Political leaders participating in the United Nations Summit on Biodiversity in September 2020, representing 72 countries from all regions and the European Union, have committed to reversing biodiversity loss by 2030. By doing so, these leaders are sending a united signal to step up global ambition and encourage others to match their collective ambition for nature, climate and people with the scale of the crisis at hand.
The deep seabed, some 4,000 meters below the ocean’s surface, hides the last untouched reservoirs of mineral resources on Earth, a part of the global commons to be shared by all. It also harbours fascinating creatures, whole ecosystems, and natural processes that connect with to us in ways that we do not yet fully understand.
The Misool Marine Reserve protects a complex and extremely biodiverse coral reef system in South Raja Ampat, Indonesia. Raja Ampat is an epicentre of marine biodiversity, with 1,632 described species of fish. The reserve is jointly managed by Misool Foundation and Misool Resort. Misool Resort is a private island resort that uses ecotourism revenue to generate a large proportion of the funding for the reserve. Marit and Andrew Miners founded the project in 2005 by forging a powerful partnership with the local landowners and communities.
With a population of 250 million, Indonesia is the fourth most populous country and second-largest plastic polluter in the world after China. The country produces 3.2 million tonnes of unmanaged plastic waste a year, of which about 1.29 million tonnes ends up in the sea (Jambeck, 2015). In addition, approximately 10 billion plastic carry bags, equal to 85,000 tonnes, are released into its local environment each year (MoEF, 2018). This unmanaged plastic waste has also affected Indonesian rivers and the ocean.
Plastic pollution is a major problem all across Asia.
UNEP and partners have been working through the CounterMEASURE project to determine the sources of plastic pollution in the Mekong and Ganges rivers using a novel combination of technologies, including drones, GIS and machine learning. With this information, we are able to recommend measures that can be taken to beat plastic pollution.
The attention on plastic pollution has intensified in recent years among national governments and the global community. The ‘National Guidance for Plastic Pollution Hotspotting and Shaping Action’ (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Guidance’) aims to provide a structure for the methods of identifying plastic leakage ‘hotspots’, finding their impacts along the entire plastic value chain, and then prioritising actions once these hotspots are identified.