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Help for developing countries
Marine Pollution Bulletin
Help for Developing Countries The wisdom of using scarce funds and of engaging the time of highly qualified experts in such projects as 'Earthwatch', the International Referral System (IRS), the International Register of Potentially Toxic Chemicals (IRPTC) or the Global Environmental Monitoring System (GEMS), all activities of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), is somewhat debatable. The crying need in developing countries is for home-grown experts working at sea, on the shore and in the laboratory on those local pollution situations which are putting their marine resources in peril or creating human health hazards or evident damage to the environment. These countries can benefit very little from the sophisticated information systems of UNEP until they have trained personnel and adequate laboratory equipment for analysis and experimentation. They particularly need, perhaps, to be equipped for surveys and toxicity testing. Lacking these facilities they must rely principally upon cooperative international survey activities (promoted for example by FAO) but will naturally be reluctant to accept the conclusions of others not fully aware of their special national conditions. They are even less likely to be willing to be guided in matters of pollution policy by conclusions reached in distant temperate countries where environmental conditions are so dissimilar. Although such developing countries may be persuaded to adhere to regional or global conventions, perhaps for prestige purposes, they cannot be expected to enforce them actively until they have trained scientists available who can be relied upon to provide advice which takes fully into account the special interests of the countries
concerned. There are good grounds, therefore, for concentrating efforts to help developing countries on the training of scientists in basic techniques for the investigation of pollution situations and on the provision of the essential analytical and experimental equipment. There is an urgent need for studies related to known harmful pollutants in tropical waters. Here visiting workers can be of great assistance. Such studies should at first concentrate upon establishing effects upon important fish, shellfish, other invertebrates and seaweeds used as human food. A solid foundation of such observations would go some way towards providing a reliable basis for extrapolation from experience in temperate waters where the bulk of the detailed pollution studies will continue to be made. At present much of this extrapolation is extremely speculative. Tropical ecosystems are often described as being more sensitive than those of northern temperate waters but the grounds for such comparisons are very weak. What is quite certain is that there are substantial differences. In respect of some of the major pollutants, e.g. oil hydrocarbons, tropical conditions seem to be less likely to lead to serious pollution damage since the processes of dispersion and breakdown are greatly accelerated. The prime need, however, is for locally-gathered information. Information distribution systems will serve little good purpose in developing countries, especially those in the tropics, until there is a great deal more sound factual data to feed into the machine. To collect the data trained scientists are essential and they must be provided with reliable equipment.
"We train them to travel the oceans to gobble up floating refuse"
98
H. A. COLE
Help for Developing Countries The wisdom of using scarce funds and of engaging the time of highly qualified experts in such projects as 'Earthwatch', the International Referral System (IRS), the International Register of Potentially Toxic Chemicals (IRPTC) or the Global Environmental Monitoring System (GEMS), all activities of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), is somewhat debatable. The crying need in developing countries is for home-grown experts working at sea, on the shore and in the laboratory on those local pollution situations which are putting their marine resources in peril or creating human health hazards or evident damage to the environment. These countries can benefit very little from the sophisticated information systems of UNEP until they have trained personnel and adequate laboratory equipment for analysis and experimentation. They particularly need, perhaps, to be equipped for surveys and toxicity testing. Lacking these facilities they must rely principally upon cooperative international survey activities (promoted for example by FAO) but will naturally be reluctant to accept the conclusions of others not fully aware of their special national conditions. They are even less likely to be willing to be guided in matters of pollution policy by conclusions reached in distant temperate countries where environmental conditions are so dissimilar. Although such developing countries may be persuaded to adhere to regional or global conventions, perhaps for prestige purposes, they cannot be expected to enforce them actively until they have trained scientists available who can be relied upon to provide advice which takes fully into account the special interests of the countries
concerned. There are good grounds, therefore, for concentrating efforts to help developing countries on the training of scientists in basic techniques for the investigation of pollution situations and on the provision of the essential analytical and experimental equipment. There is an urgent need for studies related to known harmful pollutants in tropical waters. Here visiting workers can be of great assistance. Such studies should at first concentrate upon establishing effects upon important fish, shellfish, other invertebrates and seaweeds used as human food. A solid foundation of such observations would go some way towards providing a reliable basis for extrapolation from experience in temperate waters where the bulk of the detailed pollution studies will continue to be made. At present much of this extrapolation is extremely speculative. Tropical ecosystems are often described as being more sensitive than those of northern temperate waters but the grounds for such comparisons are very weak. What is quite certain is that there are substantial differences. In respect of some of the major pollutants, e.g. oil hydrocarbons, tropical conditions seem to be less likely to lead to serious pollution damage since the processes of dispersion and breakdown are greatly accelerated. The prime need, however, is for locally-gathered information. Information distribution systems will serve little good purpose in developing countries, especially those in the tropics, until there is a great deal more sound factual data to feed into the machine. To collect the data trained scientists are essential and they must be provided with reliable equipment.
"We train them to travel the oceans to gobble up floating refuse"
98
H. A. COLE