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South-East Pacific: an introduction
Ulises Munaylla-Alarcón, Regional Coordinator
(I) of the South East Pacific Action Plan, Permanent Commission
for the South Pacific (CPPS)
The South-East Pacific region spans the entire length of
the Pacific coast of South America from Panama to Cape Horn,
encompassing tropical, sub-tropical, temperate and subantarctic
systems. In spite of this astounding diversity, the region’s
five countries; Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Panama
(Panama supports and participates in the Action Plan) find
themselves united by two overwhelming natural phenomena
known as Large Marine Ecosystems: that dominated by the
cold, nutrient-rich Humboldt Current; with the largest up-welling
system in the world supporting one of the world’s
most productive fishing grounds; and that of the Eastern
Equatorial Pacific.
However, the region is under threat from coastal and marine
degradation by land-based and marine-based sources of pollution
and other ways of environmental degradation. In addition
the region is regularly disrupted by the El Niño-Southern
Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon, which originates in the equatorial
Pacific producing dramatic upheavals in local, and ultimately
global, climatic conditions. El Niño influences everything
from the weather to marine ecosystems to human livelihoods,
and its enormous social and economic impacts are felt around
the world.
In order to protect the rich marine and coastal environment
of the region, the South-East Pacific Action Plan was adopted
in 1981 together with the Convention for the Protection
of the Marine Environment and Coastal Zones of the South-East
Pacific, otherwise known as the Lima Convention and its
associated Protocols: Agreement on Regional Cooperation
in Combating Pollution in the South East Pacific by Hydrocarbons
and other Harmful Substances in cases of Emergency; Protocol
for the Protection of the South East Pacific Against Pollution
from Land- Based Sources; Protocol for the Conservation
and Management of Protected Marine and Coastal Areas of
the South East Pacific; and the Protocol for the Protection
of the South East Pacific from Radioactive Pollution. Considering
that El Niño is a disruption of the ocean atmosphere
system in the tropical Pacific having severe socio-economic
impacts in the South East Pacific Region, the CPPS Members
Countries created in 1974 the Regional Study on El Niño
Phenomenon (ERFEN), which from 1992 was incorporated into
the framework of the legally binding instrument: the Protocol
on the Programme for the Regional Study of El Niño
Phenomenon in the South East Pacific.
The Action Plan is implemented within the framework of
inter-agency cooperation between the Permanent Commission
for the South Pacific (CPPS), UNEP and some two-dozen agencies,
programmes and Convention Secretariats.
The future priorities for the region will focus on: the
full implementation of existing legally binding instruments,
their programmes and specific action plans and the implementation
at the regional level of Agenda 21 (Chapter 17); the WSSD
Plan of Implementation; global environmental conventions;
to achieve sustainable use of marine resources (implementing
of the code of conduct for responsible fisheries, FAO International
Plans of Action; Ecosystem Approach for the Fisheries Management);
conservation and management of straddling fish stocks; protection
of marine biodiversity; prediction of extreme weather events;
integrated coastal zone management and marine and coastal
protected areas.
Given our vulnerability to the great oceanic phenomena
of the southern Pacific, it is clear that we cannot fulfil
the vision of our Action Plan working in isolation. We are
promoting the establishment of twining arrangement with
regional seas conventions and action plans of the Pacific
region, to cooperate in the protection of a more extensive
area of the Pacific. If new partners and adequate financing
can be found, our efforts may eventually embrace the entire
Pacific basin and its vulnerable coastal communities with
a mantle of sound environmental protection and management.
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