UNEP - REGIONAL SEAS PROGRAMME

 

  CONVENTION FOR THE PROTECTION OF COASTAL AND MARINE ENVIRONMENT AGAINST POLLUTION, INCLUDING MAKING AND ENACTING ACTION PLANS

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Unted Nations Regional Seas Enviroment Programme


 

 

 

UNITED NATIONS REGIONAL SEAS PROGRAMME

 

The UNEP Regional Seas Programme is UNEP’s most important regional mechanism for conservation of the marine and coastal environment since its establishment in 1974. It is an action-oriented programme that implements region-specific activities, bringing together stakeholders including governments, scientific communities and civil societies. These Multilateral Environmental Agreements are governed by their own meetings of the Contracting Parties.

The Regional Seas Conventions and Action Plans (RSCAPs) provide inter-governmental frameworks to address the degradation of the oceans and seas at a regional level, initially focusing on pollution at sea, such as oil spills and movement of hazardous waste, as well as land-based sources of pollution, for example plastics, wastewater and excess nutrients. Now, many have embraced the ecosystems approach to managing marine resources and have protocols on protected areas, marine litter, combating oil spills, pollution from ships, transboundary movement of waste including their disposal, integrated coastal zone management (ICZM) and land-based sources of pollution (LBS) through which disaster reduction, climate change adaptation and sustainable consumption and production issues can be addressed. The focus is on promoting regional oceans governance to deliver the global oceans agenda and respond to emerging issues, new policies and initiatives such as the Blue Economy.

The Regional Seas and their governance processes, with regular meetings of governing bodies (CoPs, IGMs), senior officials as well as technical bodies (such as thematic working groups), contribute to strengthening UNEP’s strategic regional presence, propelling the work of UNEP towards regional and global consensus and policy coherence on key issues relating to the environmental dimension of sustainable development, as envisaged in the UNEP Medium Term Strategy 2018-2021. 

The individual Regional Seas Conventions and Action Plans have both a normative and implementation mandate. They provide an expression of common regional priorities, including those in the delivery of global mandates such as the 2030 Agenda, provisions of Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) and United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) resolutions. They also provide platforms for taking action, including through integrated assessment, policy development, capacity building and exchange, as well as through implementation of projects.

By building on the mandates of Regional Seas in addressing adverse impacts to the marine and coastal environment, UNEP can enhance impact and sustainability of efforts by utilization of advantages of the Regional Seas under the programme of work at the regional level.

To date, UNEP’s Regional Seas Programme consists of three types of Regional Seas Conventions and Action Plans (RSCAPs), across 18 different regions:

- UNEP-administered – These RSCAPs have been established and are directly administered by UNEP who provides Secretariat functions, managing of finances and technical assistance. UNEP administers 5 regional seas conventions and 2 action plans. These are: Caribbean Region, East Asian Seas, Eastern Africa Region, Mediterranean Region, North-West Pacific Region, Western Africa Region. The Regional Office for Europe administers the Tehran Convention (Caspian Sea)

 

- Non-UNEP administered – These RSCAPs have been established under the auspices of UNEP, but another regional body provides the Secretariat and administrative functions. These are: Black Sea Region, North-East Pacific Region, Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, ROPME Sea Area, South Asian Seas, South-East Pacific Region, Pacific Region

 

- Independent – These RSCAPs have not been established by UNEP but cooperate with the Regional Seas Programme and attend regular meetings. These are: Arctic Region, Antarctic Region, Baltic Sea, North-East Atlantic Region

 

 

 

 

 

 

Environmental work includes looking at marine litter and plastic as is spread throughout the Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea and Caribbean Sea, but not actually collecting or processing waste operationally.

 

Plastic waste though is on the increase. Mainly because there are no major cleanup operations, or funding to develop any effective means of filtering micro and macro plastics from seawater.

 

Then, there are ghost fishing nets. Again, there is no official programme for dealing with offending fishermen, or for collecting discarded nets. Recovery is reliant on small organizations and volunteers, who only recover the occasional net.

 

Another important issue is the sargassum proliferating in the Sargasso Sea, then finding its way to the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Islands, where it ruins the local economy and ecology. Recovered seaweed could be useful for:

 

 

 

BIOMASS - BUILDING MATERIALS - CANCER - CLOTHING & SHOES - CO2 SEQUESTRATION - COSMETICS

FERTILIZERS - FOODS - MEDICINES - MINERALS - PACKAGING - SUPPLEMENTS - VITAMINS

 

 

 

'UNEP' is the United Nations Environment Programme. Their mission is to provide leadership and encourage partnership in caring for the environment by inspiring, informing, and enabling nations and peoples to improve their quality of life without compromising that of future generations. In our view leadership equals actions. Doing not talking about doing. The difference between having an idea, and doing it - is doing it. Anyone can talk about doing things and encourage other people to take risks and think creatively, but few step into the arena and act on their ideas - putting their time and money where their mouths are.

 

 

CONTACTS


UNEP

United Nations Avenue, Gigiri
PO Box 30552, 00100
Nairobi, Kenya


Tel: +254 (0)20 762 1234
Email: unep-newsdesk@un.org
Media enquiries: unep-newsdesk@un.org

Caribbean Environment Programme (CEP)

Address : 14-20 Port Royal Street

Kingston, Jamaica W.I.

Tel.: 1 (876) 922-9267 (Ext: 6253) ; Fax: 1 (876) 922-9292
E-mail : unep-cartagenaconvention@un.org

Website: https://www.unenvironment.org/cep/


Office of the Secretariat of Governing Bodies
unep-sgb@un.org

Executive Office of the United Nations Environment Programme
unep-executiveoffice@un.org

Office of the Director of the Ecosystems Division
unep-director-ecosystems@un.org

Office of the Director of the Policy Programme Division
unep-policyprogramme-director@un.org

Office of the Director of the Science Division
unep-science-director@un.org

Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean
Unep-caribbean@un.org

Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean (Mexico)
pnuma.mexico@gmail.com

Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean (Uruguay)
subregional.conosur@pnuma.org

Regional Office for Africa
unep-africa@un.org

Regional Office for South Africa
infosouthafrica@un.org

Regional Office for West Africa
Angele.Luh@unep.org

Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean
unep-latinamerica@un.org

Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean
unenvironment-latinamerica-braziloffice@un.org

Regional Office for Africa
samba.harouna@un.org

Regional Office for North America
unep-northamerica@un.org

 

Regional Office for Europe
unep-eu@un.org

Regional Office for Europe (Vienna)
unenvironment.vienna@un.org

 

 

 

LINKS & REFERENCE

 

https://www.unep.org/

 

 

The Cartegena Convention protects and develops the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic regions

 

 

 

CARTEGENA CONVENTION

FUNDING ENVIRONMENTAL STRATEGIC ACTION

REGIONAL SEAS PROGRAMME

SARGASSUM WHITE PAPER - TURNING A CRISIS INTO AN OPPORTUNITY

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WORLD PEACE - May only be achieved when member nations fully endorse and action sustainable development, such that food, energy, housing and industry all work together like a well oiled machine, in harmony with nature. Working in harmony, means not over-exploiting mother earth's natural resources, not killing flora or fauna past their recovery limits, and not adding to global warming.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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