Promoting National Maritime Transport Policies

IMO is continuing to introduce countries to the concept of National Maritime Transport Policies (NMTPs). Officials from 10 countries, including Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and Small Islands Developing States (SIDS) took part in the 4th Advanced Maritime Leaders' Programme (20 April).

IMO and World Maritime University experts covered the development, formulation and content of an NMTP. The event was organized by the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore Academy (MPAA).

South-East Asian seas project extended

The Marine Environment Protection of the South-East Asian Seas (MEPSEAS) project has been extended, by one year, to 2022.

Run by IMO and funded by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), the MEPSEAS project assists participating developing countries to address high-priority marine environment issues related to ships and shipping, in particular through implementing IMO's key international environmental conventions.

Norad announced its decision to extend its assistance at the project's virtual Extra Ordinary High Level Regional Meeting (17 March), organized by IMOs Department of Partnerships and Projects.

The meeting discussed the impact of COVID 19 on the project activities and the countries supported by the Strategic Partners agreed on the next steps in the Project. These include focusing on the Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement Remote Programming Exercise (CME-RPE) which will also be held virtually for the participating countries.

The meeting was hosted by the Government of the Philippines through the Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA) and attended by delegations from the seven participating countries of the MEPSEAS project: Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, and representatives of the project's strategic partners.

Working together to regulate waste dumping at sea

Preventing pollution from dumping of wastes at sea relies on global frameworks, regional conventions and protocols, and national regulations. To be effective, these need to be aligned and implemented effectively. This was the subject of a meeting (2 March) organised by IMO's Office of the London Protocol and Ocean Affairs (OLCP&OA) and United Nations Environment Programme/ Mediterranean Action Plan (UNEP/MAP).

Participants shared best practices relating to two key instruments regulating the dumping of wastes at sea: the Mediterranean Action Plan and the Barcelona Convention’s Dumping Protocol.

The meeting brought together national experts on dumping activities, permitting and enforcement authorities that are involved in implementing these instruments to provide information on recent developments to the Barcelona Convention Contracting Parties on the dumping at sea of waste issues at global and regional levels; provide guidance to the Barcelona Convention Contracting Parties on compliance monitoring programmes under the Dumping Protocol; and identify best practices with regards to national implementation of the Dumping Protocol mainstreaming regional and global good practices.

The meeting was attended by Barcelona Convention Contracting Parties, other UN Regional Organizations (including HELCOM, PERSGA) and representatives from the Central Dredging Association (CEDA) and IMO.