1. INTRODUCTION

Oceans and coasts are essential for sustainable development. The oceans, comprising 72% of the earth’s surface, play an essential role in maintaining ecosystems crucial for the life on earth. More than 70% of the total population is living, or will soon be living within the 80 km from the coastline. This coastal strip comprises some of the largest cities in the world.

Oceans and coasts are extremely important for the economic well-being not only of the coastal population, but for the entire world’s population. These ecosystems produce a wide range of “goods” and “services”. Recent attempts to put an economic value to them have uncovered surprising results. Although not being absolutely correct, their proportions can be taken with a high degree of certainty. The overall value of ecological “goods” (oil, gas, tourism, marine trade, shipping, shipbuilding, fisheries, minerals, submarine communications) and “services” (gas control, disturbance control, waste treatment, nutrient circulation) is estimated at US$ 23 trillion annually¹.

However, in spite of the high environmental and economic importance of oceans and coastal waters, they have been persistently used as dumps for the human wastes. Thus, 80% of the marine pollution is land based. The growth of tourism and coastal urbanisation has resulted in uncontrolled coastal development (in the Mediterranean, about 75% of inhabitable coastal land has already been occupied²). Some 70% of the world’s commercial fisheries are now fully exploited, only 4% are under-exploited, and 21% are moderately exploited. The conflict between human use and sustaining natural resources in marine and coastal areas has been in the past and still is a global problem.

2. AN EARLY RESPONSE: SETTING UP THE REGIONAL SEAS PROGRAMME

Although the above mentioned threats are of the global concern, it was understood, early on, that the deteriorating state of oceans and coastal areas could be tackled most effectively only if done simultaneously at a global level as well as at the regional level, from sea to sea. Consequently, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), established after the UN conference on environment and development held in Stockholm in 1972, initiated the setting up of the Regional Seas Programme in 1974.

Through its Regional Seas Programme, UNEP encouraged groups of countries sharing common seas to find regional solutions to their particular problems. The underlying idea was that, although the sources of solutions to their problems would be found within their respective regions, they might find inspiration in and guidance from similar programmes in other areas, and a support from international organisations. In that sense, UNEP would only have a catalytic role for the regional programmes: it would collect the seeds, then plant and nourish them through their early and most vulnerable years. Once the programmes gained strength and maturity, they would be able to flourish on their own. In this way, what began as a global programme implemented through regional components gradually evolved into a decentralised collection of more-or-less independent regional programmes³.

The Regional Seas approach was based on periodically revised action plans adopted by high-level intergovernmental meetings and implemented, in most cases, within the framework of legally binding regional Conventions, under the authority of the respective contracting parties or intergovernmental meetings.

The Regional Seas programme at present includes 13 regions: the Black Sea, Caribbean, East Africa, East Asia, Kuwait, Mediterranean, North West Pacific, Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, South Asia, South-East Pacific, South Pacific, Upper South-West Atlantic, and West and Central Africa. Four similar agreements amongst developed countries, that are outside the Regional Seas framework, are also in place (Baltic, Arctic, North-East Atlantic, and South-West Atlantic). There are more than 140 coastal States and Territories participating in it.

The Regional Seas Programme has been conceived as an action-oriented programme having concern not only for the consequences but also for the causes of environmental degradation, and encompassing a comprehensive approach to combating environmental problems through the management of marine and coastal areas. Each regional action plan has been formulated according to the needs of the region as perceived by the Governments concerned. It is designed to link assessment of the quality of the marine environment and the causes of its deterioration with activities for the management and development of the marine and coastal environment.

3.KEY ISSUES AND TOOLS

Some of the priority issues that are being addressed by the Regional Seas agreements include:

(a) Ecosystems and biodiversity (coral reefs, coastal wetlands including mangrove forests and salt marshes, sea turtles and marine mammals).

(b) Living resources (fish, molluscs, crustaceans, a major food source for many subsistence coastal communities, are exposed to over-harvesting and environmental stresses, causing fish stocks to decline).

(d) Shipping and sea-based pollution (some 20% of sea pollution comes from the deliberate dumping of oil and other wastes from ships, accidental spills and offshore oil drilling).

(e) Coastal development (population pressures on the coasts).

(f) Vulnerability of small islands (vulnerable to extinctions, habitat loss and sea-level rise).

(g) Marine mammals (many species like whales, seals and dolphins are threatened worldwide).⁴

The action plans promote the parallel development of regional legal agreements and of action-oriented programme activities. An action plan is usually made up of the following components:

(a) Environmental Assessment. This concerns assessing and evaluating the causes of environmental problems, as well as their magnitude and impact on the region. Emphasis is given to such activities as: baseline studies, research and monitoring of the sources, levels and effects of marine pollutants, ecosystem studies, studies of coastal and marine activities and social and economic factors that may influence, or may be influenced by, environmental degradation, and the survey of national environmental legislation.

(b) Environmental Management. Each Regional programme includes a wide range of activities in the field of environmental management. Examples of such activities are: co-operative regional projects on training in environmental impact assessment, management of coastal lagoons, estuaries and mangrove ecosystems, control of industrial, agricultural and domestic wastes, formulation of contingency plans for dealing with pollution emergencies.

(c) Environmental legislation. An umbrella regional convention, elaborated by specific technical protocols, most often provides the legal framework for co-operative regional and national actions. The legal commitment of Governments clearly expresses their political will to manage individually and jointly their common environmental problems. Thus, for example, the Barcelona Convention is being implemented through 6 protocols. A unique protocol, compared to other programmes, is one dealing with the land-based sources of pollution.⁵

(d) Institutional Arrangements. When adopting an action plan, Governments agree upon an organisation to act as the permanent or interim secretariat of the action plan. Governments also are expected to decide upon the periodicity of intergovernmental meetings which are to be responsible for reviewing the progress of the agreed work-plan and for approving new activities and the necessary budgetary support.

(e) Financial arrangements. UNEP, together with selected United Nations and other organisations, provide "seed money" or catalytic financing in the early stages of regional programmes. However, as a programme develops, the Governments of the region are expected to progressively assume the full financial responsibility. Government financing is usually channelled through special regional trust funds to which governments make annual contributions. These funds are administered by the organisation responsible for the secretariat functions of the action plan. In addition, Governments contribute by supporting their national institutions participating in the programme or by financing specific project activities.⁶

It is essential to bear in mind that all components of a regional programme are independent. Assessment activities identify the problems that need priority attention in the region. Legal agreements are negotiated to strengthen co-operation among States in managing the identified problems. They also provide an important tool for national policy-makers to implement national control activities. Management activities, aimed at controlling the existing environmental problems and preventing the development of new ones, are one of the means by which States fulfil their treaty obligations.

The key to the success of any regional seas action plan is the political agreement of the Governments concerned and the execution of the programme primarily by national and other appropriate institutions from the region in close co-operation with the relevant components of the United Nations system, regional organisations and other appropriate organisations. The successful implementation of any regional seas action plan also depends to a considerable degree on sound preparations which take into account the specific socio-economic and political situation in a given region, the priorities in environmental protection as defined by the Governments of the region, the recognised capabilities and needs of the national institutions which are participating in the action plan, and the results of past and ongoing activities.

4.MILESTONES AND ACHIEVEMENTS

After 28 years of existence, it is not easy to make an outright evaluation of such a geographically, institutionally, and environmentally diverse initiative such as the Regional Seas Programme. Since the basic idea was to use a global need (to provide instruments to preserve earth’s oceans and coasts) as a trigger to act at a regional level (regional seas conventions and action plans), the appropriate evaluation should be concentrated at the regional level as well. Some programmes have done better, some less so, but it is correct to say that in all regional seas where the programmes were established, the level of awareness on the need to integrate environment and development has been raised. That basic goal was followed by numerous actions that tackled many specific issues which have produced very good results.

The programme has gone through several phases. The first phase was characterised by a rapid establishment of a large number of regional programmes. However, in some of these programmes there was not always enough political will expressed by all the parties concerned, which would make the programme successful. Another critical issue was financing. Although UNEP provided the seed money, that was not enough in the situations when countries were not willing, or capable, to provide their own financial resources for running the programme. And finally, the legal component, except in the case of the Barcelona Convention and Cartagena Convention, has not always been successfully completed. These factors have contributed that some programmes, like the Mediterranean and Caribbean, have been running rather smoothly throughout the entire period of their existence, while some other, such as the Nairobi and Abidjan Conventions, have had rough times, particularly in the early nineties. Without a stronger support of UNEP and some bilateral donors in that period they would have faced the danger of being closed down permanently.

A major push to the programme was provided by the UN Conference on Environment and Development, held in Rio in 1992. The advent of sustainable development as a basic concept that was to lead the world actions in the subsequent period, as well as in the period to come after the Johannesburg Conference, created new priorities that could not leave the Regional Seas Programme without any reaction. We should keep in mind that the whole chapter, the Chapter 17 of the Agenda 21, was fully devoted to oceans and coastal areas, and in it an action plan for future activities was developed. Strangely, a paradoxical situation emerged in the post-Rio period. On the negative side, due to organisational changes in UNEP, the Oceans and Coastal Areas Programme Activity Centre (OCA/PAC) that served as a sort of “secretariat” for the entire programme, ceased to exist in the early nineties. Its functions were transferred to the newly established Water Branch of UNEP, but the Regional Seas Programme was not one of its priorities. On the positive side, in spite of the changes in UNEP, some regional programmes have been very active. A whole new process of their readjustment started, with the objective of responding to new priorities that were set by the Rio Conference and the Agenda 21. These programmes have been quite successful in their endeavours.

As the Mediterranean is the most developed of all programmes, it pays to have a quick look how it has fared in the second half of the nineties. The entire legal framework, the Barcelona Convention and the existing protocols, was revised after 1995, while two new protocols were also adopted. In 1996, the Mediterranean Commission for Sustainable Development was established. It was a pioneering effort supported by all the Contracting Parties, as well as by NGOs, local authorities and private sector, which all participated in its work. In spite of the difficulties that were encountered in its early phases, MCSD has shown its potential to become the model for environmental management in the 21st century, not only at the regional, but at national and local levels as well. Coastal areas acted very prominently both in the Mediterranean Action Plan’s (MAP) and MCSD’s work. In 1997, MCSD proposed a set of recommendations aimed at improving coastal management in the region, and in the same year they were adopted by the Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention. New synergies were created between MAP and other strong regional actors, the European Union in particular. Its Euro-Mediterranean Partnership is a massive programme aimed at sustainable development of the Mediterranean region. MAP is considered to be an important partner to EU in the implementation of that programme. The World Bank’s METAP programme has been revitalised in the region and is currently being implemented with the support and participation of MAP.

In yet another shake-up of UNEP, which took place in the second half of the nineties, the Regional Seas Programme was placed under the responsibility of the Division of Environmental Conventions. This reflected the need for a greater support to all of the Regional Seas secretariats and co-ordinating units, as well as the UNEP's Governing Council call in 1998 for an increased investment by UNEP in these regional activities. As a start of a new era for the Regional Seas Programme, UNEP has called the secretariats together to discuss common concerns, promoting "horizontal collaboration", and facilitating stronger linkages with global conventions and agencies.

5.FUTURE DIRECTIONS

As the Programme grew in scope and imagination, as well as in size, new ideas emerged on how it would be organised to respond to the challenges of the new century. A streamlining was necessary and, today, the Programme encompasses rather than replaces the former programme elements of science, management and law. Now, its main components are:

· Biodiversity conservation, where the Convention of Biological Diversity provides the umbrella for all activities that have the objective of protecting marine species and habitats;

· Land-based activities, which are aimed at tackling the main sources of environmental degradation at their source, within the framework of the Global Programme of Action (GPA) for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-based Activities;

· Integrated Coastal Area Management (ICAM), where activities are pursued towards achieving sustainable development of the coastal areas and utilisation of marine resources.

Following the adoption of the Global Programme of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-based Activities at the Washington Conference in November 1995, UNEP initiated actions to revitalise the Regional Seas Programme. The UNEP Governing Council stressed the need for UNEP to strengthen the Regional Seas Programme as its central mechanism for the implementation of its activities relevant to the chapter 17 of the Agenda 21. In June 1998 all the secretariats and co-ordinating units of the regional programmes met for the first time in The Hague. A second Global Meeting of Regional Seas Conventions and Action Plans was held in The Hague in July 1999, and a third in Monaco in November 2000.

Today UNEP is developing a new strategic action programme to facilitate collaboration among the many Regional Seas Conventions and Actions Plans and their global counterparts. At its most recent meeting, the UNEP Governing Council encouraged UNEP's expansion of the Regional Seas Programme into new parts of the world, and called for increased regional and interregional co-operation to protect the marine and coastal environment.

Over the next period, UNEP and Regional Seas secretariats will work together to enhance and energise all of the regional programmes through a five-part strategy:

· Strengthen UNEP’s contribution to the Regional Seas. Recognising the valuable role that the Regional Seas Programme plays in delivering UNEP’s own programme, UNEP will commit itself to channel support and financial resources more effectively to the regional conventions and action plans. It already directly support secretariat functions for some programmes whose countries are less financially able to do so, such as the Nairobi and Abidjan Conventions, as well as some specific projects, such as Regional Seas Coral Reef Assessment. UNEP has provided funding to the World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC) to extend technical support to programmes in Eastern Africa, the Wider Caribbean, South-east Pacific and East Asia for reports on the status of coral reefs in their regions.

· Promote horizontal ties among Regional Seas Actions Plans. The sharing of experiences, best practices and lessons learned can provide an invaluable form of co-operation. Some of the more mature Regional Seas conventions have developed considerable expertise in the integrated coastal area an marine management, and have provided technical co-operation and assistance to the newer and less developed conventions (MAP has provided such support to Eastern Africa, West and Central Africa Action Plans, ROPME and PERSGA). The practice of “twinning” among Regional Seas is also be encouraged (positive example is twinning between the Helsinki Commission for Baltic Marine Environment Protection and UNEP’s Regional Seas Programme for the Eastern African Region).

· Regional seas priorities and concerns must be firmly integrated into the new four-year initiative led by UNEP and executed by the Kalmar University in Sweden - Global International Water Assessment (GIWA). The Assessment will focus on the root causes of environmental degradation in 66 international marine, freshwater and groundwater sites around the world. Financed by the Global Environment Facility, GIWA aims to provide the most objective and comprehensive assessment of transboundary water problems ever made. This will result in an information base that can be used for finding solutions and for setting global priorities for local action.

· The Regional Seas agreements and the newly established Global Plan of Action on Land-based Sources of Pollution (GPA) need to be closely linked. The GPA was established to strengthen regional and national efforts to tackle perhaps the most important threat to Regional Seas: the flow of chemicals, human wastes, and other materials into the sea via air, rivers, and coastal activities. It targets pollution from entire catchment areas, taking in sources such as agriculture, forestry, aquaculture and tourism. The goals of the GPA, whose secretariat is based in The Hague and administered by UNEP, can be realised in large part through the activities of the Regional Seas Programmes, while the GPA can help promote greater support for activities and co-ordination at the regional level.

· Collaboration between the Regional Seas conventions and action plans and the global conventions should be strengthened. The Regional Seas programmes and Action Plans can provide the appropriate level for the implementation of many global instruments, in particular those dealing with the protection of the marine environment. They can also ensure proper co-ordination among regional and global conventions and serve as a vehicle for gathering information. Key partners can include the International Coral Reef Initiative, the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Global Plan of Action for Marine Mammals, the Climate Change Convention, the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and many others. In the case of the Convention on Biological Diversity, a two-way mechanism for co-operation should be developed. For example, there is a good opportunity for collaboration between the clearing-house that is being established under the GPA and the existing clearing-house of the Convention on Biological Diversity, particularly in the areas of habitat degradation, habitat protection, and coastal zone management.⁷

6.CONCLUSION

The Regional Seas Programme is one of the oldest UNEP programmes, and it has been widely accepted by all the participating countries throughout its turbulent history. The results and achievements have been mixed, and a thorough evaluation of its success still remains to be done. However, it is fair to say that, although we don’t know yet if and how much the situation in the regional seas has improved as a result of the programme’s implementation, we could be pretty sure that, thanks to the programme, it certainly has not deteriorated. This type of programme, which involves so many diverse actors; which has modest financial resources utilised, but which is producing large catalytic effects; and which is greatly contributing to the awareness raising in the countries concerned, could certainly be taken as a practice whose existence should be continued, as well as the model that should be repeated in other parts of the world where it hasn’t started yet.

REFFERENCES

1)GESAMP: Protecting the Oceans from Land-Based Activities, GESAMP, (2001)

2)MAP/PAP: White paper on coastal zone management in the Mediterranean, PAP/RAC, (2001)

3)http://www.unep.org

4)UNEP: Regional Seas. A Survival Strategy for Our Oceans and Coasts, UNEP, (2000)

5)MAP: The Revision of MAP Legal Framework. The Barcelona Convention and its Protocols, MAP, (2002)

6) http://www.unep.org

7) UNEP: Regional Seas. A Survival Strategy for Our Oceans and Coasts, UNEP, (2000)