PROTECTION OF SEAS AND OCEANS IS FOCUS OF 2004 WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY OBSERVANCE AT UN HEADQUARTERS

World Environment Day was observed at United Nations Headquarters on Friday, 4 June, with an international, student-focused webcast event highlighting the need for the protection of the planet's increasingly fragile seas and oceans.

Among the international sites joining the observance was Athens, host of the 2004 Summer Olympics, where noted oceanographer Jean-Michel Cousteau was set to undertake an underwater clean-up at sites on the Greek coast for World Environment Day (WED). From Sydney, young Australian sailor Jesse Martin, who undertook a solo around-the-world voyage a few years ago at the age of 17, gave an eye-witness account of the state of the world's oceans. The students in New York were also linked via videoconference with students in Croatia, Trinidad and Tobago, Mexico and the Philadelphia suburb of Lindenwold, New Jersey.

The students were greeted by Shashi Tharoor, Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information, as well as special guest Mrs. Nane Annan. Other featured presentations were made in New York by the grandchildren of Jacques Cousteau, Philippe and Alexandra, as well as by a representative of "Roots and Shoots", the international youth environmental and humanitarian organization established by UN Messenger of Peace Jane Goodall.

The students discussed the many threats to the marine environment including the fact that 70 per cent of the world's marine fisheries are now fished up to or beyond their sustainable limit. In addition to environmental problems, death and disease caused by polluted coastal waters (which receives some 80 per cent of all pollution from land-based activities) costs the global economy $12.8 billion a year. And each year tons of discarded plastic products find their way into the oceans, killing hundreds of thousands of marine mammals and ocean-going birds, in addition to untold numbers of fish.

That is why the theme for World Environment Day 2004 is "Wanted! Seas and Oceans: Dead or Alive?" The theme asks that we make a choice as to how we want to treat the Earth's seas and oceans. It also calls on each and every one of us to act in support of sustainable coastal livelihoods. Do we want to keep seas and oceans healthy and alive or polluted and dead?

In his message for the Day, Secretary-General Kofi Annan noted that "the marine environment is facing challenges that, if not addressed immediately and effectively, will have profound implications for sustainable development... Society can no longer view the world's seas as a convenient dumping ground for our waste, or as an unlimited source of plenty".

This year's observance also buildt upon the interest generated in 2003 by the International Year of Freshwater and the marine-related time-tables and targets drawn up by Governments in 2002 at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD). The Summit's Johannesburg Plan of Implementation has set several challenges in respect to fisheries, marine protected areas, small island developing States and marine pollution. The Plan calls for a global marine assessment by 2004 and the development of a global network of marine protected areas by 2012. Less than one half of one per cent of marine habitats are protected -- compared with 11.5 per cent of global land area. Governments agreed, on an urgent basis, to maintain or restore depleted fish stocks to levels that can produce the maximum sustainable yield and to eliminate destructive fishing practices and subsidies that contribute to illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.

World Environment Day (WED), commemorated each year on 5 June, is one of the principal vehicles through which the United Nations stimulates worldwide awareness of the environment and enhances political attention and action. This year's main international celebrations were held in Barcelona, Spain in close collaboration with the Universal Forum of Cultures. WED was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1972 to mark the opening of the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment. Another resolution, adopted by the General Assembly the same day, led to the creation of UNEP.

Information on the day, logos, posters, fact sheets and ideas on how to celebrate WED can be found at www.unep.org/wed/2004

In addition to webcasting the programme, the United Nations' CyberSchoolBus devoted its web site to this year's theme, with a multimedia page for kids that combines music, video, slide shows and other water-related information (see www.cyberschoolbus.un.org). The webcast version of the event is also available on-demand at www.un.org/webcast.

The observance was organized by the Department of Public Information (DPI) and the New York Office of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

Also in connection with World Environment Day, UNEP, along with its partner, the UN Communications Group, launched the 2004-2005 UNEP-Canon International Photographic Competition on the Environment 2004-2005 -- "Focus on Your World".

For more information on the event, please contact Dawn Johnston-Britton,DPI, tel.: 1-212-963-6984, fax: 1-212-963-0071, e-mail: johnston-britton@un.org; or Jim Sniffen, UNEP, tel.: +1-212-963-8094, e-mail: sniffenj@un.org.

Photos from World Envirnoment Day Event at UNHQ.