History
Preparing the ground
Adopting the programme
Setting priorities
Revitalizing the programme
Inaugurating the RCU
Making a new start
Preparing
the ground
The first step
toward an Action Plan for Eastern Africa was a fact-finding
mission to the region in 1981. Seven experts, including a land-use planner,
a pollution expert and sanitary and industrial engineers, were asked to identify
the main environmental problems of the region as they relate to management of
marine and coastal resources and environmental quality. Another of their key
tasks was to help the Governments of the region identify what they needed to
carry out the Action Plan.
A meeting of
experts selected by their Governments (Seychelles, September 1982) prepared
the first draft of an action plan, identified problems to be tackled as priorities,
and invited UNEP to help in solving them without waiting for the formal adoption
of the action plan. The workshop participants named 10 first priority regional
projects which UNEP and United Nations agencies were asked to initiate during
1983. They included work on developing a network of environmental pollution
laboratories, on providing training facilities for environmental control technicians,
and on developing a network of oil pollution monitoring centres. Two other priority
projects were concerned with assessment of the environmental impact of economic
and social developments and a regional environmental education programme.
Experts nominated
by their Governments prepared country reports on the status of natural resources
and conservation, environmental legislation and socio-economic activities.
A regional workshop
was called during the year to discuss the reports, and a training workshop on
contingency planning and the control of pollution from ships was organized jointly
by IMO and UNEP.
Adopting
the programme
In 1985 the Conference
of Plenipotentiaries on the Protection, Management and Development of the Marine
and Coastal Environment of the Eastern African Region was held in Nairobi, 17-21
June 1985 to adopt:
– the Action Plan for the Protection, Management and Development of the
Marine and Coastal Environment of the Eastern African Region;
– the Convention for the Protection, Management
and Development of the Marine and Coastal Environment of the Eastern African
Region;
– the Protocol concerning Protected Areas and Wild Fauna and Flora in the
Eastern African Region;
– the Protocol concerning Co-operation in Combating Marine Pollution in
Cases of Emergency in the Eastern African Region; and
– four Conference resolutions, three of them dealing with programme implementation
and with institutional and financial arrangements.
Setting
priorities
Based on this
Conference, UNEP began working with international and regional organizations
and the Governments of the region to prepare a programme document describing
the operational details of several priority activities, including a description
of five projects:
EAF/5 on the protection and management of marine and coastal areas in
the Eastern African Region (with IUCN, UNESCO, FAO and IOC)
EAF/6 on the monitoring, research and control of sources, levels and
effects of pollutants in the Eastern African Region (with FAO, IOC, Unesco,
WHO and IAEA)
EAF/7 on contingency planning for marine pollution emergencies in the
Eastern African Region (with IMO)
EAF/10 on control of coastal erosion in the Eastern African Region (in
co-operation with Unesco)
EAF/11 on environmental impact assessment in the Eastern African Region
(in cooperation with FAO, WHO and IOC).
During this period
UNEP also helped to prepare:
(a) a national action plan for the protection, management and development of
the marine and coastal environment of Somalia, subsequently adopted by the Government
of Somalia.
(b) a report on the environmental effects of coral reef and coral sand extraction
in Mauritius, approved by the Government of Mauritius;
(c) an oil spill contingency plan for Mauritius, in cooperation with IMO, approved
by the Government of Mauritius;
(d) a national action plan for the protection, management and development of
the marine and coastal environment of Tanzania, adopted by the Government of
Tanzania (UNEP, RSRS 106);
(e) a coastal sensitivity atlas of Mauritius, in cooperation with IMO, for use
in case of oil spill emergencies;
(f) a report on the state of the marine environment of the Eastern African region,
by a Task Team set up by UNEP and supported by FAO;
(g) a report assessing the potential impact of the expected climate changes
on the coastal and marine ecosystems as well as on socio-economic structures
and activities in the Eastern African region, by another Task Team established
by UNEP (in print);
(h) an assessment of the potential environmental impact of maritime accidents,
with the Government of Somalia in co-operation with IMO, FAO and IOC, including
advice to the Government on remedial actions; and
(i) training and fellowships for a number of managers, experts and technicians
from the Eastern African region in subjects related to the action plan.
Revitalizing
the programme
After this energetic
start, over the next several years implementation of the Action Plan and Convention
were held up by a number of factors, most of them related to lack of adequate
funding and international commitment.
The Nairobi Convention
and protocols finally entered into force in May 1996 – 11 years after their
adoption.
In March 1997,
the Contracting Parties to the Convention held their first meeting in Mahe,
Seychelles. It was clear to everyone at that meeting that a great deal had happened
since the programme was launched in 1985: public awareness of environmental
issues had greatly increased, the environment of the region had changed significantly,
international environmental law had developed rapidly, and the Global Programme
of Action for the new Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-based Activities
(GPA) had started working in the region.
The Parties established
an ad hoc technical and legal working group to consider updating the Nairobi
Convention and its Protocols, taking into account these developments. The group
was specifically asked to formulate and adopt guidelines, standards or criteria
concerning the identification, selection, establishment and management of protected
areas under the Protocol concerning Protected Areas and Wild Fauna and Flora
in the Eastern African Region.
Significantly,
at this time the European Union requested closer collaboration with UNEP on
several projects related to the implementation of the Nairobi Convention and
Action Plan.
Inaugurating
the RCU
The entry into
force of the Nairobi Convention paved way for informal consultations in Seychelles,
in October 1996, on the process of establishing the Eastern African Regional
Coordinating Unit EAF/RCU. In March 1997 the Parties formally approved the establishment
of the Regional Coordinating Unit for the Eastern African Action Plan at their
first meeting held in Mahé, Seychelles, and approved the RCU workplan.
The Eastern African
Regional Coordinating Unit was officially opened on 12 August 1997 by the Executive
Director of the United Nations Environment Programme, Ms. Elizabeth Dowdeswell,
at a colorful ceremony held on the beautiful St. Anne Island in the Seychelles
on an interim basis. An interim coordinator was designated by UNEP to head the
office for an initial period.
The stated mission
of the Eastern African Regional Coordinating Unit is "to provide leadership
and encourage partnerships by inspiring, informing and enabling nations and
people of the Eastern African Region and their partners to protect, manage and
develop their Marine and Coastal Resources in a sustainable manner."
Making
a new start
The revitalization
and strengthening the Nairobi Convention and the Abidjan Convention for West
and Central Africa began in earnest at the Maputo Pan-African
Conference on Sustainable Integrated Management (PACSICOM) in July 1998.
A follow-up ACOPS
(Advisory Committee on Protection of the Sea) Conference on Cooperation for
Development and Protection of the Marine and Coastal Environment in Sub-Saharan
Africa was held in Cape Town, South Africa, on 30 November-4 December 1998.
In the Cape Town Declaration, UNEP – as the secretariat
to both the Nairobi and Abidjan Conventions – was requested to work in
close consultation with the governing bodies of those Conventions to develop
a concrete action plan for the revitalization and coordination of the Conventions
through the establishment of a joint implementation mechanism.
A meeting of legal
and technical experts to review the Nairobi Convention and the Protocol Concerning
Protected Areas and Wild Flora and Fauna in the Eastern African Region was convened
by UNEP in Quatre Bornes, Mauritius, on 15-18 December 1998. The experts recommended
the following actions for consideration by the second Conference of the Parties
(Mauritius 2-4 November 1999):
(a) to continue the process of review of the Nairobi Convention and the Protocol
concerning the Protected Areas and Wild Flora and Fauna in the Eastern African
Region and formulate guidelines and standards concerning the identification,
selection, establishment and management of protected areas as required by the
Protocol;
(b) to prepare guidelines for the implementation of the provisions of the Nairobi
Convention;
(c) to look into issues that may need to be developed, such as protection of
the marine environment from land-based sources and activities, exploration and
exploitation of the continental shelf and seabed and its subsoil, and liability
and compensation.
Current work
Today all nine
East African countries have ratified the Convention: Comoros, France (La Reunion),
Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles, Somalia and Tanzania.
South Africa has asked to join.
Following a regional
workshop in Zanzibar (6-9 October 1997) the GPA has produced a regional overview
and action plan on land-based pollution. Among its activities: to assess pollution
loads affecting the marine environment, and their harmful effects; to set up
monitoring programmes and development strategies; prepare and implement a regional
action plan; and strengthen capacity of coastal States to intervene in case
of accidents and emergencies.
Countries are
fulfilling their pledges to the regional Trust Fund in support of their programme,
and welcome support for project activities has been forthcoming from international
sources: The EAF/5 project (Protection and Management of the Marine and Coastal
Areas of the Eastern Africa) received support from SIDA (Sweden); Belgium has
funded a series of activities for the preparation of databases and atlas under
the project entitled Eastern African coastal and marine environment resources
database and atlas (EAF/14); and the US has contributed US$30,000 to the UNEP
Environment Fund for the implementation of the International Coral Reef Initiative
(ICRI) in Eastern Africa.
At the second
Contracting Parties meeting in 1999, a joint bureau for the Nairobi and Abidjan
(West and Central African) Conventions met and agreed to set up a joint programming
unit in Nairobi to further cooperation on regional projects and international
issues.
The current biennial
programme focuses on marine protected areas and coral reefs, habitats which
suffered a severe bleaching in 1998. In the meantime, experts are considering
ways to further update the Convention, implement existing protocols and develop
new ones. Others are exploring how the Nairobi and Abidjan Conventions can assist
one another.
The programme
is also getting a boost from some new partnerships. In May 2000, a twinning
agreement was signed with the Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission
to promote the exchange of experience.
Text
of the Nairobi Convention
Text of the Cape Town Declaration
Report of PACSICOM
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