International conférence on sargassum
Fridayn October 25th, 2019
Day 2 - Crossing perspectives and sharing experiences
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Conférence Internationale sur les Sargasses
Vendredi 25 Octobre 2019 Journée 2
Regards croisés et partage d’expériences
Dr. Habib N. El-Habr - Toward inclusion of sargassum on UNEP's political agenda?
1. Complexe World Trade Center, Guadeloupe
24-26 October 2019
Habib N. El-Habr, Ph.D.
United Nations Environment Programme
SARGASSUM CONFERENCE and EXPO
United Nations Environment Programme
2. Summary
Facts & numbers
International Framework
Cartagena and Abidjan Conventions
Caribbean Environment
Programme Actions
Caribbean/ African Regional Agreements
Cascade of events
Current Situation and
Potential causes of the outbreak
Urgent call for Coordination
Recommendations
3. Facts & numbers
2018 $ 120 MillionThe estimated US dollar clean-up cost
for sargassum across the Caribbean:
During the first semester
MEXICOhas witnessed a large decline in tourism
with a
35% DROP
Many other areas of
the Caribbean have
witnessed similar
declines
4. Facts & numbers
2018 It was another record-breaking year: the total amount of
seaweed reached approximately
6000 km2
and a weight of
in the month of June.
20 million tons
As large as 4 times the island of
GUADELOUPE
Which would make necessary
30,000 of the world’s biggest
trucks to completely remove it
5. Facts & numbers
2018
2019 The cost of keeping one beach
resort clean in Grand Cayman:$150,000
Mexico has spent
$ 17 million to remove Sargassum from over 1,000 km
(621 miles) of Mexican beaches through 2019
From May to August 2019,
69,606 tonnes of Sargassum
were collected and 13,527 people were
employed to clean up beaches.
6.
7. UNEP launched the Regional Seas Programmes, one of its
most significant achievements in the past four decades
1974
Countries of the Region adopted the
Cartagena Convention on 24 March
1983
UNEP established the Caribbean
Environment Programme (CEP) as one of
its Regional Seas Programmes
1981
The Caribbean Regional Co-ordinating Unit (CAR/RCU) was
established in Kingston, Jamaica. It is the Secretariat for
the Cartagena Convention and the CEP
1986
Cartagena Convention
8. A priority in the work of the Specially Protected Areas and Wildlife (SPAW) Protocol:
Caribbean Environment Programme Actions
SPAW-RAC
interactive
platform of
exchanges
Sargassum
Ad-Hoc
Working
group
Partnerships
with University
of South Florida
and Texas A&M
Sargassum
White
paper
Regional
Intergovernmental
resolutions
endorsed by
countries
9. Cascade of events
Workshop:
Sargassum and oil
spills monitoring
pilot project for the
Caribbean and
adjacent regions
2-4 May 2018
Montserrat, 10-11
July 2018
The 5th Meeting of the
Organization of Eastern
Caribbean States (OECS)
Council of Ministers:
Environmental
Sustainability (COMES-5).
The theme: “Building
Resilience on the
Frontline of Climate
Change”.
Mexico, June 2019
High-level
International
Meeting on
Sargassum in the
Wider Caribbean
held in Quintana Roo
Sargassum
Conference and Expo
in Guadeloupe
focusing on Sargassum
management solutions
and technologies
Here, now!
Jamaica, 6-8 Nov 2019
The International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA)
Technical Meeting on
Sargassum
10. Current Situation
Lack of regional coordination as
Well as at global level
Shortage of conclusive information
regarding the outbreaks
Partial understanding of local
impacts at social-economic
and environmental levels
Unclear what are the best
options for the sustainable
use of sargassum
11. Potential causes of the outbreak
African
atmospheric
dust
Nitrogen and
Phosphorus
from fertilizers
entering the
ocean from
inland sources
Climate change-
induced changes to
ocean currents
Warmer sea
surface
temperature
s and hot,
sunny
summers
Rainfall
pattern
s
Hurricanes
SARGASSUM BLOOM
Unknown
12. Potential causes of the outbreak
Global Emergency
Urgent call for Interregional Collaboration & Coordination
Complexity of the causes,
ongoing research
13. Urgent call for Coordination
Strengthen
and
at global and regional levels
amongst
is essential to optimize resources
and avoid duplicity of efforts.
COLLABORATION
COORDINATION
ALL RELEVANT
STAKEHOLDERS
14. Recommendations
Development of a
MONITORING PROTOCOL
and coordination mechanism with
Africa
SUSTAINABLE
MANAGEMENT
of Sargassum landings
Development of an
EARLY WARNING
GLOBALLY
Understanding the correlation
between drivers and occurrence of
bloom events
Potential BENEFICIAL USES
of Sargassum in the Caribbean
15. Recommendations
Elaboration of a interregional Sargassum strategy to promote synergies and avoid duplication of
efforts including among others:
Research from regional
level to global level :
Cartagena/Abidjan
Conventions
Knowledge Communication
Potential impacts of toxic
chemicals
Determine main sources of
pollution and nutrients
Assessment of socio-economic
and environmental impacts and
challenges
16. Recommendations
Urgent call for Interregional Collaboration & Coordination
Consideration/recommendation for Member States and partners to present a
draft Resolution on Sargassum Challenges and Opportunities
at the 5th Session of the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA-5) scheduled to take place during the last
week of February 2021, in Nairobi, Kenya for deliberation.
This Decade will provide a common framework to ensure that
ocean science can fully support countries’ actions to sustainably
manage the Oceans and more particularly to achieve the 2030
Agenda for Sustainable Development.
17. Complexe World Trade Center, Guadeloupe
24-26 October 2019
Mr. Habib N. El-Habr
United Nations Environment Programme
United Nations Environment Programme
Notas do Editor
Source: Arellano, S. Sargazo provoca baja de 35% de turismo: alcaldesa electa en QRoo. Milenio, August 3rd 2018.
Accessed September 20th, 2018. Available at: http://www.milenio.com/estados/sargazo-provoca-baja-35-turismo-alcaldesa-electa-qroo
2018 was another record-breaking year when the total amount of seaweed reached approximately 6000 km2 (Source: Pfaff, M. (2015) Key scientific questions addressing environmental drivers and effects of periodic mass deposits of a brown seaweed (golden tides) along the Sierra Leone coast. Draft report for Oceans and Coastal Research, Directorate: Biodiversity and Coastal Research) with a weight of approximately 20 million tons in the month of June (Source: Wang, M., Hu, C., Barnes, B. B., Mitchum, G., Lapointe, B., & Montoya, J. P. (2019). The great Atlantic Sargassum belt. Science, 365(6448), 83-87.). The mass landings – in mounds up to two meters thick in some places – caused dreadful beaching events throughout the Wider Caribbean Region (WCR).
The Convention for the Protection and Development of the Marine Environment in the Wider Caribbean Region (WCR) or Cartagena Convention is a regional legal agreement for the protection of the Caribbean Sea.
The Convention was adopted in Cartagena, Colombia on 24 March 1983 and entered into force on 11 October 1986.
The Convention is supported by three technical agreements or Protocols on Oil Spills, Specially Protected Areas and Wildlife (SPAW) and Land Based Sources of Marine Pollution (LBS).
The Protocol Concerning Co-operation in Combating Oil Spills in the Wider Caribbean Region was adopted in 1983 and entered into force on 11 October 1986.
The Protocol Concerning Specially Protected Areas and Wildlife (SPAW) in the Wider Caribbean Region was adopted on 18 January 1990 and entered into force on 18 June 2000.
The Protocol Concerning Pollution from Land-Based Sources and Activities was adopted on 6 October 1999 and entered into force on 13 August 2010.
The Regional Coordinating Unit (UNEP-CAR/RCU) was established in 1986 in Kingston, Jamaica and is the Secretariat to the Cartagena Convention and its Protocols.
There is a lack of coordination both at the regional as well as global level as the issue is a transboundary one that also affect West Africa. (this is a basis/rationale for a possible UNEA resolution to foster global cooperation
Africa Atmosphere Dust, the world’s largest dust source (Prospero et al., 2014), has been also proposed to be a potential cause for the recent Sargassum blooms in the tropical North Atlantic (Johnson et al., 2013; Franks et al., 2014; Oxenford et al., 2015). The African dust transport has been found to cause a significant degradation of soils while the re-sedimentation provides a supply of nutrients (iron, phosphate) to terrestrial ecosystems and an increase in fertility in the area of dust settlement, as observed for the Amazon forest (Swap et al., 1992; Scheuvens et al., 2013).
Africa Atmosphere Dust, the world’s largest dust source (Prospero et al., 2014), has been also proposed to be a potential cause for the recent Sargassum blooms in the tropical North Atlantic (Johnson et al., 2013; Franks et al., 2014; Oxenford et al., 2015). The African dust transport has been found to cause a significant degradation of soils while the re-sedimentation provides a supply of nutrients (iron, phosphate) to terrestrial ecosystems and an increase in fertility in the area of dust settlement, as observed for the Amazon forest (Swap et al., 1992; Scheuvens et al., 2013).
We need to understand the correlations between the drivers and the occurrence of bloom events
This slide talks about understanding the drivers for the sargassum blooming via research.
Need to:
Take research coordination from the regional level to the global level, linking the Caribbean Regional Sea Programmed to the Abidjan Convention.
Understanding the drivers will inform long-range strategic responses for management and will inform the business case for investment in sargassum use enterprises
The GESAMP is establishing a working group on Sargassum to assist this process. The latest development is that the IOC-Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR) GlobalHAB (www.globalhab.info ) is planning for an Open Science meeting on Sargassum to focus at identifying the main research questions to better understand what is driving the Sargassum mass occurences. It is expected to be done jointly with GESAMP (to be confirmed at GESAMP 46). Also, GlobalHAB is partnering with the EU project EuroSea in this initiative.
So here we really need to link what has been discussed this week in Guadeloupe with all these initiatives
Enhance overall collaboration, coordination, and research at global, regional and national levels. Currently there is not coordination and several countries, partners, agencies are duplicating efforts.
Conducting an in-depth regional assessment of socio-economic and environmental impacts and challenges to better comprehend the effective and sustainable management of Sargassum.
Continue to coordinate related initiatives at regional scale and using the integrated approach, continue to collaborate with regional organizations already involved with monitoring the seaweed.
Determine the main sources of pollution and nutrients associated with the increase of Sargassum in pilot areas of the region in collaboration with Universities and Research Institutions.
Development of an early warning system at regional scale with information at national/local levels. Cooperation is already ongoing among UNEP-CEP, SPAW RAC, South Florida University, Texas A & M University and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission from UNESCO.
Development of a ship-based monitoring protocol (observation of Sargassum rafts in the open sea by the maritime fleet including commercial boats) in the Atlantic Ocean.