A/RES/57/141 based Activities and the Montreal Declaration on the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-based Activities, 18 to enhance maritime safety and the protection of the marine environment from pollution and other physical impacts, and to improve the scientific understanding and assessment of marine and coastal ecosystems as a fundamental basis for sound decision-making through the actions identified in the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation; 44. Invites all relevant United Nations agencies to review individually their arrangements for collecting information and data relevant to the marine environment and for ensuring the quality of those data, using to the fullest possible extent what is available at the regional level, and to consider collectively how to ensure that the resulting information and data sets provide, within the constraints of existing resources, an acceptably consistent, coherent and comprehensive basis for international decision-making; 45. Decides to establish by 2004 a regular process under the United Nations for the global reporting and assessment of the state of the marine environment, including socio-economic aspects, both current and foreseeable, building on existing regional assessments, and requests the Secretary-General, in close collaboration with Member States, relevant organizations and agencies and programmes of the United Nations system, namely, the United Nations Environment Programme, the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the International Maritime Organization, the World Health Organization, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the World Meteorological Organization and the secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, other competent intergovernmental organizations and relevant nongovernmental organizations, to prepare proposals on modalities for a regular process for the global reporting and assessment of the state of the marine environment, drawing, inter alia, upon the work of the United Nations Environment Programme pursuant to Governing Council decision 21/13, and taking into account the recently completed review by the Joint Group of Experts on the Scientific Aspects of Marine Environmental Protection, and to submit these proposals to the General Assembly at its fifty-eighth session for its consideration and decision, including on the convening of a possible intergovernmental meeting; 46. Encourages States to ratify or to accede to international agreements to prevent, reduce, control and eliminate pollution from ships, dumping, the carriage of hazardous and noxious substances, anti-fouling systems on ships and persistent organic pollutants, as well as agreements that provide for compensation for damage resulting from marine pollution; 47. Welcomes the decision of the International Maritime Organization to approve in principle the concept of a voluntary Model Audit Scheme as a means of enhancing the performance of member States in implementing appropriate conventions of the organization relating to maritime safety and the prevention of maritime pollution, and encourages the organization to continue to develop such a scheme; 48. Notes with deep concern the extremely serious damage of an environmental, social and economic nature brought about by oil spills as a result of recent maritime accidents which have affected several countries, and therefore calls upon all States and relevant international organizations to adopt all necessary and _______________ 18 E/CN.17/2002/PC.2/15, annex, sect. 1. 9