Oceans not a ‘waste’ swimming pool: FAO

Clear regulatory hurdles: India

OSLO, March 26, (RTRS): The world must stop treating the oceans as a “waste swimming pool” for pollution, a senior UN official said on Friday at the debut in Oslo of a $65 million research ship to help developing nations manage fish stocks.

The 75-metre long Dr Fritjof Nansen, funded by Norway, will help understand fish stocks mainly off Africa to avert over-fishing and pollution that have depleted many commercial fish stocks worldwide.

The vessel will start its first mapping mission off West Africa in May, in a joint UN and Norwegian programme.

“For a long time we’ve cultivated this idea that the ocean is a kind of waste swimming pool where we throw everything we don’t want,” said Jose Graziano da Silva, director-general of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

“This needs to change,” he said.

Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg smashed a bottle of champagne against the white hull of the ship, equipped with high-tech gear from sonars to laboratories, in a naming ceremony by the Oslo fjord.

“We have to make sure that oceans are more sustainably managed than they are today,” she told Reuters. The vessel is named after Fridjof Nansen, a Norwegian explorer, diplomat and humanitarian who won the 1922 Nobel Peace Prize.

“The biggest problem we have worldwide is that we are over-harvesting fisheries ... because there is too little control,” she said. Pollution, ranging from industrial waste to household plastic bags, and climate change were adding to stresses.

The vessel is the latest version of a research ship of the same name that worked off the coast of more than 60 nations in recent decades, helping identify new fishing grounds from Nicaragua to Sri Lanka.

Da Silva

The Indian government is giving industrial projects a chance to clear regulatory hurdles they had previously failed to do, in a move analysts say legitimises projects destroying forests and water sources, and hurting communities dependent on them.

India’s environment ministry last week offered industries that had not previously obtained environmental clearance a period of six months to become compliant with the law, rather than leave them “unregulated and unchecked”. This gives violating industries a free pass, allowing them to bypass safeguards and public hearings otherwise required for such a clearance, said Kanchi Kohli, an analyst at the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi.

“These violations have caused large-scale public harm,” she said, adding that the ministry opening a “back door” for those who do not comply sets a bad precedent.

“This scheme takes our environment regulation several steps back.”

India has enacted several laws to protect its forests, coasts and rivers, but they are rarely enforced. Illegal mining and industrial pollution have devastated vast tracts of land and bodies of water, harming communities dependent on them. The environment ministry said that projects applying for clearance in the next six months will be appraised by a committee, and that the regulatory process will be “stringent and punitive”.

As more land and resources are sought for industrial projects in one of the fastest growing economies in the world, these violations are becoming more common, analysts say.

A 2013 law on land acquisitions for industries laid down strict rules for environmental and social impact assessments, but several states dilute these provisions, arguing they delay vital projects that create jobs and boost growth.