The side-event ‘Sea-Based Sources of Marine Litter’, in the margin of the UN Environment Assembly, was conducted in Nairobi Kenya – 11 to 15 March- in light of acknowledging the threat plastic debris poses in seas and the ways to get rid of it.
IMO informed the audience of its plans on how to tackle the pollution issue, that was adopted in 2018. Specifically, its plan aims to improve the existent regulations and find new supporting measures to reduce marine plastic litter from the vessels.
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Mainly, the sea-based sources of marine debris, mostly from fishing and shipping industry, are a crucial factor of marine litter that negatively affect the marine environment, food security, animal welfare and human health, safety and livelihoods.
Moreover, IMO gave an insight into its action plan at the event, as the need of additional reception facilities at ports and terminals for the reception of garbage and its recommending that ‘all shipowners and operators should minimize taking on board material that could become garbage’.
The event was co-organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), UN Environment, the Global Partnership on Marine Litter (GPML) the Ocean Conservancy and the Global Ghost Gear Initiative.
Concluding, a minute of silence was observed, in honour of UN colleague Joanna Toole, who had planned to attend at this event, but was sadly involved in the tragic Ethiopian airline crash.
