Marine Litter Vital Graphics

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44 Marine Litter Vital Graphics
the GPA. The regulatory power of the GPA is limited but it
aims to be a source of conceptual and practical guidance
for national and/or regional authorities in devising and
implementing sustained action to prevent, reduce, control
and/or eliminate marine degradation from land-based
activities. UNEP provides the Secretariat for the GPA.
Other global or multinational initiatives
The Honolulu Strategy formulated in 2011 is the only
specific framework for a comprehensive and global effort
to reduce the ecological, human health, and economic
impacts of marine debris globally (UNEP and NOAA,
2012). It is focused on preventing the input and impact
of marine debris from both land- and sea-based sources
and on the removal of already accumulated debris. It aims
to provide a common frame of reference for collaboration
and sharing of best practices for action plans, programmes
and projects. It is also envisaged as a monitoring tool to
measure progress in combating marine debris.
Under the GPA, the Global Partnership on Marine Litter
(GPML) was launched in June 2012. The GPML, which
builds on the Honolulu Strategy, is a voluntary multi-
stakeholder coordination mechanism in which all
partners agree to work together towards the reduction
and management of marine litter.
During their summit in 2015, the Group of 7 (G7 – Canada,
France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the
United States and the European Union) committed to
the Action Plan to Combat Marine Litter, which includes
priority actions to address land-based and sea-based
sources, priority removal actions and priority actions on
education, research and outreach.
The UNEA resolutions
The first session of the United Nations Environment
Assembly (UNEA) in 2014 adopted resolution 1/6 on marine
plastic debris and microplastics, which requested UNEP to
present a study on the topic to the second session of UNEA.
A newmore action oriented resolution 2/11 on marine litter
was adopted in May 2016 which for example called for
establishment of public-private partnerships, development
of campaigns for awareness-raising, prevention and clean-
up and encouraged product manufacturers to consider
the lifecycle environmental impacts of products containing
microbeads and compostable polymers. It also requested
UNEP to assess the effectiveness of relevant international,
regional and sub-regional governance strategies and
approaches to combatmarineplastic litter andmicroplastics.
Regional seas bodies
Regional Seas Conventions and Action Plans (RSCAPs)
play a critical role in encouraging cooperation and
coordination among countries sharing a common
resource. There are 18 Regional Seas Conventions and
Action Plans covering more than 143 countries (UNEP,
2016a). Of these, the following 13 were established under
the auspices of UNEP (with those currently administered
by UNEP in italics): Black Sea, Caspian, Wider Caribbean,
Indonesia, Malaysia,
Philippines, Singapore a
Thailand
Indo ia, M laysia,
Philippines, Singapore a
Thailand
RESPONSES