Cambodia, China, Indonesia,
Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam
generates over 66 million tones of solid waste
a year and marine litter is becoming a growing
problem.
Notes to Editors
Details and documents on the
Inter Governmental Review-2 of the Global Programme
of Action can be accessed at http://www.gpa.unep.org/bin/php/igr/igr2/home.php
The State of the Marine Environment report can
be found at http://www.gpa.unep.org/bin/php/igr/igr2/supporting.php
Nick Nuttall, UNEP Spokesperson
Elizabeth Solomon, GPA Press Officer
