Pollution still threatens the ecology of the South China Sea
despite progress made by a program aimed at curbing environmental
damage a United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) official has
warned.
Greater international cooperation was required to prevent over
fishing, land and marine pollution and environmental damage, said
UNEP official John Pernetta at a forum in south China.
The event held in Beihai,
Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region from June 6 to 8, discussed
progress on the UNEP program entitled "Reversing Environmental
Degradation Trends in the South China Sea and Gulf of Thailand"
which was launched in 2002.
The program has established 18 pilot projects in China, Vietnam,
Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines, which
share a coastline on the South China Sea. The pilot projects are
aimed at protecting mangrove forests, seaweed beds, wetlands,
fishing grounds and coral reefs.
Almost 70 percent of the region's mangrove forests have
disappeared since the turn of the century according to information
on the UNEP website.
The scheme also aims to stop land-based pollution, to protect
bio-diversity and the marine environment and to realize the
sustainable use of marine resources.
China's authorities have taken a lead in establishing a mangrove
and seaweed protection zones off Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region,
said Pernetta, who leads the UNEP program.
The government has also been cooperating with other countries to
protect wetlands and deal with land-based pollution, he said. The
UNEP program had helped curb marine environmental degradation
especially in the protection of mangroves, Pernetta added.
?
An UNEP investigation in 1998 discovered that large areas of
mangrove had been destroyed and wetlands dug up to build fish and
shrimp ponds in the seven member countries but these activities
have been reduced, he conceded. ?
The program, funded by the Global Environmental Facility (GEF),
will end in 2008.
(Xinhua News Agency June 8, 2006)