Marine Litter Report

7. PROPOSALS FOR CHANGES

7.1. NATIONAL LEVEL

Bulgaria (Atanaska Nikolova)

Approach 1: Direct removal of ML or beach/marine cleanup. This is expensive, laborious and only locally applicable approach.

Approach 2: Policy responses to the marine and coastal pollution. Potentially the most effective activity, via legislation and economic instruments development:

· policy measures to be developed and implemented to aid in preventing, controlling and reducing the ML problem in the marine and coastal areas;

· target specific responsibility groups, such as authorities, business, scientists, NGOs, etc.

Approach 3: Public education and awareness raising campaigns directed towards different target groups and aimed to build “responsible” behaviour. This will have long-term effect.

Title of proposal:

Elaboration of Coastal and marine waste management strategy(ies) and action plan(s).

Aim (objectives):

· clear definition and separation of responsibilities, authorities and resources needful for management/control of ML pollution and implementation of cleanup activities;

· development and implementation of innovative policy approaches and practical measures to aid in preventing, controlling and reducing of litter pollution in Blac Sea marine and coastal areas. Development of effective legislation and economic instruments, and voluntary incentives for ML prevention and reduction;

· target and involve in specific anti-ML activities the responsibility groups (such as the source industries, environmental NGOs, national and local authorities, research institutions, etc.).

Suggested activities:

· detailed analysis of current constraints and opportunities of institutional and legislative/ regulatory framework for the management and the most adequate policy measures to confine the beach littering;

· incorporation of the coastal and marine waste management strategy(ies) in the coastal zone management plans (or other relevant plans and programs);

· partnership for ML prevention: voluntary agreement between representatives of major stakeholders to cooperate for the protection of the marine and coastal environment against ML should be developed; waste management strategies and ICZM plans should include ML items and involve concerned groups including representatives of central and local authorities; source industries, environmental NGOs and research institutions;

· introduction of adequate practical tools for the prevention of ML pollution (re-usable packaging, new materials for erosion control, etc.);

· public education and awareness raising campaign should be integral part of the ML strategy.

Potential implementing organisations:

· BMEW (to establish a ML Expert Working group, including representatives of relevant institutions, BMT, BMH, etc.), other authorities, research institutes, NGOs, businessmen.

· Preliminarily estimated cost: €50,000.

· Possible source of funding: BMEW and international donors.

Georgia (Tamar Gamgebeli)

It would be relevant if waste recycling or waste incinerating plants are constructed in the coastal zone. However, taking into account that this is connected with large investments, this can be considered as a program of long-term perspective.

Since the mentioned measures are very costly (and taking into account that payment ability of the population is very low), the most necessary easy measures should be carried out at the existing landfills. The involvement of private sector directly oriented at coastal ML would be most appropriate.

At the first stage of a pilot project, the ML monitoring should be implemented within the framework of some governmental structure or program in order to obtain reliable information on the levels of ML pollution. In parallel to this, it would be useful if the inventory of ML according to its types (municipal, medical, construction, etc.) is carried out.

Also, public awareness and public participation projects, TV programs, booklets, popularisation of garbage bins for society (for teenagers by well known and favourite person with the help of TV advertising rollers) shall be implemented. Educational programs for schools are also very important.

For the addressing ML problem in Georgia, at least one research pilot project should be developed. Such project could be, probably, implemented on any one section of the coast at 10 different sites of 0,5m² each. The project should include quantitative and qualitative evaluation of the level of ML pollution.

Thus, projects that would help to address and solve the ML problem could be as follows:

1) Quantitative and qualitative evaluation of ML pollution on the seacoast ($10,000);

2) Improvement of legal and administrative instruments ($5,000);

3) Public awareness raising ($12,000);

4) Installation of garbage incinerators in Georgian Ports of Batumi and Poti ($300,000);

5) Installation of dustbins and refuse bins in the recreational areas ($100,000);

6) Construction of small garbage recycling and incinerating plants for municipal waste services ($3,500,000).

Implementing organizations might be various: government, NGOs, private sector; as for source of funding international financial institutions will be necessary for financial support of costly projects (like indicated in 4. 5. and 6), where the government could be co-financier. As for cheaper projects the source of financing should be the government.

Romania (Alexei Atudorey)

The National Standard SR 13493/2004 “Waste Characterization – Methodology for Household Waste Characterization – ROMECOM” is implemented in Romania. The standard could be used for the characterization (quantities, composition, humidity, calorific value, etc.) of ML collected from the recreational areas. Besides, guidelines for development of the database are included in the standard. It could be suggested that this standard is implemented in all Black Sea countries. This will assure the unified ML research/monitoring, collection and disposal activities in the the region.

Title of proposal:

Implementation of the unified methodology of ML research, monitoring, prevention and decreasing in the Black Sea region.

Aim (objectives):

Implementation of the ML Management/Action Plan in the Black Sea region.

The results obtained will be based on the same methods, same system for processing ML data and will assure accumulation of the standardized ML information in each country for future activities, such as: the development of ML monitoring methodology, preparation of proposals to prevent and reduce ML, elaboration of ML collecting and processing technologies and devices, development of sustainable ML management.

Suggested activities:

· elaboration and implementation of a unified standard for ML characterization;

· elaboration and implementation of a unified system for ML monitoring and development of ML database at the local and national level;

· elaboration and implementation of a unified system for developing technical norms for the prevention and reduction of ML pollution;

· elaboration and implementation of a unified system for developing technical norms for ML collecting and processing technologies and devices;

· elaboration of a unified “handbook” for the implementation of ML Management/Action Plan”.

The activities of the project could be performed as:

Phase 1 preparation of the proposed documents based on the international and national experience; the documents will be elaborated by a working group with members (national experts) from all Black Sea counties;

Phase 2 a “case study” in one city for each country (in cooperation with national and local administration, industrial, social and sanitation companies, research and development institutes, universities, NGOs, etc.);

Phase 3 analysis of the results obtained during the “case studies”; the analysis will take into consideration local features of each city (e.g., number of tourists, different industrial activities, level of industrial activities, municipal prognosis for the future five years, etc.);

Phase 4 preparation of the National Action/Management Plans on ML in the final form; the Regional Action Plan on ML should be included in the BS SAP;

Phase 5 implementation of the Regional and National Action/Management Plans on ML and monitoring of the results during three years;

Phase 6 analysis of the results after three years and improvement of the Action/ Management Plans on ML. This phase may represent a new project.

Potential implementing organization(s):

· national and local administrations in all Black Sea countries;

· industrial, social and sanitation companies performing activities in the costal zone;

· research and development institutes;

· universities;

· NGOs.

Preliminarily estimated cost:

€600,000 in total

or €100,000 for each country (including €10,000 for dissemination of the results).

Possible source of funding:

international donors.

Turkey (Erdogan Okus)

Recommendations:

· all municipalities should separate solid waste collected from beaches, keep records of the amounts and work accordingly;

· all ports must establish a waste reception facilities under the Regulation on Reception of Waste from the Ships and Waste Control;

· All beaches should be encouraged and supported to implement a criteria of Blue Flag by the responsible organizations;

· municipalities should separate domestic solid waste in source by collecting recyclable wastes such as glass, plastic, paper, etc. separately;

· research vessels in the Black Sea should be encouraged to do studies on surveying the floating ML[11];

· ML that comes into trawl during fish inventory studies should be separated, weighted and calculated as the amount per area (it is especially important in metropolitan cities and areas close to estuaries);

· adverse effects of ML should be evaluated on the international level[12];

· ML studies at sea, on the coasts and in the estuaries should be carried out in order to assess the levels of ML pollution on the regional scale;

· a common data bank should be established for the data obtained by the monitoring of ML and its effects at sea, on the seashore and in the rivers;

· stock quarries that have been operated for the coastal highway can be converted into landfill areas.

Other suggestions:

· all residential areas should contain landfill sites;

· all beaches should be viewed and cleaned regularly;

· in order to raise public awareness, educational activities should be incresed in schools and informative programs for housewifes should be prepared with the support of local TV and newspapers;

· special marine protection areas should be established in the Black Sea and all activities like fishing, sea traffic, tourism, etc. should be stopped in these areas;

· waste from ships should be collected in ports regularly and treated properly;

· ML should be prevented in order to protect marine and coastal species and their habitats;

· monitoring systems such as national and regional observatories should be established in order to ensure the pollution control;

· ‘Coastal Area Management Plans’ should be developed, the appropriate report for Turkey should be reviewed;

· study on the open sea, coast and estuary should be monitored and fixed a pollution condition in the Black Sea Region;

· regional strategies on solid waste, medical waste and hazardous waste should be developed and implemented.

Recommendations and proposals submitted by Turkish environmental NGOs could be summarized as follows:

· to raise public awareness on ML issues (especially among students and children, ship and smaller vessels crews), particularly, by means of education and cleanup campaigns, and exhibitions of ML collected due to the coastal, marine and underwater cleanup operations.

The restoration of uncontrolled landfills is an urgent task for Turkey . In order to rehabilitate such site in Zonguldak and control the pollution raised from it, the following activities have been proposed by Y. Yıldırım et al. (2004): that in many aspects coincided with recommendations of national consultant:

· solid waste evacuation to the site should be stopped and a new "landfill site" must be established according to the environmental regulations;

· run off rain water collection and control system should be constructed to control surface run off;

· suitable trees should be planted all over the field to prevent erosion and to improve the aesthetic view;

· a retaining wall should be constructed to provide stability for the rubbish heap and to prevent rubbish mass transportation through the sea[13];

· a revetment or seawall should be constructed to prevent the retaining wall and landfill from wave effects;

· identification of the composition of solid wastes storaged on the landfill (based on properties of materials) should be carried out;

· monitoring of physicochemical and biological processes inside the landfill and main processes affecting waste volume should be developed;

· to investigate the overall behaviour of the landfill (including geophysical research and biogas measurement);

· recreational studies must be carried out in the landfill site.

Title of proposal:

Celebration of the Black Sea Day’06

Aim (objectives):

During the Celebration of the Black Sea Day (BSD) in Turkey to highlight importance of the protection of the Black Sea against ML pollution and to increase public awareness and awareness of decision makers on the Turkish coast on this issue.

The aim of the International BSD activities could be to increase public awareness regarding the Black Sea pollution problems and possible recovery actions concerning ML; to evaluate the latest local and national activities on the management of ML.

Suggested activities:

To celebrate the BSD as a week. The activities will start from Istanbul and spread to Samsun, Zonguldak, Giresun, Trabzon and Artvin areas. The activities will include:

· cleanup campaign,

· press conference,

· panels and receptions,

· TV programmes,

· fishermen seminars,

· preparation of educational materials for students,

· seminar for housewifes,

· new slogan and logo for the BSD,

· publishing special bulletin on ML,

· concerts.

Potential implementing organization(s):

NGO’s from the Black Sea coast, Regional Directorates of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, Private companies.

Preliminarily estimated cost: $15,000

Possible source of funding: UNEP, BSERP, Ministry’s budget.

7.2. REGIONAL LEVEL

Participants of the Special Session on ML within the 15th Meeting of the BSC Advisory Group on Pollution Monitoring and Assessment ( Istanbul, 9-10 October 2006) were invited to propose their own list of high priority actions to be included in the Regional ML Action Plan. The “brain storming” approach was applied to complete this work. Finally, the participants agreed that principal actions and activities which should be included in the Action Plan are as follows:

· improvement of national waste management policies (to introduce measures to reduce ML pollution into national waste management policies);

· improvement of legal and administrative instruments for ML as a part of national waste management policies (to introduce necessary amendments related to ML into new LBS protocol of the Bucharest Convention);

· development of the regional and national ML assessment and monitoring schemes using common methodologies and assessment criteria (to develop methodologies for monitoring and assessment of floating, submerged and coastal litter; to organize and maintain ML monitoring facilities);

· developing and implementing measures to prevent and reduce ML pollution (to prepare proposals and relevant implementation programs; to construct and improve port reception facilities for garbage; to close down dumping sites and landfills in the coastal water protection zone as defined in national legislation; to address and mitigate ghost fishing);

· raising public awareness and improvement of public education (to prepare awareness and educational tools; to organize public campaigns; to initiate awareness-raising campaign in media; to prepare 'responsible citizenship' guidelines);

· strengthening public/private partnership in combatting ML pollution;

· implementation of the best available technologies in order to collect, process, recycle and dispose ML;

· improvement of professional skills and knowledge on the management of ML (to prepare professional sectorial guidelines; to organize a training for officers involved in ML management).

Special note on the Black Sea regional ML survey

It could be recommended that the line transect methodology and Distance analysis (Buckland et al., 1993) are applied for further development of ML research and monitoring at sea by means of the vessel-based and aerial surveys conducted over different coastal and offshore areas, preferably on the Black Sea regional scale.

It seems to be reasonable from scientific and economical points, if the first basin-wide ML survey will be carried out simultaneously with the Black Sea cetaceans’ basin-wide survey initiated and promoted by the BSC Permanent Secretariat and ACCOBAMS. The project proposal was prepared and submitted to the BSC Secretariat in December 2005. It was supported by several meetings of the international and national experts and by the Scientific Committee of the International Whaling Commission (St. Kitts, May 2006). The 4th Meeting of the ACCOBAMS Scientific Committee ( Monaco , November 2006) has endorsed the most recent version of the proposal and provided appropriate recommendation for the Black Sea Commission.