Distr

18 December 1998

ORIGINAL: ENGLISH

EP

Governing Council

of the United Nations

Environment Programme

UNITED

NATIONS

Twentieth session

Nairobi, 1-5 February 1999

Item 8 of the provisional agenda*

PREPARATIONS FOR THE SEVENTH SESSION OF THE COMMISSION

ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Addendum

Activities of the United Nations Environment Programme regarding

oceans management

Report of the Executive Director

Summary

The present report and its annex, prepared pursuant to Governing Council decisions 19/14 (C) of 7 February 1997 and SS.V/3 of 22 May 1998, highlights activities of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in the field of oceans management, as identified in chapter 17 of Agenda 21, and is submitted for consideration by the Governing Council as a major contribution of UNEP to the Commission on Sustainable Development at its seventh session.

For reasons of economy, this document is printed in a limited number. Delegates are kindly requested to bring their copies to meetings and not to request additional copies.

Suggested action by the Governing Council

The Governing Council may wish to:

Authorize the Executive Director to finalize the report on UNEP and the implementation of chapter 17 of Agenda 21, on the basis of the draft report contained in the annex to the report of the Executive Director [1]/ and the comments made at the Council thereon, and to transmit it to the Commission on Sustainable Development at its seventh session.

BACKGROUND

1. In its decision 19/14 C of 7 February 1997, the Governing Council invited the Executive Director, within the programme of UNEP and in collaboration with the other United Nations agencies and world bodies represented on the Administrative Committee on Coordination (ACC) Subcommittee on Oceans and Coastal Areas, to provide the necessary support to the Commission on Sustainable Development in carrying out the periodic review of the world's marine environment called for in its decision 4/15. In addition, in its decision SS.V/3 of 22 May 1998, the Governing Council requested the Executive Director to consult with Member States, particularly developing countries, on environmental aspects of oceans management with a view to submitting his report thereon as a contribution to the work of the Commission on Sustainable Development at its seventh session.

2. In response to those requests, UNEP has prepared a draft report on UNEP and the implementation of chapter 17 of Agenda 21, for consideration by the Governing Council. The draft report, contained in the annex to the present report, highlights the need for sustainable management and use of oceans and coastal areas, and the state of the environment and trends regarding oceans and coastal areas. It also identifies the environmental challenges and priority issues for coastal areas, as well as proposals for future UNEP actions to address those challenges. The draft report constitutes a major contribution of UNEP to the Commission on Sustainable Development at its seventh session. It will be revised as appropriate prior to the seventh session of the Commission, taking full account of comments received at the third meeting of the High-Level Committee of Ministers and Officials of UNEP and the twentieth session of the Governing Council.

3. In decision 19/14 C, the Governing Council also requested the Executive Director, in cooperation with the heads of other sponsor organizations of the Joint Group of Experts on the Scientific Aspects of Marine Environmental Protection (GESAMP), to consider how that Group might most effectively contribute to the task.

4. Accordingly, and within the context of the assessment requirements of the Global Programme of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-based Activities, a need was identified for regular reviews of the state of the marine environment at the global level. The Global Programme of Action specifically identified GESAMP as one mechanism for developing scientific assessments of the impacts of land-based activities on the marine environment. At its twenty-sixth session, on the basis of a proposal from UNEP, GESAMP established a Working Group on Marine Environmental Assessments, designating UNEP as the lead agency. In addition, at its twenty-seventh session, GESAMP considered the plans for undertaking an overall assessment of the state of the marine environment by 2002 and an assessment on land‑based activities by 1999. GESAMP also agreed to establish cooperative arrangements with the Global International Waters Assessment in areas of mutual interest for both assessments.

Annex

DRAFT REPORT ON UNEP AND THE IMPLEMENTATION OF CHAPTER 17 OF AGENDA 21

CONTENTS

Paragraphs Page

I. SUSTAINABLE MANAGEMENT AND USE OF OCEANS

AND COASTAL AREAS....................................... 1 - 24 4

II. ROLE AND ACTIONS OF UNEP IN FACILITATING THE

IMPLEMENTATION OF CHAPTER 17............................ 25 9

A. Legislative authority............................. 25 9

B. Focus of UNEP ocean-related activities............ 26 - 42 9

C. Sources of financial and human resources for

environmental aspects of UNEP activities

in coastal areas and oceans....................... 43 - 46 13

III. STATE OF THE ENVIRONMENT AND TRENDS IN REGARD

TO OCEANS AND COASTAL AREAS............................. 47 14

A. Overall assessment................................ 47 - 57 14

B. Special concerns.................................. 58 - 79 17

IV. MAJOR FUTURE ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES AND

PRIORITY ISSUES FOR OCEANS AND COASTAL AREAS............ 80 - 105 21

V. PROPOSALS FOR FUTURE UNEP ACTIONS TO ADDRESS

THE ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES OF CHAPTER 17.............. 106 - 108 26

I. SUSTAINABLE MANAGEMENT AND USE OF OCEANS AND COASTAL AREAS

1. For centuries the international approach to the oceans reflected the political and economic interests of two predominant uses of the sea: navigation and fishing. International environmental law and practices were based on the principles of unfettered national sovereignty over natural resources and absolute freedom of the seas beyond the three-mile territorial limit. Such an approach followed from the widely accepted ideas contained in Grotius's Mare liberum, published in 1609.

2. At the turn of the last century, there were relatively few multilateral or bilateral ocean-related agreements. The 1911 Treaty for the Preservation and Protection of Fur Seals seems to have been the first multilateral agreement concluded to protect commercially valuable species. The important principle that countries have responsibilities for environmental damage to foreign countries that is caused by the transboundary effect of pollution originating within their borders was first clearly spelled out in the 1930s, in arbitration between Canada and the United States of America.

3. Preservation and conservation had emerged as conceptual frameworks for the management of natural resources in the 1940s, and resulted in a number of bilateral and multilateral agreements and arrangements dealing with fisheries. Modern agreements regulating and facilitating navigation date from the same period. But only during the last half of this century has it been gradually recognized that the world's oceans are more than shipping lanes and fishponds, and may need to be protected and regulated for a variety of multiple and potentially conflicting uses.

4. Marine pollution gained attention as an environmental issue only after the Second World War. Initially, attention was focused on petroleum hydrocarbons. With increasing maritime transport of petroleum hydrocarbons, the soiling of beaches by oil residues from ships' operational releases and tanker accidents became conspicuous and attracted the attention of the media, the general public and politicians alike. The International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution of the Sea by Oil was negotiated and signed, in 1954, to address the problem. During the 1960s, the Convention was followed by the negotiation of several additional conventions relating to interventions in case of oil pollution casualties and to civil liability and compensation for damage by oil pollution.

5. The preparations for the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, held in Stockholm in 1872, gave a major boost to the development of additional international legal instruments. The protection of wetlands and sites considered as the natural heritage of mankind was covered by two global conventions: the 1991 Convention on Wetlands of International Importance, especially as Waterfowl Habitat (Ramsar Convention), and the 1972 Convention for Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. The need to protect the oceans from pollution other than oil gained recognition. The dumping of such pollutants was regulated by the 1972 Oslo Convention for the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping and, as the sources and effects of pollutants entering the sea from land-based activities were considered highly region-specific, the first regional conventions dealing with their control were negotiated and adopted, such as the 1969 Bonn Agreement for Cooperation in Dealing with Pollution of the North Sea by Oil.

6. The debate at the Stockholm Conference revealed a deep division between industrialized and developing countries over the issue of whether or not environmental protection and economic development were compatible. Nevertheless, concern about the risk of environmental harm prevailed and the Stockholm Declaration on the Human Environment adopted by the Conference

led to a fundamental shift in international and national environmental law and practice.

7. The scope of numerous international agreements adopted since 1972 has expanded significantly: from bilateral transboundary pollution control to global pollution control; from the preservation of particular species to the conservation of entire ecosystems; from the control of direct point‑source emissions to comprehensive pollution control regimes; from agreements that take effect only at national borders to ones that constrain activities and resources within the national borders. Indeed, there is not a single example in which the provisions of earlier conventions have been weakened; in all cases they have been strengthened or their scope has been expanded.

8. Two achievements were particularly notable in the post‑Stockholm period: the protracted but ultimately successful negotiation of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the negotiation of which commenced in 1970, leading to its adoption in 1982 and entry into force in 1994, and the proliferation of regional agreements.

9. Three main factors contributed to the development of the Convention on the Law of the Sea, the only comprehensive global ocean‑related agreement:

(a) Bold and innovative concepts of ocean space were advanced, along with proposals for the management of this space through an integrated ‑ rather than the traditional sectoral - approach;

(b) The ecological integrity of the ocean, and the power of human intervention to alter this integrity, was gradually gaining recognition; and

(c) The resources of the ocean lying outside the sovereignty of individual nations were increasingly regarded as the common heritage of humankind, thus requiring new types of institutional and legal arrangements for their management.

10. The Convention on the Law of the Sea, frequently called the "constitution of the oceans", provides the overarching international legal framework for the use and protection of the oceans. It is founded on the premise that the problems of the oceans are closely interrelated and need to be considered as a whole. It balances the rights and obligations of coastal States with the rights and obligations of all States to use the oceans and their resources in a rational way. In an offshore zone extending 200 miles (the exclusive economic zone), it grants the coastal States control over living and non-living resources, scientific research and environmental protection, subject to specific responsibilities. The Convention requires all States parties to conserve marine living resources, and to protect the entire marine environment. Its pollution control provisions cover all sources of pollution. Other issues covered by the Convention include, inter alia, maritime boundaries, navigation and overflight, the development and management of deep-sea minerals, piracy, illicit drug traffic and dispute settlement.

11. Although the prevailing trend in the late 1960s and early 1970s was to deal with the problems of oceans through global agreements, experience demonstrated that bilateral and regional arrangements could be very effective in dealing with specific problems of a particular region, including the exploitation of resources in that region. Following the successful conclusion of negotiations leading to the 1972 Oslo Convention, a large number of regional agreements were adopted with a focus on the protection of the marine environment from pollution. These include the agreements adopted in Helsinki and in Paris in 1974, in Barcelona in 1876, in Kuwait in 1978, in Abidjan and Lima in 1981, in Jeddah in 1982, in Cartagena in 1983 and in Noumea in 1986.

12. The regional agreements negotiated under the sponsorship of UNEP took the form of comprehensive framework conventions, with articles of a quite general nature which in themselves would have been of little practical relevance. The conventions are, however, supplemented with protocols and annexes specifying the actual measures to be implemented by the contracting parties. The general obligation specified in all conventions is to prevent, reduce, abate, combat and control pollution in the convention area. The specific obligations common to all conventions include: control of pollution caused by dumping, discharges from ships, exploration and exploitation of the continental shelf and land‑based sources; cooperation in cases of emergencies; scientific and technical cooperation, including joint monitoring and research programmes, data and information exchange, and technical assistance; adoption of procedures for the determining of liability and compensation for damage resulting from violation of the convention or its protocols; reporting on measures adopted in implementation of the convention at the national level.

13. The convening of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development and the adoption of two global conventions in conjunction with the Conference - the Convention on Biological Diversity and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change - represent a milestone in the development of a broader interpretation of environmental protection, with far‑reaching implications for the management and use of oceans and coastal areas.

14. The Conference adopted the Programme of Action for Sustainable Development (Agenda 21), which inseparably links social and economic development with environmental protection and stresses sustainable development as the only approach to development which could succeed in the long term. The Conference unambiguously declared, as one of the Agenda's basic principles, that, in order to achieve sustainable development, environmental protection shall constitute an integral part of the development process and cannot be considered in isolation from it.

15. Chapter 17 of the Agenda (Protection of the oceans, all kinds of seas, including enclosed and semi-enclosed seas, and coastal areas and the protection, rational use and development of their living resources) explicitly recognized: that the oceans and adjacent coastal areas form an integrated whole; that the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea provides the international basis upon which to pursue the protection and sustainable development of the marine and coastal environment and its resources; and that new approaches to marine and coastal area management and development are required that are integrated in content and are precautionary and anticipatory in ambit.

16. Accordingly, it elaborated seven programme areas on which the protection and development of oceans and coastal areas should be focused:

(a) Integrated management and sustainable development of coastal areas, including exclusive economic zones;

(b) Marine environmental protection;

(d) Sustainable use and conservation of marine living resources under national jurisdiction;

(e) Addressing critical uncertainties for the management of the marine environment and climate change;

(f) Strengthening international, including regional, cooperation and coordination; and

(g) Sustainable development of small islands.

17. From the standpoint of oceans and coastal areas, equally important recommendations are to be found in other chapters of the Agenda, notably those related to: integrating environment and development in decision‑making; protecting and promoting human health; conservation of biological diversity; management and use of freshwater resources; and management of toxic chemicals, hazardous wastes, solid wastes and sewage‑related issues.

18. Among the main issues which emerged and divided the countries during the preparations for the Conference and the negotiation of the conventions on biological diversity and climate change was the issue of equity: was environmentally sustainable development for present and future generations to be financed? Nowhere was this issue more manifest than during the negotiation of agreements dealing with subjects which strongly polarized the views and interests of developing and developed countries. Thus, during the negotiation of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Framework Convention on Climate Change, the common goal to be achieved by these conventions was not questioned. Sharp differences did arise, however, on how these goals were to be achieved in view of the different priorities assigned to them by different countries. The question of financial assistance for implementation of the conventions by developing countries was a particular bone of contention.

19. The inability (or unwillingness) of developing countries to meet their obligations without considerable financial assistance was recognized and ‑ realizing that those conventions could not be implemented without their cooperation - the developing countries made their participation conditional on the availability of new and additional financial resources enabling them to meet the conventions' obligations. Anticipating such problems, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) was launched in 1991, by the agencies, organizations and countries with a particular interest that the conventions should be effectively implemented. Currently, GEF serves as a financial mechanism that provides grants and concessional funds to developing countries for projects designed to protect the global environment, with a focus on projects relevant to the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Framework Convention on Climate Change. Unfortunately, neither the Convention on the Law of the Sea or any other of the ocean-related conventions carries the same weight with GEF, and ocean‑related projects are castaways where GEF is concerned.

20. Following the adoption of Agenda 21 in 1992, and in the spirit of recommendations made at the Earth Summit in Rio, considerable further progress was made in strengthening international efforts in the management and use of oceans and coastal areas. In 1993, the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal, the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Framework Convention on Climate Change entered into force, followed by the Convention on the Law of the Sea, in 1994. In 1994, the Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States was adopted, followed, in 1995, by the adoption of the Global Programme of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-based Activities, the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries and the Agreement on the Implementation of the Provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 10 December 1982 Relating to the Conservation and Management of Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks. In 1996, the Protocol to the London Convention was adopted which, once in force, will replace the 1972 Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter.

21. The Global Programme of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land‑based Activities is of particular importance for furthering the goals of Agenda 21, as it represents the first all‑embracing blueprint for sustained and effective action to deal with all land‑based impacts upon the marine environment. It envisages: the development and implementation of national action programmes; cooperation to build capacities and mobilize resources for the implementation of such programmes; promoting access to cleaner technologies, knowledge and expertise to address land‑based activities, and available management tools; cooperation on a regional basis; and the establishment of a clearing-house mechanism to provide decision makers with direct access to relevant sources of information, experience and expertise. The development of a global, legally binding instrument for the reduction and elimination of emissions and discharges is identified as a further goal of the Programme, with special attention to elimination of the production and use of persistent organic pollutants.

22. Agenda 21 also gave new impetus to the development or strengthening of existing science-based programmes directly relevant to the management of oceans and coastal areas. The International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP), launched by the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU) in 1986, is of particular interest from a long-term perspective. Its overall goal is to describe and understand the interactive physical, chemical and biological processes that regulate the total Earth system, the unique environment that it provides for life, the changes that are occurring in this system, and the manner in which they are influenced by human activities. Areas of special relevance to the management of oceans and coastal areas include: improved global change predictions; the scientific analysis of available strategies for mitigation of global environmental change; and strengthening the capacity of scientists in developing countries.

23. The IOC-coordinated Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS), coordinated by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is of more immediate and practical relevance to managers and policy makers. Its main goal is to ensure, through systematic observations, data and information, support to improved decision-making and resource management. The value and importance of GOOS were explicitly recognized in Agenda 21.

24. The Global International Water Assessment is a recent programme, approved in late 1997, which is supported by GEF. Its overall objective is to develop a comprehensive strategic framework for the identification of priorities for remedial and mitigation actions in international waters, including riverbasins. The Assessment is envisaged as a set of regional analyses of water-related problems and their social and economic causes (policies, governance, economic and information failures, etc.).

II. ROLE AND ACTIONS OF UNEP IN FACILITATING THE

IMPLEMENTATION OF CHAPTER 17

A. Legislative authority

25. The legislative authority of UNEP to deal with the protection of oceans is derived mainly from recommendations of two global conferences, namely, the 1972 Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment and the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, recommendations of other intergovernmental meetings, such as the meetings which adopted various regional seas programmes, the meeting which adopted the Global Programme of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land‑based Activities, and other sources. It is the relevant resolutions of the General Assembly and decisions of the UNEP Governing Council, however, which constitute the only formally binding legislative authority for activities described in the next section of this chapter.

B. Focus of UNEP ocean-related activities

26. Most UNEP activities relevant to the management of oceans and coastal areas which predate the adoption of Agenda 21, such as the regional seas programme, the Global Environment Monitoring System (GEMS), the global environmental information exchange network (INFOTERRA) and Earthwatch, were recognized and endorsed by the Rio Summit as contributing to the implementation of Agenda 21. The only new activity specifically requested from UNEP was the convening of an intergovernmental meeting on the protection of the marine environment from land-based activities. With that in mind, UNEP continued to implement its ocean-related programmes with some adjustments of their scope and direction, in order to increase the emphasis on approaches advocated by Agenda 21.

27. The regional seas programme, initiated in 1974, remained the central UNEP programme providing the major legal, administrative, substantive and financial framework for the implementation of Agenda 21, and its chapter 17 in particular. The regional seas programme is based on periodically revised action plans adopted by high-level intergovernmental meetings and implemented, in most cases, in the framework of legally binding regional conventions, under the authority of the respective contracting parties or intergovernmental meetings.

28. Currently, 12 regions are covered by adopted action plans and nine of the action plans are supported by regional conventions. The geographic regions considered as covered by the regional seas programme include: the Mediterranean; west and central Africa; the wider Caribbean; eastern Africa; the east Asian seas; the south Asian Seas; the north-west Pacific; the Persian and Arabian Gulf; the south-east Pacific; the south Pacific; the Red Sea; and the Black Sea. UNEP provides the secretariat of the programmes in the first seven regions listed. Programmes in nine of the regions are implemented in the framework of corresponding regional conventions.

29. Two of those action plans were adopted after 1992, following the recommendation of the Rio Summit to extend the regional seas programme to those new regions where it might be appropriate. More than 140 countries participate in the action plans, through the involvement of about 400 national institutions. Active support to the programme is provided by a large number of international, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations participating in its implementation.

30. Whenever appropriate, the regional seas programme is used as the main mechanism to implement the various ocean-related activities of UNEP. The overall coordination of the regional seas programme by UNEP ensures that such activities, although implemented regionally, remain essentially global in nature.

31. While the focus of the first action plans was on the protection of the marine environment against pollution, plans adopted subsequently shifted their priorities to the development and protection of the marine and coastal environment. Revisions of the action plans made since 1992 have broadened their scope so as to emphasize issues related to the integrated management and use of coastal and marine environment, along the lines recommended by Agenda 21. The protection and management of fisheries resources is the only major item excluded from consideration in the framework of the regional seas programme. A further positive development was the establishment, in one of the regions - the Mediterranean - of a regional commission for sustainable development, as a subsidiary body of the parties to the Barcelona Convention. The establishment of a similar body, as a joint subsidiary body of the Abidjan and Nairobi conventions, is in progress. In addition, work is under way on a review of the Nairobi Convention with a view to its eventual amendment.

32. This evolution of the regional seas programme prompted UNEP to assume one of the lead roles in promoting the concept of integrated coastal area management. Comprehensive coastal area management plans have been and are being developed in the framework of several regions covered by the regional seas programme (in Albania, Algeria, Croatia, Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, Malta, Morocco, the Syrian Arab Republic, Tunisia, Turkey and elsewhere), frequently in collaboration with the World Bank and other intergovernmental and non‑governmental organizations. Based on the experience accumulated through these coastal area management plans, detailed guidelines for the integrated management of coastal and marine areas and for an integrated approach to the development, management and use of coastal water resources were published in 1995 and 1997, respectively, and guidelines for integrated coastal area and river basin management are being developed. As a related activity, the Atlas of Coastal Resources of Kenya was prepared and published in 1998.

33. The Global Plan of Action for the Conservation, Protection and Utilization of Marine Mammals was originally prepared between UNEP and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in the late 1970s. It was subsequently endorsed by the International Whaling Commission and its Scientific Committee, to serve as a framework for policy planning and programme formulation by international community. In 1997, the Plan of Action was revised but, owing to financial constraints, its implementation is in abeyance.

34. UNEP is actively participating in the implementation of the Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States, adopted in Barbados in 1994, to address the specific social, economic and environmental problems of such States.

35. Some of the major UNEP programme elements, such as INFOTERRA, Earthwatch, GEMS and the Global Resource Information Database (GRID), have also made considerable contributions to the implementation of chapter 17. These include assessment and monitoring of coastal suspended sediment concentration and vegetation conditions in the South China Sea; vegetation mapping of the coastal zone of Cambodia; application of the geographical information system (GIS) to coastal and marine resources for Hainan, China; pollution management in the Saigon river estuary; assistance to Maldives and Sri Lanka in enhancing their capacities for environmental assessment, including the provision of equipment and training; capacity‑building for data and information management in eight Black Sea countries; two volumes of the Global Environment Outlook (GEO) report series, covering, inter alia, ocean‑related issues; and a GEO small island developing States project to address the specific problems of these States. Further details on the Barbados Programme of Action can be found in the draft on its implementation, prepared for the Commission on Sustainable Development at its seventh session and contained in document UNEP/GC.20/19.

36. UNEP, as one of the implementing agencies of GEF, is specifically responsible for catalysing the development of scientific and technical analysis and advancing environmental management in GEF-financed activities. It provides guidance on relating these activities to global, regional and national assessments, policy frameworks and plans, and to international environmental agreements. UNEP also manages the Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel (STAP), an independent advisory body that provides scientific and technical guidance to GEF.

37. As one of the agencies sponsoring GESAMP, which brings together experts from the International Maritime Organization (IMO), FAO, IOC, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations and UNEP, UNEP actively participated in, and financially supported, the preparation of the GESAMP studies dealing with a variety of issues. UNEP had had a particular interest in the preparation of comprehensive periodic reports assessing the state of the global marine environment. Currently, UNEP leads the preparation of the third such report. Chapter III and IV of the present document are largely based on material which is being considered for eventual inclusion in that report.

38. In addition to the activities listed here, UNEP is continuing to contribute to the implementation of chapter 17 of Agenda 21 through the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), established jointly with WMO, and through various activities undertaken in the framework of several conventions for which UNEP provides the secretariat, namely: the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES); the Convention for the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals; the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal; and the Convention on Biological Diversity.

39. UNEP is also co-sponsor and active participant in a large number of programmes and activities led by other organizations. Those of particular relevance for the implementation of chapter 17 of Agenda 21 are: the International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI), involving IOC, UNEP and the World Conservation Union (IUCN); the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) - IOC, UNEP, WMO and others; the Global Investigation of Pollution in the Marine Environment (GIPME) - IOC, UNEP and IMO; and the World Climate Programme (WCP) - WMO, UNEP, UNESCO, FAO and the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU).

40. Among the new activities flowing from the recommendations of the Rio Summit, UNEP prepared and convened the intergovernmental meeting which adopted, in late 1995, the Global Programme of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land‑based Activities. The final implementation plan for the Programme was endorsed by the Governing Council in 1997. Regional workshops were or are being organized in the framework of the regional seas programme to identify regional problems and priorities for action, and to initiate the development of regional strategic programmes to address land‑based activities. The preparation of detailed overviews of problems related to land‑based activities is under way for each of the regions covered by the Global Programme. Under the leadership of UNEP, the results of these regional overviews are being synthesized into a global report on the impact of land-based activities by GESAMP. The clearing-house which it is planned to establish under the Global Programme of Action is being developed in cooperation with organizations designated as having a specific role to play. A strategy paper outlining the plans for further implementation of the Global Plan of Action has been prepared by UNEP and discussed in informal consultations with Governments and agencies. Discussion of the paper with non-governmental organizations is scheduled for November 1998. UNEP, as the designated secretariat of the Global Programme of Action, established the coordination office of the Programme in The Hague, in 1997, with the generous support of the Government of the Netherlands.

41. The Global International Waters Assessment has a GEF-funded four-year project, coordinated by UNEP, which has recently been approved. The project will focus on five critical issues of coastal waters and associated river basins: water scarcity; pollution; habitat modification and destruction; over‑exploitation of fisheries and other living aquatic resources; and global changes. In addition to the identification of problems related to those issues, the project will also analyse their underlying root causes. The results of the project are expected to assist Governments and the GEF Council in establishing priorities which may be addressed by subsequent GEF-funded activities. The city of Kalmar in Sweden offered to host the unit coordinating the project. The host Government agreement with the Government of Sweden and a memorandum of understanding with Kalmar University for the implementation of the Global International Water Assessment have been signed.

42. Several specific contributions to observance of the Year of the Oceans were made by UNEP, or with contributions or assistance from it: a special issue of the UNEP magazine Our Planet was dedicated to oceans; a short "IMAX Trailer" was produced and is being shown in 75 theaters worldwide over a period of nine months; several in‑flight videos and inputs into in-flight magazines have been developed and are being used by some major airlines, such as KLM, Singapore Airlines and TAP; a special booklet presenting the regional seas programme has been printed and widely distributed; posters, stickers, pocket calendars and postcards containing the UNEP message "Ocean for life on Earth - Save our Seas" have been produced and widely distributed; the UNEP magazine for children Leave it to Us was reissued in several languages, with a special focus on oceans; a children's art competition was organized, including oceans as one of its themes; a World Youth Declaration on Oceans was prepared and endorsed by the World Youth Forum (Braga, Portugal August 1998); a compact disc with songs on the theme of the oceans was released; six short documentary film highlighting global ocean issues were prepared in cooperation with TVE and broadcasted worldwide by BBC; a coffee-table album is being prepared in cooperation with Living Earth Foundation; the Turner Network (CNN and CNN International) broadcasted the UNEP ocean‑related public service announcements from mid‑May through early June 1998; numerous press releases and interviews have been organized, and UNEP has either convened or participated in various meetings and conferences organized specifically to commemorate the Year of Oceans.

C. Sources of financial and human resources for environmental aspects of

UNEP activities in coastal areas and oceans

43. Implementation of the UNEP ocean-related programme suffers from a chronic shortage of financial and human resources. Since the resources derived from the Environment Fund of UNEP, and those available through the regional trust funds directly supporting the regional seas programme, are too limited to cover the requirements of the programme, UNEP sought to mitigate the problem through various arrangements involving Governments, donor agencies, intergovernmental organizations and mechanism, as well as non‑governmental organizations.