We all have a vital interest in having it declared a Special Area in the context of Sustainable Development in the United Nations system.

This initiative was one of the main topics addressed at the 6th Intersessional meeting of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS) Ministerial Council, which convened on July 11-12 in Trinidad.

News that a shipment of weapons-grade nuclear material has recently left Japan bound for the United Kingdom has imparted fresh urgency to the issue.

Previous shipments of nuclear waste by the Panama Canal-Caribbean Sea route have been vigorously opposed by ACS members. Experts point out that an accident or terrorist act involving a shipment of nuclear materials could have devastating consequences for the coastal and marine environment over a large area.

Nuclear shipments are by no means the only threat to the Caribbean Sea.

As one of the world's principal waterways, it is home to some 63,000 annual ship calls that generate an estimated 82,000 tons of garbage. About 1,500 fishing vessels operate in the region.

Land based sources of pollution, intensive tourism development and large oil shipments also have negative environmental impacts and risks.

One problem is that the states bordering the Caribbean Sea lack a clearly established basis in international law to prevent its use for the transport of hazardous materials, or to ensure that such shipments are carried out according to acceptable standards of safety and security.

They also need to be in a position to exercise joint jurisdiction over the management and exploitation of its resources.

The Caribbean Sea Initiative seeks to remedy this. The objective is to have the Caribbean Sea declared a Special Area in the context of Sustainable Development in the UN system.

For this purpose the Caribbean Sea is defined broadly, embracing the Gulf of Mexico and those sections of the Atlantic Ocean that include The Bahamas and the coastal waters of the three Guianas.

The legal precedent for this definition is found in the 1983 Cartagena Convention for the Protection and Development of the Marine Environment of the Wider Caribbean Region.

The declaration would constitute an international legal instrument, incorporating a work programme, which addresses all the major uses and abuses of the Caribbean Sea within the overarching objective of sustainable development.

The origins of the initiative lie in the Barbados Plan of Action adopted at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States (SIDS Conference) in 1994.

It was formally launched in 1997 at a Caribbean Ministerial Meeting convened under the auspices of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).

A resolution presented to the UN General Assembly, however, did not find favour with some of the leading maritime states. A compromise resolution deal was negotiated, calling for Integrated Management of the Caribbean Sea.

In the view of ACS member states this does not go far enough. The ACS represents 25 independent states and several non-independent countries that lie in or border the Caribbean Sea, with a total population of 230 million people.