A United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) official has warned
that pollution still threatens the ecology of the South China Sea
despite progress made by a program aimed at curbing environmental
damage.
Greater international cooperation is needed to prevent excess
fishing, land and marine pollution, and environmental destruction,
said UNEP official John Pernetta at a forum in south China.
The forum held in Beihai, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region,
discussed progress on the UNEP's program titled "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,
fisheries, and coral reefs.
Almost 70 percent of the region's mangrove forests have
disappeared since the turn of the century, according to documents
on the UNEP's 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
protection zone and a seaweed protection zone off Guangxi Zhuang
Autonomous Region, said Pernetta, who heads 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 has helped curb marine environmental
degradation, especially in the protection of mangroves, Pernetta
said.
An UNEP investigation in 1998 found that a large area of
mangrove trees 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 said.
The program, funded by the Global Environmental Facility (GEF),
is due to end in 2008.
(Xinhua News Agency June 8, 2006)
