As part of its Beaches for Life programme, FUDENA (WWF' s Venezuelan Associate) attracts support for International Coastal Clean Up Day. On this day, volunteers in 40 countries clean up the garbage that litters so many of the world' s beaches
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Many of WWF' s marine initiatives focus on conserving coastal environments. Key to the organization' s marine conservation programme is an approach known as "integrated coastal
management" which looks at the coastal region as a whole rather than regarding land and sea separately, and considers the impacts of all activities that take place in the region.
Integrated coastal management schemes aim to conserve nature and improve local people' s living standards. Coastal communities come together with government agencies, developers, and ecologists to devise ways of managing and exploiting resources that have minimal impact on the environment. The process is often lengthy and complex: it is not easy, for example, to reconcile the interests of industrialists, travel agents, fish farmers, and traditional fishermen, and conserve nature at the same time.
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Sometimes, however, it is necessary to conserve part of a coastline as a protected area. Such areas will often be divided up into a number of sections in which different activities are permitted. A typical "multi-use" protected area will contain a zone in which especially rare or vulnerable species or habitats are strictly protected. In other zones, activities such as controlled fishing and tourism are encouraged.
Many of these coastal conservation efforts are backed up by posters, videos, booklets, and talks, as well as visits to protected areas, which all help pass on the conservation message to the general public.
WWF works to alert people to the dangers of marine pollution and overexploitation. One series of projects helps farmers, industries, and town planners reduce pollution emissions. Another concentrates on finding ways to manage fisheries sustainably.
WWF wants to see changes in trade and development policies, which have traditionally encouraged overexploitation. It is therefore involved in a wide range of activities, including scientific research, consultations with local communities, discussions with trade and industry organizations, and meetings with government representatives. In addition, a number of grassroots field projects put sustainable fishery theories into practice on a small scale.
In the past, people regarded the oceans as common property for which no one was responsible, a view that has seriously hindered marine conservation efforts.
Now, however, governments have agreed on a UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which contains a set of important protection measures, and gives national governments jurisdiction over "Exclusive Economic Zones" extending up to 322 kilometres offshore. WWF is encouraging all countries to ratify both this convention, and the Biodiversity Convention signed at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, which covers a number of issues that could help marine conservation. It is also involved in discussions which could lead to the establishment of an agreement to regulate fisheries in the high seas.
WWF' s advocacy work brings it into close contact with the International Whaling Commission (IWC), the body that oversees the whaling industry. Although WWF focuses principally on conserving entire habitats and ecosystems, some species are so threatened that they require special attention. These include the great whales, sea turtles, small cetaceans such as dolphins, and some fish and invertebrates.
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