Who We Are & What We Do
The Regional Seas Programme, launched in 1974 in the wake of the
1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment held in
Stockholm, is one of UNEP’s most significant achievements
in the past 30 years.
The Regional Seas Programme aims to address the accelerating
degradation of the world’s oceans and coastal areas through
the sustainable management and use of the marine and coastal environment,
by engaging neighbouring countries in comprehensive and specific
actions to protect their shared marineenvironment.It has accomplished
this by stimulating the creation of Regional Seas programmes prescriptions
for sound environmental management to be coordinated and implemented
by countries sharing a common body of water.
Today, more than 140 countries participate in 13 Regional Seas
programmes established under the auspices of UNEP: the Black Sea,
Wider Caribbean, East Africa, south East Asia, ROPME Sea Area,
Mediterranean, North-East Pacific, North-West Pacific, Red Sea
and Gulf of Aden, South Asia, South-East Pacific, Pacific,
and West and Central Africa. Six of these programmes, are directly
administered by UNEP.
The Regional Seas programmes function through an Action Plan.
In most cases the Action Plan is underpinned with a strong legal
framework in the form of a regional Convention and associated
Protocols on specific problems. Furthermore, five partner programmes
for the Antarctic, Arctic, Baltic Sea, Caspian Sea and North-East
Atlantic Regions are members of the Regional Seas family.
All these programmes reflect a similar approach, yet each has
been tailored by its own governments and institutions to suit
their particular environmental challenges. They cover issues ranging
from chemical wastes and coastal development to the conservation
of marine life and ecosystems.
The work of Regional Seas programmes is coordinated by UNEP’s
Regional Seas Branch based at the Nairobi Headquarters. Regional
Coordination Units (RCUs), often aided by Regional Activity Centres
(RACs) oversee the implementation of the programmes and aspects
of the regional action plans such as marine emergencies, information
management and pollution monitoring.
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