There is no doubting the historical, geographical, economic, social, cultural and hugely symbolic significance of the Caribbean Sea, both within and outside the region, over the centuries. Today, perhaps more than ever before, the Caribbean Sea is the very heart of the geo-economic and geo-political space that is the Greater Caribbean region, which itself occupies the geographical centre of the Americas.

 

The ACS Convention recognises the critical importance of the Caribbean Sea as “the common patrimony of the peoples of the Caribbean”, in the context of a shared history and its potential “as a unifying element” in the context of a common future. Thus, in the Preamble to the Convention and in the identification of the objectives of the ACS, much is made of the imperative of collectively preserving the environmental integrity of the Caribbean Sea and of pursuing the sustainable development of its resources, “to enhance the quality of life of present and future generations of Caribbean peoples”.

 

Facts and Figures

The Caribbean Sea, in the broadest possible sense, is that area defined in the 1983 Cartagena Convention for the Protection and Development of the Marine Environment of the Wider Caribbean Region, which also includes the Gulf of Mexico and a portion of the Atlantic Ocean, roughly following a line east of Florida, around The Bahamas and down to the eastern boundary of French Guiana. It covers an area of approximately 2.64 million square kilometres (1.02 million square miles) and, with almost 90% of its circumference separated from the open ocean by either continental or insular land masses, it constitutes a classic example of a semi-enclosed sea, as defined by the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. The entire area is home to more than 230 million people.

 

The Caribbean Sea possesses a unique bio-diversity and is characterised by fragile ecosystems. The countries of the region are, in addition, highly vulnerable to climate change, sea level rise and natural disasters, and most are developing countries and Small Island Developing States (SIDS), whose vulnerability goes beyond environmental conditions and natural phenomena. Their socio-economic and political stability is deeply affected by their narrow resource bases, lack of financial resources, human resource constraints, high levels of poverty and rising crime rates. There is little insulation from the chain effects of globalisation and all of the above is exacerbated by external shocks to their economies.

 

Most of these countries are heavily reliant on the resources of the coastal areas and the marine environment of the Caribbean Sea and there is, consequently, strong interaction and competition for the use of these resources. Moreover, the maritime areas under national sovereignty and jurisdiction are numerous and interlocking, and this presents a particular challenge for the effective management of these resources.

 

Another critical factor is the intensive use of the Caribbean Sea for maritime transportation, increasing the threats of pollution from ship-generated waste as well as of any accidental or deliberately induced spill of hazardous substances, such as nuclear materials and toxic waste. Indeed, the threat that such materials represent to the life and ecosystems of the region is too frightening to contemplate.

 

Thus, in order to protect and preserve the common patrimony of the region and to ensure the sustainable management and development of the Caribbean Sea and its resources, for the economic and social well-being of the peoples of the region, the ACS is in the forefront of an initiative for the international recognition of the Caribbean Sea as a Special Area in the context of Sustainable Development.

 

The Special Area Concept

In April 1994, the UN Conference on the Sustainable Development of SIDS, held in Barbados, issued a Declaration and Programme of Action (POA), which elaborated principles and strategies for development aimed at protecting the fragile environment of SIDS, building on the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development and Agenda 21, the blueprint for global sustainable development, approved at the UN Conference on Environment and Development, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in June 1992. The Barbados POA set the conceptual framework, in a chapter on Coastal and Marine Resources, for the development of a proposal by Caribbean countries to have the Caribbean Sea internationally recognised as a Special Area in the context of Sustainable Development. 

 

This proposal, which sought to place emphasis on the sustainable development of the Caribbean Sea, encompassing all the uses and abuses of the Caribbean Sea environment, including coastal and marine resources, was endorsed at a Caribbean Ministerial Meeting on the Implementation of the SIDS POA, in Barbados, in November 1997, convened by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). In this respect, the Caribbean Ministerial Meeting requested the CARICOM and ACS Secretariats, with the support of interested governments, relevant regional and international agencies and NGOs, to initiate activities that would allow Caribbean States to present a formal proposal to the 22^nd Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to Review the Implementation of the SIDS POA, in September 1999.

 

At this first phase of the process, the proposal, while recognizing the value of the existing Special Area and Particularly Sensitive Sea Area (PSSA) concepts, as laid out in MARPOL 73/78 (“The International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships 1973, as modified by the Protocol of 1978 relating thereto”), envisaged the search for an appropriate international instrument, providing for action covered by existing concepts as well as others to be developed in the particular context of the Caribbean Sea.

 

There ensued, over the next two years, an intense period of technical and political consultations in CARICOM and the ACS, with the technical support of the ECLAC Subregional Headquarters for the Caribbean in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, and the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) Regional Coordinating Unit for the Caribbean, in Kingston, Jamaica. This culminated in the approval of a draft resolution, for presentation to the 22^nd UNGA Special Session, with Caribbean Representatives at the UN tasked with advancing the process.

 

Accordingly, the Permanent Mission of Barbados to the UN coordinated the presentation of the “Draft Resolution on the Recognition of the Caribbean Sea as a Special Area in the context of Sustainable Development”, to the UNGA Special Session, which was officially sponsored by Guyana and Mexico and co-sponsored by the Group of 77 and China. With the continuing endorsement of the Group of 77 and China, and with Canada playing a facilitating role, a negotiated version of the draft resolution, with an alternative title, “Promoting an integrated management approach to the Caribbean Sea area in the context of sustainable development”, was adopted by the 54^th Session of the UNGA, as Resolution 54/225, on February 15, 2000.

 

Resolution 54/225 encouraged the further development of an “integrated management approach” to the Caribbean Sea area in the context of sustainable development, incorporating environmental, economic, social, legal and institutional elements, and called upon the international community and the UN System to support efforts to develop and implement such an approach. Notwithstanding the fact that it had fallen short of its original objective, Resolution 54/225 was, nevertheless, a step in the right direction.

 

The Way Forward

 

With the decision on the rationalisation of the ACS Work Programme in December 2000, which entailed the suspension of the Environment Committee and the transferral of the Caribbean Sea proposal to the Special Committee on Sustainable Tourism, the region lost considerable momentum with regard to the development of a strategy for the implementation of Resolution 54/225 and the follow-up necessary for pursuing the original proposal.

 

Against the background of a general lack of progress in the Caribbean on the implementation of Resolution 54/225, the 55^th Session of the UNGA, in February 2001, adopted Resolution 55/203 “Promoting an integrated management approach to the Caribbean Sea area in the context of sustainable development”, which did not go beyond Resolution 54/225, except to request the UN Secretary-General to present a report on the implementation of the Resolution, not within a year’s time, as is customary, at the 56^th Session, but at the 57^th, that is, in 2002-2003. This arose, no doubt, from the relative inactivity of the region as a whole on the matter.

 

Accordingly, in an attempt to correct this situation, the 3^rd ACS Summit of Heads of State and/or Government, in Margarita Island, Venezuela, in December 2001, reiterated the high political importance of the Caribbean Sea, in the Declaration of Margarita:

 

Recognising the Caribbean Sea as the common patrimony of the region, and an invaluable asset for which we give special priority to its preservation, we urge our countries to take fully into account the elements of the Resolution ‘Promoting an Integrated Management Approach to the Caribbean Sea Area in the context of Sustainable Development’ (A/RES/55/203), approved by the 55^th Session of the UN General Assembly, and to continue taking steps for the Caribbean Sea to be recognised by the international community as a Special Area in the context of Sustainable Development.

 

In pursuit of this mandate, the ACS Secretariat has, during 2002, been consulting with the CARICOM Secretariat, the ECLAC Subregional Headquarters for the Caribbean, the UNEP Regional Coordinating Unit in Jamaica and the UNEP Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean in Mexico City, on the development of a strategy for the implementation of Resolution 55/203, towards the international recognition of the Caribbean Sea as a Special Area in the context of Sustainable Development. In this respect, a meeting of experts is to be convened to consider the technical and political actions essential for the success of the proposal, including the identification of specialists in various technical areas, collaboration and division of labour among relevant regional and international agencies, exploration of possibilities for funding, and advancing the proposal in the context of different regional and international fora.

 

Perhaps the most significant element to be considered in evaluating the status of the Caribbean Sea proposal, however, is the vastly changed operational environment that now obtains vis-à-vis that which existed in 1997, when the proposal was launched. Serious consideration will therefore have to be given to a comprehensive analysis of the emergence of a number of similar and overlapping initiatives, which not only impinge on Resolution 55/203 and the original Caribbean Sea proposal, but also have implications for the implementation of the provisions of Resolution 55/203 and the attainment of the objectives of the original proposal. In this respect, the outcome of the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development may well have a bearing on the future direction of efforts to advance the proposal.

 

Looking further ahead, it is widely expected that there will be a “SIDS+10” conference in 2004 and this should provide the ideal opportunity to present a more comprehensive proposal, incorporating all the necessary legal, technical, institutional, environmental, social, economic and political elements, with the objective of advancing towards the international recognition of the Caribbean Sea as a Special Area in the context of Sustainable Development.

 

It is, undoubtedly, a long, complex and challenging process, but the ACS, which is the only organisation that embraces all the countries of the Caribbean Basin, is committed to maintaining political leadership of the process to have the Caribbean Sea declared a Special Area in the context of Sustainable Development, fully aware that the proposal transcends the region and in the hope that a model might be developed for the benefit of other ecologically fragile enclosed and semi-enclosed areas in the world.