ENVIRONMENT:
Needed - More Money to Save Caribbean Sea
Orlando Matos

HAVANA,  (IPS) - There has been considerable progress in research and diagnosis of the environmental problems plaguing the Caribbean Sea, but more international funds are needed for remedial measures before it is too late, experts warn.

"We have asked international organisations for help, particularly financial aid, to continue working towards solutions," Roberto Castellanos, an official at the Cuban Ministry of Science, Technology and the Environment, told IPS.

"For years now the region has been aware of the problem affecting our sea, because we all suffer from it," Castellanos added.

He said the main sources of pollution include "the lack of sewage systems, waste from ships, the dumping of industrial chemical residues, and poor handling of solid urban waste."

Castellanos did not specify the level of pollution of Caribbean bays and coasts, although he did say that "the problem has been identified and we are working together to overcome it."

The "Global Environment Outlook (GEO-3)" report, published in 2003 by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), pointed to oil spills as another major menace for the Caribbean.

According to GEO-3, 90 percent of the petrochemical pollution in the Caribbean Sea comes from industrial sources such as refineries, three-quarters of which are located on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico.

However, in response to questions from IPS, Mexican researcher Gerardo Gold ruled out pollution as a major problem on the Caribbean coast of his country, although he acknowledged that "it is concentrated at some points, such as Veracruz, Tampico or Cancún, just three or four locations."

In spite of the enormous development of the oil industry, as well as tourism and ports in the Caribbean basin, "the situation is not critical, because the coastal population is small and there are few natural bays," Gold said. "We are learning from others' experiences in order to prevent pollution problems in future," he concluded.

Gold attended the Regional Workshop on Environmental Management of Bays and Coastal Areas in the Wider Caribbean, organised by UNEP and the Cuban Ministry of the Environment in Havana on Oct. 11-13. Representatives were present from seven countries in the region: Colombia, Cuba, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, Trinidad & Tobago and Venezuela.

The Wider Caribbean stretches from the Bahamas in the north to Trinidad & Tobago in the south, taking in all the island groups within that area, as well as the mainland countries with Caribbean coasts.

The meeting studied the Protocol Concerning Pollution from Land-Based Sources and Activities (LBS), adopted on Oct. 6, 1999 but not yet in force.

The LBS is one of three protocols to the Convention for the Protection and Development of the Marine Environment of the Wider Caribbean Region, known as the Cartagena Convention, adopted in 1983 and in force since 1986.

The Convention signed at Cartagena, a Colombian city on the Caribbean, identified the threats to sustainable development of the Caribbean basin area and outlined actions for its protection.

The other two instruments that complete the Convention are the Protocol Concerning Co-operation in Combating Oil Spills in the Wider Caribbean Region, also adopted in 1983 and in force since 1986, and the Protocol Concerning Specially Protected Areas and Wildlife, signed in 1990 and in force since 2000.

The LBS protocol identified pollutants originating inland, from domestic waste water, agricultural waste and run-off, and industrial waste, and proposed alternative treatments to reduce their negative impacts on coastal waters.

In order to implement the Convention and its protocols, in 1986 the region's governments set up a Regional Coordination Unit at Kingston, Jamaica, administered by UNEP.

Another participant at the meeting, William Senior, who holds a PhD in chemical oceanography from Oriente University in Venezuela, told IPS that "all the countries represented here have serious coastal pollution problems."

"It's a widespread problem that was diagnosed between 1995 and 1998, and now at this workshop we're reviewing how much progress we've made and what we've done to remedy the situation," he said.

Senior emphasised the positive results achieved in cleaning up Havana Bay, but he thought the rest of the region "has been slower in implementing environmental hygiene measures in coastal areas, because most of the countries are facing problems, that are basically economic in nature."

In the case of Venezuela, in addition to land-based sources of pollution, "we have areas that suffer from pollution from the oil industry, the country's main economic activity."

In turn, Nicaraguan marine ecologist Mauricio Lacayo pointed to the need to focus on treatment of mud and sediments from rivers that flow into the Caribbean.

"We're trying to get this problem included in the financing project for the region, because the mud entering the Caribbean Sea is a serious contaminant," Lacayo told IPS.

In 1995, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) earmarked 10 million dollars from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) to launch the programme in heavily polluted bays in the Wider Caribbean.

The GEF is administered by the World Bank, and was established in 1991 as a mechanism to fund environmental protection projects at a global level. At present it has 176 member countries, 32 of which are donors.

The GEF funds were assigned to the bays of Kingston, Cartagena, Puerto Limón (Costa Rica) and Havana, which each received 2.5 million dollars. A separate UNEP project is providing aid to the bays of Pozuelo (Venezuela), the coastline of Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic) and Bluefields (Nicaragua).

A source who preferred not to be named said "the region has made considerable progress in the diagnosis and investigation of polluting factors, but not in the integrated management of bays and coasts."

"That is the problem, and it's basically due to the scarce financial resources available in these countries," the source said.

Participants at the workshop agreed to apply for funding for a project, to be sent to GEF, and they hope the global agency will pay attention to a warning printed on one of the leaflets distributed at the meeting: "Our Caribbean is in danger."