The Maldives has urged combating marine plastic pollution and has welcomed developing an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution.
Minister of Environment, Climate Change and Technology Aminath Shauna is attending the United Nations Ocean Conference in Lisbon, Portugal, as the special representative of President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih. At the conference, she participated in an interactive dialogue 1 entitled Addressing Marine Pollution.
Speaking at the dialogue, Minister Shauna said the lives and livelihoods of Maldivian people are dependent on the health of marine and coral reef systems. She highlighted the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan and the Strategic Action Plan 2019–2023 adopted by President Solih’s administration pledged to protect at least 10% of the country’s coral reefs, 20% of wetlands, mangroves, and other representative reef habitats from each atoll by 2023. She added the Maldives has already declared 79 areas as legally protected, accounting for almost 14% of the country’s coral reefs.
Regarding plastic pollution, Minister Shauna said it has risen exponentially in the last decades, amounting to approximately 400 million tonnes per year. Voicing her concerns, she cited that only 9% of plastic waste is recycled while the rest is disposed of in landfills and the environment, including the oceans. She said microplastics have been detected in marine species and even in human blood and that vulnerable natural systems are affected by plastic pollution leading to the loss of species and habitats.
Furthermore, Minister Shauna discussed the contribution of the Maldives to combating marine plastic pollution, emphasising the ban on the import, production, and sale of 13 types of single-use plastics, as well as a renewed emphasis on alternatives, waste segregation, and promotion of recycling and waste reduction. She also expressed the country’s support for strengthened multilateral action and welcomed the fifth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly’s call to establish an intergovernmental negotiating committee to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution.