In the wake of the Gulf of Mexico Oil spill, and as environmental agencies commemorate World Environment Day on June 5^th, a regional call has been made for increased collaboration between the environment and maritime sectors to reduce land and marine-based pollution of the Caribbean Sea at a meeting of pollution experts in Panama. 

The need for closer working relationships between environmental agencies and the International Maritime Organization (IMO) was one of the ten recommendations to come out of last week’s 5^th Meeting of the Interim Scientific, Technical and Advisory Committee (ISTAC) to the Protocol concerning Pollution from Land-Based Sources (LBS Protocol).

Organized under the auspices of the United Nations Environment Programme’s Caribbean Environment Programme (UNEP-CEP), the five-day meeting involved over 60 pollution control experts from 23 countries of the Wider Caribbean.  It was convened in Panama City, Panama, from 24^th to 28^th May, to discuss ways to control and reduce pollution in the Caribbean Sea.

UNEP-CEP, IMO and their joint Regional Activity Centre for Oil Spills (RAC/REMPEITC) facilitated discussions on various environmental agreements including the LBS Protocol, the London Convention and Protocol on pollution from dumping of wastes at sea, and the MARPOL Convention on the prevention of marine pollution by ships.

The meeting was also the first opportunity to discuss the implications of the recent IMO declaration that the MARPOL Special Area status for the Wider Caribbean Region under Annex V (Ship-generated garbage), would come into effect on May 1^st 2011.

Recognizing the potential synergies in meeting the obligations of these environmental agreements in a more coordinated manner, delegates recommended that inter-agency cooperation be increased and that Governments commit to more effective implementation of their obligations under these agreements.

Eleven delegates[1] reported on the status of LBS Protocol ratification in their respective countries with most expressing the hope that their governments would ratify the LBS Protocol within the very near future so it can enter into force.

According to Nelson Andrade, regional coordinator of UNEP-CEP, with only three more countries required for ratification: “the optimism expressed by the delegates during the meeting is yet one more indication that entry of the LBS Protocol into force is expected to become a reality within the coming year”.

Expressing satisfaction at the outcome of the 5^th LBS ISTAC, Chris Corbin, UNEP CAR/RCU’s Programme Officer for Pollution Prevention, remarked: “the meeting reiterated how important the Caribbean Sea is to the economies of the region and that efforts must be redoubled to ensure that policy and legislative changes are made to support control and reduction of pollution from all sources”.  He added, “these reforms have to be supported by ongoing training, technology transfer and the increased use of environmental information for improved national decision-making.”

For additional information, please contact:

Christopher Corbin
Programme Officer
Assessment and Management of Environment Pollution (AMEP)
Regional Co-ordinating Unit
Caribbean Environment Programme
United Nations Environment Programme
14-20 Port Royal Street
Kingston, Jamaica
Telephone: (876) 922-9267 -- Fax: (876) 922-9292
http://www.cep.unep.org; cjc@cep.unep.org;

About UNEP’s Caribbean Environment Programme (CEP)

 The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) established the Caribbean Environment Programme (CEP) in 1976 under the framework of its Regional Seas Programme. It was based on the importance and value of the Wider Caribbean Region’s fragile and vulnerable coastal and marine ecosystems including an abundant and mainly endemic flora and fauna.

 A Caribbean Action Plan was adopted by the Caribbean countries and led to the adoption, in 1983, of the only current regional, legally-binding agreement for the protection of the marine environment, the Cartagena Convention. The Convention and its first Protocol (Oil Spill) entered into force in 1986. Two other protocols were developed by the region - the Protocols on Special Protected Areas and Wildlife (SPAW) and the Control of Pollution from Land Based Sources (LBS) in 1990 and 1999 respectively.

 The SPAW Protocol entered into force in 2000, whereas three ratifying countries are still needed for the LBS Protocol.

 The Caribbean Regional Coordinating Unit (UNEP-CAR/RCU) serves as the Secretariat to the Cartagena Convention and is based in Kingston, Jamaica.

 Each Protocol is served by a Regional Activity Centre. These Centres are based in the Netherlands Antilles (Regional Marine Pollution Emergency Information and Training Center for the Wider Caribbean, RAC/REMPEITC) for the Oil Spills Protocol, Guadeloupe (RAC/SPAW) for the SPAW Protocol, Cuba (Centre of Engineering and Environmental Management of Coasts and Bays) and Trinidad & Tobago (Institute of Marine Affairs) for the LBS Protocol