Land-based marine pollution in the Caribbean: Incentives and prospects for an effective regional protocol

Marine Policy

Volumn 20, Issue 2, 1996, Pages 99-121

  Schumacher, Mary ^a   Hoagland, Porter ^a   Gaines, Arthur ^a  

^a WOODS HOLE OCEANOGRAPHIC INSTITUTION   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ENVIRONMENTAL LEGISLATION; LAND-BASED POLLUTION; POLLUTION CONVENTION; REGIONAL PROTOCOL;

CARIBBEAN;

EID: 0029731157     PISSN: 0308597X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/s0308-597x(95)00044-7     Document Type: Article

References (44)

1. Joint Group of Experts on the Scientific Aspects of Marine Pollution (GESAMP), The State of the Marine Environment, UNEP Regional Seas Reports and Studies No. 115, 1990. See also 'Land-based marine pollution: the Gulf of Mexico and the Black Sea', Chapter 2, pp 17-49, in J M Broadus and R V Vartanov (eds), The Oceans and Environmental Security: Shared US and Russian Perspectives, Island Press, Washington, DC, 1994.
2. Joint Group of Experts on the Scientific Aspects of Marine Pollution (GESAMP), The State of the Marine Environment, UNEP Regional Seas Reports and Studies No. 115, 1990. See also 'Land-based marine pollution: the Gulf of Mexico and the Black Sea', Chapter 2, pp 17-49, in J M Broadus and R V Vartanov (eds), The Oceans and Environmental Security: Shared US and Russian Perspectives, Island Press, Washington, DC, 1994.
3. Introduction to Cartagena Convention, UNEP, Nairobi, 1983.
4. The Mediterranean was the first, designated in 1978. As of mid-1995, there are 12, four of which have concluded specific agreements on LBMP, covering the Mediterranean, the South-east Pacific, the Persian Gulf, and the Black Sea. UNEP, Preliminary Review of Regional Seas Agreements, in Particular their Effectiveness in the Control of Marine Pollution from Land-Based Activities. UNEP(OCA)/ CAR WG.14.INF.19, 9 March 1994.
5. No State may become a Contracting Party to the Cartagena Convention without becoming a Contracting Party to at least one of its protocols as well. As of 1995, all States that had ratified the convention had also ratified its protocol on oil spills, but only Colombia had ratified the protocol on specially protected areas and wildlife.
6. P Hoagland, M E Schumacher and A G Gaines, Jr, Toward an Effective Protocol on Land-Based Marine Pollution in the Wider Caribbean Region. Technical Report, WHOI-95-10, Marine Policy Center, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, USA, 1995.
7. J M Broadus, S Demisch, K Gjerde, P Haas, Y Kaoru, G Peet, S Repetto, and A Roginko, Comparative Assessment of Regional International Programs to Control Land-Based Marine Pollution: The Baltic, North Sea, and Mediterranean. Marine Policy Center, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, USA, 1993.
8. The importance of UNEP as an "independent and strong 'entrepreneurial' actor" in the initiation of the Mediterranean program is described in A Underdal, S Andresen, J B Skjaerseth, and J Wettestad, 'The Effectiveness of International Resource Cooperation,' paper prepared for the Inaugural Pan-European Conference in International Relations, Heidelberg, 16-20 September 1992.
9. Broadus et al, op cit, Ref 6, p 99.
10. D Elder and J Pernetta, Oceans: A Mitchell Beazley World Conservation Atlas, Mitchell Beazley in association with IUCN (The World Conservation Union), London, 1991.
11. Throughout the text, we omit the uninhabited US territory of Navassa Island from counts and discussions of the WCR States. We mention it here only to explain its appearance on the figures later in this article, where individual States are identified in terms of their maritime boundaries; in these maps, Navassa appears as a white area (as do two areas of high seas in the Gulf of Mexico) to the southeast of Cuba.
12. The UK has ratified the convention on behalf of the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands and the Turks and Caicos Islands, but not Anguilla or Montserrat. Signatories that have not ratified the convention include Honduras, Nicaragua, and the European Economic Community.
13. UNEP, Regional Overview of Environmental Problems and Priorities Affecting the Coastal and Marine Resources of the Wider Caribbean, CEP Technical Report No 2, 1989; also UNEP, Regional Overview of Land-based Sources of Pollution in the Wider Caribbean Region, UNEP (OCA)/CAR WG. 14/4, 9 March 1994.
14. UNEP, Regional Overview of Environmental Problems and Priorities Affecting the Coastal and Marine Resources of the Wider Caribbean, CEP Technical Report No 2, 1989; also UNEP, Regional Overview of Land-based Sources of Pollution in the Wider Caribbean Region, UNEP (OCA)/CAR WG. 14/4, 9 March 1994.
15. We employ a broad definition of transboundary pollution, to include direct impacts from discharges, impacts on straddling fish stocks (including potential destruction of nursery areas), damage to export goods, impacts on tourism, and diminished passive-use values. For a description of potential damages from transboundary pollution occurrences, see pp 18-19 in Broadus and Vartanov, op cit, Ref 1.
16. UNEP, Regional Overview, 1994, op cit, Ref 12.
17. Broadus et al, op cit, Ref 6. Also, see Underdal et al, op cit, Ref 7, on the heterogeneity of Mediterranean States as a factor related to problem-solving capacity and low programme effectiveness.
18. Broadus et al, op cit, Ref 6. Also, see Underdal et al, op cit, Ref 7, on the heterogeneity of Mediterranean States as a factor related to problem-solving capacity and low programme effectiveness.
19. One of the exceptions is the Gulf of Honduras, where the predominant coastal countercurrent may carry pollutants from Belize into the coastal waters of Guatemala and Honduras.
20. Broadus et al, op cit, Ref 6, p 10. See also L A Kimball, Forging International Agreement: Strengthening Institutions for Environment and Development, World Resources Institute, Washington, DC, April 1992, p 44.
21. Broadus et al, op cit, Ref 6, p 10. See also L A Kimball, Forging International Agreement: Strengthening Institutions for Environment and Development, World Resources Institute, Washington, DC, April 1992, p 44.
22. T Bernauer, 'The effect of international environmental institutions: how we might learn more', International Organization, Vol 49, No 2, 1995, pp 351-377.
23. R B Mitchell, Intentional Oil Pollution at Sea: Environmental Policy and Treaty Compliance, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, USA, 1994.
24. Ibid, p 10.
25. The approach not reported here, because of space limitations, examines common export products and economic activities as a potential basis for collaboration on scientific research and pollution control approaches among States at similar scales of activity, or for technology transfer from States operating at larger scales to those operating at smaller scales.
26. Note that this statistic is an improvement on that used by Broadus et al (op cit, Ref 6) because we use only the proportion of a nation's population that is coastal, not the entire drainage area population.
27. Boundaries as represented are approximations for general reference only.
28. We note that subregions could overlap. For example, if pollution from State A affects State B and pollution from B affects State C, but pollution from A does not affect C, then two overlapping subregions should be established. Furthermore, subregions could be 'nested'. For example, if pollution from A affects B and C, but pollution from B affects only C, then B and C form a subregion that is nested inside the subregion formed by A, B and C.
29. In general, currents from the North Atlantic and South Atlantic enter the WCR from the open ocean to the east and from along the northeast coast of Brazil and the Guianas. They ultimately feed into the Gulf Stream in the Straits of Florida. Although these surface currents establish a seemingly clear relationship among 'up-stream' nations to the east and south and 'downstream' nations to the west and north, this gross perception of surface circulation can be misleading. For example, gyres along the coasts of Panama, Colombia, and Venezuela produce west-to-east inshore components of drift, and there are eastward-moving back eddies along the southern coasts of the Greater Antilles Islands. These patterns result in transboundary exchange from Belize to Guatemala and Honduras, and from Nicaragua to Costa Rica, Panama, and Colombia.
30. As noted earlier, there may be some cycling of pollutants in the Honduras Gulf, suggesting that these three countries may have a common-pool type pollution problem.
31. The OECS was established in 1981 to promote political, economic, and defense cooperation. Its members are Antigua and Barbuda; the British Virgin Islands (associate member); Dominica; Grenada; Montserrat; St Kitts and Nevis; St Lucia; and St Vincent and The Grenadines.
32. At the 25th anniversary of INDERENA, Colombia's environment agency, Arnaldo Jose Gabaldon, Venezuelan Environment Minister, praised the conversion of INDERENA into a Ministry with broader legislative and regulatory powers.
33. See, for example, E H Gladfelter and J C Ogden, The Status of Relevant Scientific Capabilities and Knowledge of Land-based Marine Pollution Problems in the Caribbean, consultant discussion paper prepared for the Marine Policy Center, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, USA, under Cooperative Agreement No CX821540-01-0 with the US Environmental Protection Agency Office of International Activities, October 1994; Elder and Pernetta, op cit, Ref 9; and DA Ross, J Fenwick and F Gable, Study on the viability of establishing a Caribbean regional center for marine industrial technology, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, USA, 1990.
34. See, for example, E H Gladfelter and J C Ogden, The Status of Relevant Scientific Capabilities and Knowledge of Land- based Marine Pollution Problems in the Caribbean, consultant discussion paper prepared for the Marine Policy Center, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, USA, under Cooperative Agreement No CX821540-01-0 with the US Environmental Protection Agency Office of International Activities, October 1994; Elder and Pernetta, op cit, Ref 9; and DA Ross, J Fenwick and F Gable, Study on the viability of establishing a Caribbean regional center for marine industrial technology, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, USA, 1990.
35. See, for example, E H Gladfelter and J C Ogden, The Status of Relevant Scientific Capabilities and Knowledge of Land- based Marine Pollution Problems in the Caribbean, consultant discussion paper prepared for the Marine Policy Center, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, USA, under Cooperative Agreement No CX821540-01-0 with the US Environmental Protection Agency Office of International Activities, October 1994; Elder and Pernetta, op cit, Ref 9; and DA Ross, J Fenwick and F Gable, Study on the viability of establishing a Caribbean regional center for marine industrial technology, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, USA, 1990.
36. As noted by the late James Broadus, one explanation that readily comes to mind is the low opportunity cost within a command economy, particularly one that until recently enjoyed tremendous foreign subsidies.
37. The same is probably true for the three South American States to the east of Venezuela. Guyana and Suriname do participate in the Amazon Cooperation Treaty, but this orientation may well be more relevant to their environmental concerns than LBMP in the Caribbean.
38. Bernauer, op cit, Ref 18; Mitchell, op cit, Ref 19; Kimball, op cit, Ref 17.
39. Bernauer, op cit, Ref 18; Mitchell, op cit, Ref 19; Kimball, op cit, Ref 17.
40. Bernauer, op cit, Ref 18; Mitchell, op cit, Ref 19; Kimball, op cit, Ref 17.
41. Bernauer, op cit, Ref 18.
42. Broadus et al, op cit, Ref 6.
43. Mitchell, op cit, Ref 19.
44. Judging by the CEPPOL results to date. See UNEP, Regional Overview, 1994, op cit, Ref 12.