UNEP OFFICE ON PROTECTION OF MARINE ENVIRONMENT FROM LAND-BASED ACTIVITIES TO BE OPENED AT THE HAGUE ON 24 NOVEMBER

Press Release
UNEP/18

UNEP OFFICE ON PROTECTION OF MARINE ENVIRONMENT FROM LAND-BASED ACTIVITIES TO BE OPENED AT THE HAGUE ON 24 NOVEMBER

NAIROBI/THE HAGUE, 19 November (UNEP) -- An important step forward will be taken next week in the implementation of an ambitious programme of action dealing with threats to the global marine environment and the health and economic well-being of the approximately 3.5 billion people who live in the world's coastal areas.

On Monday, 24 November, in The Hague, Elizabeth Dowdeswell, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), together with a representative of the Foreign Ministry of the Netherlands, will officially open the UNEP Coordinating Office for the Global Programme of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-Based Activities.

"Protecting the marine environment is an urgent global priority", Ms. Dowdeswell said. "To be effective, it requires a deepening of our vision and tangible commitment to collective action. The Global Programme of Action is our best hope for addressing this problem by recognizing the parallel aims of human development and environmental protection".

The Programme of Action, adopted in November 1995 by more than 100 Governments, is the latest institutional mechanism to protect and preserve the marine environment.

As UNEP's Global Environment Outlook Report so accurately describes, population densities, industrial growth, tourism development and the siting of transportation and trade centres have had adverse effects on a variety of coastal ecosystems, including salt marshes, mangrove forests, coastal wetlands, estuaries and coral reefs. Nearly 80 per cent of marine pollution and other types of marine degradation is caused by land-based activities.

Through the promotion of integrating watershed and coastal zone management policies, the Programme of Action addresses such activities as discharges from industry, agriculture, forestry, transport and urban development, in particular sewage discharges.

Significant areas of concern are waste-water treatment and management, the reduction and elimination of pollution caused by persistent organic

pollutants, the physical destruction of habitats of important marine living resources, the progressive development of international law to focus on preventive action, the development of innovative management approaches within relevant international and regional forums, and efforts to promote their further application.

The new UNEP office will also coordinate the activities which arise from the 1995 "Washington Declaration on Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-based Activities". The Programme of Action aims to assist in refining existing regional and national action plans, or in promoting and facilitating their development. Related actions must include awareness-building and the mobilization of financial resources.

"The Global Programme of Action is in its infant stages", Ms. Dowdeswell said. "The early signals are very positive. The will to make it a success seems evident, but we must remain vigilant to its goals and objectives".

The office for the Programme of Action will be co-located with the National Institute for Coastal and Marine Management of the Netherlands' Department of Public Works and Water Management Facilities.

The agreement to formally establish the office in The Hague will be signed during the opening ceremony. Additional information relating to the Global Programme of Action is available on the Internet, at "http://www.unep.org/unep/gpa".

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