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WELCOMING ADDRESS by Mr. Pyeoung-Sik Shin Distinguished Delegates from 4 NOWPAP Members, People’s Republic of China, Japan, Republic of Korea and Russian Federation,
I feel very much honored to make this welcoming address in the First NOWPAP Workshop on Marine Litter on behalf of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries. As you know, the First International Workshop on Marine Litter in the Northwest Pacific Region was held last November in Toyama, Japan. And the Toyama workshop gave us a chance to raise the awareness on marine litter issues and to extend our efforts to resolve those issues. I believe that today's workshop is a process to reach our goal with our attention and efforts on marine litters as well as a beginning step for the further take-off in marine environment field. In that sense, this venue is obviously significant and precious. Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests! Under the infinite competition between countries and in the rapid and dramatic economic development and industrialization, our world in the 21'st century has been faced with issues of polluted environment in all sectors including water, air, earth, and underground water as well as ocean, thereby imposing a severe threat to our living conditions and environments. In particular, ocean and marine have provided us with aesthetically wonderful view of nature and abundant natural resources, but unfortunately ocean and marine pollution issues have been relatively excluded and marginalized at the pollution discussion table, compared with land pollution issues. And, as a result of it, our ocean has been so much contaminated by various pollutants including oil and litters as well as land-based sources of pollution that it now seems almost to lose its self-purification capability. Particularly in recent days, floating litters in ocean have been introduced into foreign countries, raising an issue of marine litter migration. So, NOWPAP is well aware of the severity of this issue and planning to put this issue on the priority agenda and to act for the resolution of the issue. In Korea as well, the marine litter has damaged our costal and marine community by reducing the fishery resources and degrading coastal sceneries and views. So, we, the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, are taking the lead in coming up with action plans for marine litter issues. First, we have made continuous efforts to reduce marine litters by cutting the amount of fishery gears used in ocean and by preventing dumping of litters and waste into ocean through legal actions. Also, in order to collect marine litters introduced into our coast and ocean, since 1999, we have annually poured more than 30 billion won out of central and local governments' budget into the marine litter reception activities. Besides, residents at the local communities, civil society members and local governments are working together in coast clean-up activities. With all those efforts, we now see somewhat improvement, but I still believe more fundamental way to solve the issue is to prevent the pollution sources from the beginning stage. Like that, it should be the first step for each country to thoroughly manage its own nation-generated litters, and in terms of unavoidably travelling litters, we have to fully discuss the issues in workshops like this one so that the outcome of discussion can be reflected in the intergovernmental meetings. Ladies and gentlemen, and honorable guests from home and abroad! I sincerely hope that this workshop held in Incheon, the international marine city, will be a venue for all of you experts and delegates from each country and international bodies to have a successful discussion session. And at the same time, I am looking forward further opportunities for discussion on marine pollution issues at the international level thereby contributing to solving the marine environmental issues of the Northwest Pacific Region. Thank you very much. [ Back to top... ]
WELCOMING ADDRESS by Mr. Myung-Soo Chun Good morning, I am pleased to be here with you today. Distinguished guests from United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), International Maritime Organization (IMO), Northwest Pacific Action Plan (NOWPAP) member states and Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, and ladies and gentlemen! It’s my pleasure to welcome all of you to this international port city of Incheon. Many countries in the world are working on maritime issues, and Incheon is also focusing on becoming a competitive hub city of Northeast Asia by enhancing quality of life of its people based on Incheon International Airport (IIA) and seaport. I think this workshop is very significant in that Pacific countries have gathered together to discuss matters of common interest. And it is my great honor to join you today. The ocean has been a central factor in Incheon City’s historical and economic development, and will continue to play a major role as this city transforms into an international business center. Incheon is a dynamic city, building Korea’s new economic growth engine, based on our state-of-theart international airport and the Incheon Free Economic Zone comprised of the Songdo, Yeongjong and Cheongna Areas. In addition, the Asian and Pacific Training Centre for Information and Communication Technology for Development (APCICT), the first United Nations agency in Korea, will be inaugurated in Songdo International City later this month. The bid to host the 2014 Asian Games, as well as the scheduled relocation to Songdo of major Korean and foreign educational institutions, will be a major boost to the image of Incheon as an international city. In the past, there was a lack of awareness in the local marine environment, which has had a negative impact on the ecosystem, decreased the fishing resources and led to economic difficulties for the local fishing industry. Now, I’m proud to say, Incheon is transforming into an eco-friendly maritime city, protecting our sea and tidal flats, and our beautiful 155 islands, as we build a world-class infrastructure and develop our tremendous potential. In order to prevent contamination of the sea, due to waste flowing from the mainland, Incheon joined, in 2002, with neighboring Seoul, and the Gyeonggi Provincial government, to commit 28.5 billion won on improving the water quality off the city’s coast. Moreover, Incheon is Korea’s first local government to operate an advanced ocean cleaning vessel, encourage fishermen to collect marine garbage, and has installed litter-blocking filters in the sewer system. The marine environment will be increasingly more important in the 21st century, and we should work together to protect our precious common ocean resources. I hope this NOWPAP workshop will help countries to solve the issue of ocean litter, and establish mechanisms for international cooperation. Also, I ask that the distinguished guests support our efforts to keep Incheon’s ocean waters clean. Once again, I’d like to thank all the distinguished guests for taking the time to attend this workshop, and I wish you a memorable and pleasant stay in Incheon. [ Back to top... ]
CONGRATULATORY ADDRESS by Dr. Alexander Tkalin Mr. Pyeong-Sik Shin, Director-General, Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Mr. Myung-Soo Cheon, Deputy Mayor, Incheon Metropolitan City, Dr. Ellik Adler, UNEP, and Mr. Miguel Palomares, IMO, Dr. Chang-Gu Kang, Director of NOWPAP MERRAC, Ladies and Gentlemen, colleagues and friends including Dr. Srisuda Jarayabhand from COBSEA and Ms. Connie Chiang from the YSLME project, It is my great pleasure to make a congratulatory address at the First NOWPAP Workshop on Marine Litter. At the beginning of my speech, I must thank the organizers first for their hard work to prepare this meeting. My sincere appreciation further extends to the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries and the Incheon Metropolitan City for their generous support and warm hospitality. I am also glad to see here representatives from all NOWPAP member states, participants from research institutions, NGOs and the general public. Marine litter is certainly the global problem that threatens the marine environment, living organisms, and even human health and safety. Unfortunately, in spite of existing international legal instruments addressing marine litter, the problem is getting worse. There are several reasons: The first reason comes from our attitude: someone may leave garbage after enjoying a day at the beach; a significant proportion of marine litter is also garbage that is thrown overboard or lost from ships. So, unless we change our behavior and habits to minimize the generation of garbage, the overall marine litter situation will not improve. Another reason is lack of land-based infrastructure to receive marine litter properly. Last, but not least, is lack of awareness of the severity and impact of marine litter on the marine and coastal environment among stakeholders, NGOs and the general public including school kids as well as people involved in different sectors of industry such as shipping, fisheries, plastic manufacturing etc. In fact, we can not resolve the marine litter problem overnight. It will take time to improve the marine litter problem. In this regard, I would like to stress that the best solution to cope with the marine litter problem is to work together: government officials, researchers, those who work in private sector, NGOs, and the general public – only together we can achieve positive results from our efforts to combat the marine litter. I wish this workshop to be very successful. Thank you very much. [ Back to top... ]
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