Agenda 21, Chapter 17, Section F
Strengtheing international, includin regional cooperation and coordination
Agenda 21 endorses the need for a collective and concerted action to protect the global commons, which are defined to include the oceans. Decisions are needed to enable the world community, by a collective scientific effort at national, regional, and global levels, to understand global change of which the ocean is a major element. The cost, scale, and complexity of global ocean studies demands clear goals, international cooperation, and the coordination of common services. The promise of Agenda 21, though initially hailed as a major advance in international environmental cooperation, has fallen short, mainly because it has never received the backing of the United States. There appears to be a lack of political will to analyse and address the underlying causes driving the deterioration of the global environment, such as foreign debt, international trade and consumption.
What is important is the growing awareness that much of what needs to be done to achieve more sustainability in the future cannot be achieved by Government action alone, but needs voluntary cooperation with all parts of society and with other countries. The building of effective partnerships for sustainable development has been one of the key successes of recent years. Maintaining, extending and developing them is a key challenge for the future (Osborn, 1997).
Projects that promote global environmental objectives succeed or fail at the local level. And to have any realistic chance of success, natural resource management must build on partnerships to plan, design and carry out the work of change. This involves cooperation. Many local authorities have achieved an exciting combination of genuinely locally-based and community driven activity together with policies and actions that are making a significant contribution to the larger national and global picture whether it be on climate change and energy efficiency programmes, biodiversity and habitat protection or health and the environment. Thinking global and acting local is acquiring a real significance in these new developments (Osborn, 1997). International cooperation and coordination for the sustainable use of the oceans has been actively addressed by many international, regional and national initiatives, which has helped to focus attention on the critical issues facing Governments as they develop policies for the management and use of their ocean and coastal areas.
It is important, however to address what kinds of marine research are needed for sustained development. For example,
Global climate research programmes to observe the impact of changing
climate on the ocean,
Research and monitoring of marine pollution to measure and assess the
effects of human activity,
The study of the marine environment as a whole.
To meet these challenges will require concerted action and commitments by governments and international coordination. The integration of open-ocean research programmes with those in the coastal zones must be encompassed in marine science and this needs to be taken into account in regional cooperative programmes. The spirit of Rio is not unchallenged and therefore it is essential to renew its commitments and ensure a collective effort to find and maintain a dynamic balance between human needs and nature’s resources, which promotes sustainable development and security for the planetary environment.
