North-East Pacific: an introduction
Juan Manelia, North-East Pacific Programme, Central
American Commission for Maritime Transport (COCATRAM)
The Central American coastline of the North-East Pacific
hosts a variety of tropical and subtropical habitats including
mangrove swamps, productive fishing grounds, and species-rich
forests that extend to the water’s edge. Millions
of people depend on these ecosystems and their resources
for food, construction materials and income from tourism-related
industries and in some places the use of the resources of
those ecosystems constitutes the only economic activity.
Over 70% of the population of Central America lives on
this drier Pacific side, and so it is here where the environmental
pressures are the greatest. Forest clearance, over-exploitation
of resources, expanding maritime trade, rapid development,
poverty, high risk to the effects of natural events, limited
capacity to counteract those effects and high vulnerability
and political conflict are rampant. The result has been
widespread loss of plant and animal species, degraded and
eroded soils, destruction of biodiversity-rich mangrove
areas and pollution of both coastal and inland waters.
Pollution from the land is made potentially even more
damaging in the region because of the numerous sheltered
bays and gulfs where the natural dispersal of oil and toxic
chemicals such as agrochemicals is limited. The region is
also an important shipping route for vessels sailing from
Panama to Alaska, and much of the oil transported from Alaska
to the east coast of America transits the Panama Canal or
the Laguna de Chiriqui oil pipeline.
Moreover, the region still has a troubled legacy to overcome.
In the 1980s, Central America was gripped by a profound
political and economic crisis marked by an accumulated 18.3%
decline of per capita gross domestic product. The end of
the Cold War a decade ago may have ended the major conflicts
afflicting the region, but its legacy of poverty endures.
These many problems present a formidable challenge which
the countries of the region are determined to meet. In February
2002, history was made with the signature in La Antigua
Guatemala City, Guatemala, of the Convention for Cooperation
in the Protection and Sustainable Development of the Marine
and Coastal Environment of the North-East Pacific (The Antigua
Convention).
The governments also approved an Action Plan detailing
how the countries concerned will improve the environment
of the North-East Pacific for the benefit of people and
wildlife. Key parts of the Plan will include an assessment
and crackdown on the high levels of sewage and other pollutants
being discharged from cities into the Pacific Ocean, compromising
the health of bathing waters and risking outbreaks of water-borne
diseases such as cholera. Other priority issues include
physical alteration and destruction of coastal ecosystems
and habitats; overexploitation of fishery resources; Integrated
Coastal Area Management (ICAM) including related river basins
and the effects of eutrophication. Yet another priority
will be to assess the risks from oil pollution and evaluate
the availability of clean-up equipment and personnel to
deal with them.
One of the main components of the Action Plan is the reinforcement
and invigoration of the national capacities of the participant
governments, through appropriate levels of training and
teaching in the techniques and methodologies to evaluate,
monitoring and to control the causes of the deterioration
of the coastal and maritime ecosystems of the region, together
with the examination and development of the pertinent regulatory
scheme.
The Action Plan Secretariat COCATRAM (Central American
Commission for Marine Transport) will seek financial support
for its implementation and explore ways to work with their
neighbour, the Caribbean Action Plan, which shares many
members.
This new Convention and Action Plan mark an important step
towards improving the health of the North-East Pacific environment
and the lives of its people. It should also further heal
the wounds of a troubled and insecure time.
As in other Regional Seas, the protection and sustainable
management of the environment is proving an effective instrument
for peace and cooperation.
|
