The world’s 64 Large Marine Ecosystems are as much economic as they are environmental assets contributing around 12 trillion dollars annually to the global economy.

Increasingly the management of these assets is beginning to reflect that importance. Combined efforts among coastal countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and eastern Europe are now contributing to assessment and management actions aimed at tackling coastal pollution, restoration of degraded habitats, and recovery of depleted fish stocks.

They have been joined by United Nations agencies, the Global Environment Facility, and a growing number of northern hemisphere countries and principle stakeholders in fish and fisheries, coastal transportation, tourism, gas and oil production, and diamond and mineral extraction operations.

The effort to reverse the degraded status of LMEs will take time, well-focused and creative policies and funding. However it is clear that with the financial assistance of the GEF and in partnership with the UN the effort has begun, especially among the economically developing nations. The work reflects the targets put forward at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002 to achieve substantial reductions in landbased sources of pollution; introduce an ecosystems approach to marine resource assessment and management by 2010; designate a network of marine protected areas by 2012 and restore and maintain fish stocks to maximum sustainable yield levels by 2015. UNEP is among several agencies and donors assisting developing countries to achieve these targets.

Climate change adds new urgency to this effort. Indeed the original findings in this report have been up-dated to reflect new findings showing that in many of the LMEs warming is proceeding at two to three times the global rate. Some of this most rapid warming is being witnessed in northeastern North Atlantic and around Europe and in the East Asian seas.

Pollution, such as high levels of nutrients coming from the land and the air, may be aggravating the effect. So we must not only secure a deep and decisive climate regime post 2012 but also tackle the wider sustainability issues to ensure the abundant productivity of not only LMEs but the Regional Seas and oceans in general for this and future generations.

Achim Steiner,UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director