Ballast water task force appointed
The appointment of the task force was the outcome of a week-long meeting in Panama as part of the joint Global Environment Facility (GEF), the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) GloBallast Partnership programme.
Bertrand Smith, legal director at the Maritime Authority of Jamaica, who has been elected to chair this task force, said: “The main purpose of the task force is to produce a uniform regional policy and legal framework to implement the ballast water management convention. In 2007 Jamaica was chosen as a lead partnering country in the Caribbean region to be used as a model for implementing the convention.”
Smith explained: “We are well advanced in preparations towards having the necessary policy and legal framework in place to give full effect to the requirements of the Convention and are therefore in a position to assist other countries in our region.”
The Task Force reports to the GloBallast partnership programme. The GloBallast partnership project is an IMO/UNDP project which provides assistance to developing countries and regions to establish the proper policy and legal framework to implement the ballast water management convention.
