CABINET, after continuous discussions, has finally agreed to Guyana’s accession to the Cartagena Convention and its three protocols, Head of the Presidential Secretariat (HPS), Dr. Roger Luncheon reported yesterday.
Speaking at his weekly post-Cabinet media briefing, at Office of the President, Shiv Chanderpaul Drive, Georgetown, he reminded that the covenant was adopted in 1983 in Cartagena, Colombia and entered into force in 1986.
Luncheon said it addresses pollution of ships, land based and air borne pollution of the marine environment, sea bed exploitation and dumping and the area of application is, essentially, the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea and contiguous areas of States that share the Atlantic Ocean as their sea coast.
The Cabinet Secretary said the three protocols, to which Guyana is also acceding, are the ones dealing with combating oil spills in the wider Caribbean region; combating pollution from land-based sources and activities and pollution concerning specifically protected areas and wildlife in the wider Caribbean Sea.
“This convention, as you would then recognize, is limited in its scope and it, essentially, joins comparable pieces of international law and conventions that attract and are supported by other State parties in their own geographic areas and protecting their own marine environments in those geographic areas,” he explained.
Luncheon said: “The Cartagena Convention and its accession has been before Cabinet on a number of occasions and, although we did not accede to the convention because of its proximity to the Caribbean Sea and the continuous Atlantic coastland, Guyana has been involved in activities to which the members of the Treaty parties have been contributing and promoting.”
“So, we have been a part but we had not formally acceded. I am tempted to recognise that the words, the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico, today seem to be a euphemism for marine disaster and I don’t mind if one were to try to establish a nexus between the accession to the Convention and what is happening in the Gulf of Mexico,” he added.
“Prudence would, probably, suggest if we were not on board, maybe it is time to get on board. So I don’t mind if the nexus has been created in your mind,” the HPS reiterated.

LEGAL IMPLEMENTATION

The Cartagena Convention was adopted in Cartagena, Colombia on 24 March 1983 and entered into force on 11 October 1986, for the legal implementation of the Action Plan for the Caribbean Environment Programme.
The Convention is supplemented by three Protocols:

* Protocol Concerning Cooperation in Combating Oil Spills in the Wider Caribbean Region, which was also adopted in 1983 and entered into force on October 11, 1986.
* Protocol Concerning Specially Protected Areas and Wildlife (SPAW) in the Wider Caribbean Region, which was adopted on January 18, 1990 and entered into force on June 18, 2000 and
* Protocol Concerning Pollution from Land Based Sources and Activities which was adopted on October 6, 1999 but is not yet in force as only six countries have ratified/acceded to it, up to now date, while need to do so.

The Cartagena Convention has been ratified by 23 United Nations (UN) Member States in the wider Caribbean region.
Its area of application comprises the marine environment of the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea and areas of the Atlantic Ocean adjacent thereto, South of 30 North Latitude and within 200 nautical miles of the Atlantic Coasts of the States.
The legal structure of the Convention is such that it covers the various aspects of marine pollution for which the contracting parties must adopt measures. Thus, the Convention requires the adoption of measures aimed at preventing, reducing and controlling pollution from ships; by dumping; from sea bed activities; airborne and from land based sources and activities.
In addition, the Parties are required to take appropriate measures to protect and preserve rare or fragile ecosystems, as well as the habitat of depleted, threatened or endangered species and develop technical and other guidelines for the planning and environmental impact assessments of important development projects.