Oceans and the law of the sea
A/RES/74/19
Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-based Activities, held in Bali,
Indonesia, on 31 October and 1 November 2018; 110
243. Welcomes the continued work of States, the United Nations Environment
Programme and regional organizations in the implementation of th e Global
Programme of Action, and encourages increased emphasis on the link between fresh
water, the coastal zone and marine resources in the implementation of the 2030
Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals, as well as of the Addis Ababa Action
Agenda of the Third International Conference on Financing for Development; 10
244. Expresses its concern regarding the spreading of hypoxic dead zones and
harmful algal blooms in oceans as a result of eutrophication fuelled by riverine run off of fertilizers, sewage outfall and reactive nitrogen resulting from the burning of
fossil fuels and resulting in serious consequences for ecosystem functioning, and calls
upon States to enhance their efforts to reduce eutrophication, particularly by reducing
total nutrient pollution from land-based sources and, to this effect, to continue to
cooperate within the framework of relevant international organizations, in particular
the Global Programme of Action and the Global Partnership on Nutrient Management
and Global Wastewater Initiative, including through capacity-building initiatives and
efforts to monitor, via the Global Ocean Observing System, stressors such as harmful
algal blooms, areas of hypoxia, sargassum seaweed invasions and jellyfish blooms,
to assess their possible linkage to eutrophication and their potential adverse impacts
on the marine environment as well as on human health;
245. Encourages States that have not yet done so to take, as soon as possible,
the domestic measures necessary to enable them to meet their obligations upon
ratification and, thereafter, to ratify, accept, approve or accede to the Minamata
Convention on Mercury; 111
246. Calls upon all States to ensure that urban and coastal development projects
and related land-reclamation activities are carried out in a responsible manner that
protects the marine habitat and environment and mitigates the negative consequences
of such activities;
247. Encourages States that have not yet done so to become parties to the 1996
Protocol to the Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of
Wastes and Other Matter, 1972 (the London Protocol);
248. Recalls the resolution of the thirtieth Consultative Meeting of Contracting
Parties to the Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of
Wastes and Other Matter, 1972 (the London Convention) and the third Meeting of
Contracting Parties to the London Protocol, held from 27 to 31 October 2008, o n the
regulation of ocean fertilization, 112 in which the Contracting Parties agreed, inter alia,
that the scope of the London Convention and Protocol includes ocean fertilization
activities and that, given the present state of knowledge, ocean fertilization activities
other than for legitimate scientific research should not be allowed, and that scientific
research proposals should be assessed on a case-by-case basis using an assessment
framework that was subsequently developed and adopted in 2010 by the Contr acting
Parties to the London Convention and Protocol, namely, the Assessment Framework
for Scientific Research Involving Ocean Fertilization, 113 and also agreed that, to this
end, such other activities should be considered as contrary to the aims of the Lond on
Convention and Protocol and should not currently qualify for any exemption from the
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111
112
113
19-21313
UNEP/GPA/IGR.4/5, annex.
UNEP(DTIE)/Hg/CONF/4, annex II.
International Maritime Organization, document LC 30/16, annex 6, resolution LC -LP.1 (2008).
International Maritime Organization, document LC 32/15 and Corr.1, annex 5, resolution LC
LP.2 (2010).
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