Seminar increases awareness of need to protect Caribbean Sea from pollution
|
| Published on Thursday, November 6, 2008 |
Email To Friend Print Version |
WILLEMSTAD, Curacao: A regional seminar was recently completed that aimed to increase the public awareness of marine pollution from ships and land. Specifically, it focused on the ratification and implementation of Annex V of the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL 73/78).
The seminar was hosted on board the M/V Freewinds during its port visit in Curacao on October 22-23, 2008.
It included speakers from the Regional Activity Center/Regional Marine Pollution Emergency Information and Training Center for the Wider Caribbean Region (RAC/REMPEITC-Caribe), the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the United Nations Environment Program through its Caribbean Environment Programme (UNEP-CEP), the Ministry of Transport of the Netherlands, and country representatives of waste management facilities.
The seminar was the sixth of similar seminars that were held in the other island states of Saint Lucia, Barbados, Dominica, Saint Kitts & Nevis, and Antigua & Barbuda. MARPOL Annex V provides guidelines and regulations for the discharge of garbage for ships at sea and in port.
 |
| MARPOL V Seminar: Student Participants |
Jeff Ramos of RAC/REMPEITC-Caribe noted that the seminar was very well supported with a total of over 90 participants, which included attendees from Curacao, Bonaire, Saba, Suriname, and El Salvador. He outlined that, “the seminar provided an excellent opportunity for national policy makers, environmental officials, maritime administrators, waste management authorities, non-governmental organizations, and local school students to discuss some of the current pollution challenges in the region and the threat of emerging issues such as the impact of invasive species to the Caribbean.”
According to Commander Curtis Roach, IMO’s Regional Maritime Adviser for the Caribbean, the Caribbean Sea was designated a “Special Area” under MARPOL Annex V because of its high vulnerability to the impacts of pollution and its economic importance to the countries of the Wider Caribbean. When this designation enters into force, it would prohibit the discharge of all garbage by ships into the Caribbean Sea.
Despite the effort by many countries to put required measures in place, Roach reported that “the majority of countries in the Wider Caribbean Region had not yet submitted information to IMO on their respective ship-reception facilities.”
Parties to the MARPOL Convention are required to submit this information to IMO for dissemination to the international maritime community and, more importantly, so it can also be used to facilitate the coming into force of the Special Area status under MARPOL Annex V.
 |
| MARPOL V Seminar: Government/Industry Participants |
Marja Tiemens-Idzinga from the Ministry of Transport of the Netherlands was impressed by the enthusiastic participation of the attendees and provided valuable input to the governmental agencies in regards to implementing the MARPOL Convention into national legislation.
She pledged to “continue working with the Government of the Netherlands Antilles to ensure that the information regarding waste reception facilities in the region are adequately reported to IMO.”
Chris Corbin, UNEP’s Programme Officer for Pollution Prevention from the Jamaica-based office of the Caribbean Environment Programme was encouraged by the high level of commitment expressed by the participants to protect the coastal and marine environment from land and marine based sources of pollution. He suggested “that taking a more collaborative approach to developing and implementing pollution control measures is critical at the national and regional levels.”
He also stated that, “countries in the region need to also give priority to signing and implementing other related regional environmental agreements such as the Land Based Sources of Marine Pollution Protocol so that these conventions and agreements can be used as tools to further regional cooperation and at the same time address national priorities.”
It is expected that the output from this seminars, together with the previous five seminars, will be fully disseminated to all the countries of the Wider Caribbean Region to enable them to take action to bring the MARPOL Annex V “Special Area” designation into force. The continued national and regional media coverage that these seminars received will be vital in ensuring that the Wider Caribbean public is fully aware of the importance of marine environmental protection.
Mike Napier, Captain of the M/V Freewinds expressed his satisfaction with the results of the seminar, which was "the culmination of months of collaborative effort between international, regional and local governmental agencies." He looked forward to furthering this effort by the continued use of the M/V Freewinds as the platform for similar seminars in the Wider Caribbean Region. | | | | Reads : 1578 | | | |
|
|
