Busan, Republic of Korea, June 2018 – The growing threat to Northwest Pacific seas from difficult-to-measure microplastics requires closer coordination among experts engaged in evaluating the dangers these pose to the marine environment, participants at a United Nations-sponsored scientific forum here have concluded. Experts from Japan, the People’s Republic of China, the Republic of Korea and the Russian Federation attending the Expert Meeting of the NOWPAP special project: “Monitoring and Assessment Methods for Microplastics pollution” emphasized the need to harmonize standards and methods used for measuring and monitoring microplastics pollution. The 03 June meeting was convened under the Action Plan for the Protection, Management and Development of the Marine and Coastal Environment of the Northwest Pacific Region (NOWPAP), a part of the four-decade-old Regional Seas Programme of UN Environment that works to prevent and reverse the accelerating degradation of the world’s oceans and coastal areas. Ranging from 5 mm to nano proportions, microplastics are produced from fragmentation of larger plastic fragments, but also are used in personal care and cosmetic products as well as in pre-production plastic resin pellets. They are increasingly contaminating the world’s seas and oceans, posing a serious threat to the marine environment and marine biodiversity as well as human health by entering food chains. There is growing scientific evidence linking microplastics to persistent chemicals such as the pesticide DDT and toxic PCBs. Research shows these are adsorbed or embedded during production of plastics and present not only on ocean surfaces but even in deep-sea sediments. An assessment by the Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology found the world’s highest concentration of microplastics in the East Asian seas in the Northwest Pacific region at 1.7 million pieces per square km, about 27 times the global average making the region a global “microplastics hot-spot”. The Expert Meeting also discussed further development of the NOWPAP Special Project ‘Monitoring and assessment methods for microplastics pollution’ which will be implemented during 2019-2022. It was agreed that the Special Project would use existing microplastics monitoring criteria in NOWPAP countries and later develop a harmonized regional approach for microplastics pollution monitoring. Existing eco-toxicological studies of the impact of microplastics on the environment would be used to support development of a common regional approach to microplastics ecological risk assessment. Monitoring of microplastics pollution would be carried out in selected sites in the NOWPAP region and a plan prepared for a regional programme for microplastics assessment and monitoring. The recommendations of the Expert Meeting on the focus of the special project were later endorsed by the 2018 Northwest Pacific Regional Action Plan on Marine Litter (RAP MALI) Meeting held on 5-6 June in Busan. The proposed Special Project will be reviewed by NOWPAP member countries at the 23rd NOWPAP Intergovernmental Meeting (IGM) scheduled in Moscow, Russian Federation in October 2018. Addressing the threat to the marine and coastal environment from microplastics is a priority of the NOWPAP Medium-term Strategy (MTS) 2018-2023. The MTS aims to support scientific evidence-based policy making in NOWPAP member countries to protect the marine and coastal environment for present and future generations, a key goal of the global 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda.
