UN Experts' Report
to Governments Charts Ways Forward - New
York/Nairobi/Paris, 31 August 2009 - The
world's oceans and seas-covering 70 per
cent of the planet - may soon be subject
to the same kind of systematic scientific
scrutiny as the globe's land surface.
Governments are meeting
today to consider a series of options and
recommendations on establishing just such
a monitoring process. It is aimed at plugging
significant and serious knowledge gaps that
are undermining humanity's ability to better
manage a wealth of natural and nature-based
marine resources.
If governments give
the process the green light, the first globally
integrated oceans assessment could be delivered
under the auspices of the United Nations
by 2014.
Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary
General and UNEP Executive Director, said:
"The marine environment is facing a
multiplicity of challenges. Some, such as
the decline in fish stocks and land-based
sources of pollution are persistent ones.
Others, from the emergence of 'dead zones'
and the impacts of climate change including
acidification are rapidly emerging ones.
A systematic assessment process is long
overdue. This meeting in New York represents
a tremendous opportunity for governments
to put the best marine science at their
service in order to make the best management
choices over the coming years and decades."
"Significantly, a
very real concern has been acknowledged
today with the launch of the Assessment
of Assessments report - the first ever comprehensive
overview of the marine assessment landscape
- which also considers socio-economic factors.
The report is a clear signal that the world
needs a more inclusive approach on its oceans
and resources. It provides a framework and
options for how this can be done,"
said Mr. Koïchiro Matsuura, Director-General
of the United Nations Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organization.
Despite the central
role oceans play in the economic, environmental
and social affairs of the planet's 6.7 billion
inhabitants, significant gaps exist in our
understanding and management of the complex
processes at work - from the global climate
system, to the water cycle and circulation
of nutrients, to changes affecting marine
habitats.
In addition, the vastness
of the world's oceans have for far too long
been perceived as impervious and indestructible
to human impact.
The clearing of mangroves
and coastal wetlands, the over-exploitation
of fish stocks, rising tides of pollution,
among many other challenges, are affecting
the marine environment's ability to sustain
livelihoods and life itself.
Meanwhile, climbing
concentrations of greenhouse gases - equal
to a third or more of annual carbon dioxide
emissions - are being absorbed, as well
as untold amounts of heavy metals, triggering
mounting concern over the marine food chain.
To deal with this situation,
improved monitoring and observation practices,
regular assessments to provide a deeper
understanding of the status and trends of
environmental changes, and the know-how
and ability to prevent, mitigate and adapt
to these changes are urgently required.
That is why governments
- at the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable
Development (WSSD) and, subsequently, the
UN General Assembly in 2005 - recommended
that a regular UN process for the global
reporting and assessment of the state of
the marine environment, including its socio-economic
aspects, be initiated. The UN Environment
Programme (UNEP) and the Intergovernmental
Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO (IOC-UNESCO)
were asked to serve as the lead agencies
in this work.
The initial phase of
the process came to be known as the "Assessment
of Assessments". Under it, an Expert
Group set up in 2006 examined various existing
marine assessments, evaluating factors central
to the influence of assessments, such as
scientific credibility, policy relevance
and legitimacy, which also helped identify
best practices; thematic, geographic or
data gaps, scientific uncertainties, as
well as research and capacity-building needs,
particularly in the developing world.
The Group will today
present their findings to a special Working
Group of the UN General Assembly, which
will have before it a set of options and
recommendations for governments to consider,
on ways to move the envisioned "Regular
Process" forward. These include clear
formulations of the overall objective, the
products to be delivered in the first five
years of the process, its functionality
and funding.
If established, the
Regular Process for the reporting and assessment
of the state of the marine environment will
"serve as the mechanism to keep the
world's oceans and seas under continuing
review by providing regular assessments
at global and supra-regional levels."
The Working Group will
also have before it a set of organizational
options. These deal with the relationship
of the "Regular Process" to the
UN at the intergovernmental level; and the
establishment of a management oversight
body, a new expert group, and secretariat
support mechanisms. The report provides
a set of financing options which could average
between $4 million and $5.6 million a year.
The GA Working Group
was established to recommend a course of
action on the Regular Process to the General
Assembly at its sixty-fourth session in
late 2009.
Note to Editors:
The GA Working Group
meeting (Ad Hoc Working Group of the Whole
meeting for the Assessment of Assessments)
takes place at UN Headquarters from 31 August
to 4 September 2009.
The Group of Experts
comprised 17 senior policy experts and scientists
from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China,
Croatia, Finland, Germany, Ghana, India,
Seychelles, the United Kingdom and the United
States. Their work also underwent extensive
peer review.
Oversight of the entire
process was entrusted to a Steering Group,
co-chaired by Australia and Mexico, and
comprising representatives from 17 governments
and six UN agencies - including the Food
and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the
World Meteorological Organization (WMO),
the International Maritime Organization
(IMO), the International Seabed Authority
(ISA), UNEP and IOC/UNESCO.
The full Assessment
of Assessments report, including a Summary
for Decision-Makers, is available on the
"Regular Process" website - http://www.unga-regular-process.org
These reports are also
available on the websites of UNEP and IOC-UNESCO:
http://www.unep.org and http://ioc-unesco.org/
Information on the UN
General Assembly Working Group meeting can
be found at http://www.un.org/Depts/los/global_reporting/global_reporting.htm
and http://www.unga-regular-process.org
A detailed presentation
on the Assessment of Assessments report
will be made on Monday, 31 August, at 1:15
in Conference Room 8 of UN Headquarters.
Media are invited.
Several members of the
Group of Experts of the Assessment of Assessments
report will be in attendance and available
for one-on-one interviews.
For more information, please contact:
Nick Nuttall, UNEP Spokesperson and Head
of Media
