Efforts of regional and international organisations in reducing levels of pollution in the Gulf

Abstract

There is a wide recognition throughout the region, as well as globally, of the importance of the Gulf in terms of its natural resources, including its diversity in plant and animal life. There is also recognition of the challenges that it faces in terms of the pressures placed on it by the extraction, processing and transport of oil and related products around and across its waters as well as other development activities taking place in the region's coastal areas. To respond to these challenges, a number of international and regional organisations work within the Gulf to protect its waters and conserve its environment. The following chapter will focus on some of these, addressing the activities that they undertake within the region. The organisations included are the International Maritime Organisation, the Regional Organisation for the Protection of the Marine Environment (ROPME) and its Marine Emergency Mutual Aid Centre (MEMAC), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), each of which has its own set of activities as well as a number of partnership activities throughout the region. Such partnerships can be further strengthened, providing a unified approach by the involved organisations, further encouraging the governments of the region, already doing much to tackle the needs of the coastal and marine environment, to focus their efforts in this regard. We already rely greatly on the wealth of the Gulf and its biodiversity and it is up to all of its users to ensure that this is preserved for future generations. © 2008 Birkhäuser Verlag AG.