Land-based focal area
Marine Litter, UNEP/GPA
UNEA Resolution
First session of the United Nations Environment Assembly – Resolution 1/6 on Marine Plastic Debris and
Microplastics:
 Encourages Governments, intergovernmental organizations, industry and others to cooperate
with the Global Partnership on Marine Litter
 Emphasizes that further urgent action is needed and encourages Governments and the private
sector to promote more resource-efficient use and sound management of plastics and
microplastics
 Requests UNEP to provide support to the development of marine litter action plans upon
request by countries
 Request UNEP ED to present a study on microplastics to UNEA-2
Regional Seas Conventions & Action Plans
History of the GPML
• The Global Programme of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Landbased Activities (GPA) was adopted in 1995 and is hosted by UNEP
• The GPA is the only global intergovernmental mechanism directly addressing the
connectivity between terrestrial, freshwater, coastal and marine ecosystems. Marine Litter is
one of the priority source categories
• The 3rd Intergovernmental review meeting in 2012 recommended the establishment of a
Global Partnership on Marine Litter (GPML) which was subsequently launched at the Rio+20
meeting under the auspice of the GPA.
• The first Partnership forum was held October 2013
Action plans/nodes/networks
 ML Action Plans:
 Regional: Mediterranean, Caribbean, (Northwest Pacific, OSPAR, HELCOM)
 National: Nigeria,
 Municipal: Panama, Peru, Ecuador, Chile, Colombia, Brazil (draft Niteroi)
 Under discussion: Regional Strategy on ML for Africa, Black Sea
 Nodes/networks:
 Regional GPML nodes: Northwest Pacific Environmental Cooperation Center (NPEC),
host organization of NOWPAP CEARAC, has established NW Pacific Regional Node
(http://www.npec.or.jp/ NWPacific_node/) with support of GPA.
 In the pipeline: Caribbean, Mediterranean, South Pacific
 National: Portuguese partnership/network, Brazil,
 Under discussion: Network for South Africa
Implementation: General
 An e-book (YB) and brochure on microplastics
 Valuing Plastic publication (2014) – Trucost and Plastic Disclosure Project
 13 billion USD per year
 Plastics in Cosmetics – is our personal care polluting the
environment?(2015)
 Factsheet
 Series of short papers
 Biodegradable plastic
 Microplastic and foodsafety
Implementation:
Waste minimization, Samoa
The project included four main components:
• community and media awareness;
• improved waste management in the ports of entry
into Samoa (Port & airport);
• waste disposal facilities within the UNSIDS venue and the
accommodation providers;
• working with the communities to improve waste practices in Apia
areas. This also included e.g. provision of litter booms in major
contributory rivers and upscaling of waste through craft workshops.
•
10 minute documentary:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=FibX2E6xydI
Implementation:
Waste minimization, Samoa
Implementation: Phase out microbeads
•
Supported Internationalization of the “Beat the microbead” initiative
(PSF and NF)
 Many personal care products and cosmetics contain plastics
 Now 70 NGO’s from 33 countries - App in 9 languages – helps
consumers to check if a product contains microbeads by just
scanning the barcode with your smartphone camera
 Promotes a phase out of microbeads by industry.
http://get.beatthemicrobead.org/
•
Capacity building in Southeast Pacific (CPPS, Spanish, 600 pax)
www.amigos-del-mar.net
Implementation: Capacity building
•
Capacity building in Southeast Pacific (CPPS, Spanish, 600 pax)
www.amigos-del-mar.net
•
12 workshops on marine litter targeting fishing communities focusing
on three key local actors: school teachers, artisanal fishermen and
tour operators.
•
Resources in Spanish: 3 marine litter videos, training material
Implementation: Scientific assessment
•
Main sources and categories of plastics and microplastics;
•
Physical/chemical models to simulate the behaviour of plastics/microplastics in the ocean to
improve current assessment technologies.
•
Occurrence/effects of microplastics in commercial fish/shellfish species.
•
Scales of accumulation of plastics and accompanying chemicals and effects of nano-scale
plastics on marine organisms
•
Risk of physical and chemical effects of ingested microplastics on marine organisms.
•
Significance of plastics and microplastics as a vector for organisms, facilitating the spread of nonindigenous (alien) species.
Implementation: Scientific assessment

Modelling and monitoring  hotspots (CSIRO)
 a global modelling workshop & discussion paper
 Modeling and monitoring of ML incl. regional comparisons

Socio-economic component (IEEP)
 Scoping of existing literature on socio-economic
action and action
 Analysis of six themes, Case studies


Compilation of Best Available Technologies (ACC)
Best Environmental Practices (BATs/BEPs) (TBD)

Advisory Group
issues; and costs of non-
Implementation: Future Activities

Massive open online course on marine litter (2015 – est. September)

Innovation Challenge for Universities/private sector (2016)
 Engineering challenge (redesign, prevention)
 Communications challenge (raise awareness, engage)
 Prediction/recovery challenge (predict, modelling, hotspot)

Campaign (2-3 components including microplastics in cosmetics)

Demonstration/pilot projects

ML Action plans for e.g. Africa (NBO/Abidjan), plastics management
strategy SIDS

Monitoring in Seychelles, Grenada and Fiji (TBD)
Planned Publications

Gender, Plastic and Chemicals (2015)

Overview of marine litter legislation (2015)

Vital graphics series ML (September 2015, May 2016)

Methods to Estimate the Efficiency and Duration of Ghost Fishing, Estimates of Derelict Gear, Estimates of
Megafauna Ghost Fishing Mortality, and Regional Fisheries Management Organization Management
Measures (UNEP/FAO) (2015)

Study of technologies and methodologies used to remove ALDFG from the marine environment
(UNEP/FAO)(2015)
 Short papers demystifying issues (2015):
 Biodegradable/bio plastics – friend or foe?
 Microplastics and food safety

UNEA-2 Study on Marine Plastic Debris and Microplastics (2016)

Plastics management strategy SIDS (2016)
Upcoming Events
 GESAMP WG40 meetings for components (September
2015)
 Global Modeling workshop 3rd quarter 2015
 Advisory Group meeting 4th quarter 2015
 UNEA – 2 (May 2016)
 World Ocean Day - ML
 Third Global Conference on Land-Ocean Connections
(2016)
 IGR-4 (2016/17)
JOIN US!
Thank you for your attention
www.unep.org/gpa/gpml
www.marinelitternetwork.org