UNEP Aims to Breathe Life-Giving Governance Into Dead Zones

JEJU, South Korea, March 29, 2004 (ENS) - Dead zones in the world's oceans and seas that are starved for oxygen number some 150 throughout the world, a new report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) shows. Linked to an excess of nitrogen from agricultural fertilizers, vehicle fumes, factory emissions and wastes, dead zones do not have enough oxygen in the water for fish, oysters and other marine creatures to survive.

This disturbing information was brought to the attention of the world's environment ministers gathered here for the UNEP Governing Council Meeting and Global Ministerial Environment Forum, which opened today at the International Convention Centre on the southern resort island of Jeju.

This morning, UNEP Executive Director Klaus Toepfer welcomed the ministers to Jeju, a UN recognized biosphere reserve, for a three day gathering that will focus on the environmental dimension of water, sanitation and human settlements.

UNEP Executive Director Klaus Toepfer of Germany addresses the opening meeting of the UNEP Governing Council. Seated behind him is Acting President of South Korea Gun Goh (left) and South Korean Environment Minister Kyul-Ho Kwak (Photo courtesy Earth Negotiations Bulletin)

Toepfer attempted to refocus the attention of the ministers on the foundations of sustainable development "for that is the only true security policy for the future," he said, in these times of "turmoil and conflict."

The issue of dead zones is raised in UNEP's first "Global Environment Outlook Year Book" which is being issued to government officials attending the Global Ministerial Environment Forum.

Toepfer said, "Humankind is engaged in a gigantic, global, experiment as a result of the inefficient and often over-use of fertilizers, the discharge of untreated sewage and the ever rising emissions from vehicles and factories. The nitrogen and phosphorous from these sources are being discharged into rivers and the coastal environment or being deposited from the atmosphere, triggering these alarming and sometimes irreversible effects."

Some of the earliest recorded dead zones were in places like Chesapeake Bay in the United States, the Baltic Sea, the Kattegat, the Black Sea and the northern Adriatic Sea. Others have been reported in Scandinavian fjords.

The best known area of depleted oxygen is in the Gulf of Mexico. Its occurrence is directly linked to nutrients or fertilizers brought to the Gulf by the Mississippi River. Others have appeared off South America, China, Japan, southeast Australia and New Zealand.

Nutrients flood into the Gulf of Mexico, consuming oxygen needed by marine life. (Photo by Nancy Rabalais courtesy Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium/EPA)

Experts claim that the number and size of deoxygenated areas is growing with the total number detected rising every decade since the 1970s. They are warning that these areas are fast becoming major threats to fish stocks and also to the people who depend upon fisheries for food and livelihoods.

Some solutions suggested in the report are technologies that remove nitrogen compounds from vehicles fumes along with the wider use of alternative energy sources that are not based on burning fossil fuels.

Better treatment of sewage, both by high tech systems such as water treatment works and low tech systems, such as wetlands and reed bed networks, will not only reduce nutrient discharges to coastal waters, but will help the world meet the water and sanitation aims in the Millennium Development Goals, the UNEP report suggests.

"Hundreds of millions of people depend on the marine environment for food, for their livelihoods and for their cultural fulfillment." Toepfer said.

"Reducing the impacts of agriculture, human wastes and air pollution on the oceans and seas will be a key component in helping us to meet the Millennium Development Goals and deliver the World Summit on Sustainable Development's Plan of Implementation in areas ranging from fisheries and biodiversity loss, to sanitation and poverty," he said.

Klaus Toepfer and Korean officials ceremonially open the Korean Government sponsored Environmental Technology Exhibition, the Eco-Tech Fair. (Photo courtesy Earth Negotiations Bulletin)

"Let me single out just one," he said, "the goal to reduce by two-thirds the mortality rate of children under five. In the time that I have been speaking, 20 children have died of diseases caused by lack of safe water. That is 5,000 a day, nearly two million children a year," he said, reminding the delegates that one out of every three people across the world lacks adequate sanitation.

"They are people like you and me," Toepfer said, "except that, instead of being here in Jeju, they are struggling on a daily basis to keep disease at bay while they try to earn a living and raise their children."

Anna Tibaijuka, executive director of UN-Habitat, delivering a message from UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, stressed the importance of developing international environmental governance. Universal membership of the Governing Council is desirable, she said, as is strengthening UNEP's scientific base, and implementing an intergovernmental strategic plan for capacity building and technical support.

On the technical side, the Korean government has organized an Environmental Technology Exhibition, the Eco-Tech Fair, and a promotional workshop on purchasing environmentally friendly products. Companies like Sony are offering environmentally friendly technologies such as a recycling systems at the fair.