South Asia Co-operative Environment Programme(SACEP)

News:Union Minister of Environment and Forest and Climate Change has attended the 15th meeting of the Governing Council of South Asia Co-operative Environment Programme (SACEP) in Dhaka,Bangladesh.

Facts:

About SACEP:

  • South Asia Co-operative Environment Programme (SACEP) is an intergovernmental organization.It is headquartered in Colombo,SriLanka.
  • It was established in 1982 by the governments of South Asia to promote and support protection, management and enhancement of the environment in the region.
  • The members of SACEP includes Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
  • SACEP also acts as the Secretariat for the South Asian Seas Programme which comes under the purview of UNEP’s Regional Seas Programme.

Objectives of SACEP:

  • Recognition of environmental degradation caused by factors like poverty, overpopulation, over consumption and wasteful production threatening economic development and human survival,
  • Integration of environment and development as essential prerequisites to Sustainable Development, and
  • Importance of co-operative action in the South Asian region where many ecological and development problems transcend national and administrative boundaries.

Additional information:

About South Asian Seas Programme(SASP):

  • The South Asian Seas Programme(SASP) is a regional agreement which was formally adopted in 1995 among the five maritime countries of South Asia sharing the Indian Ocean. 
  • The five maritime countries are Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
  • It aims to protect and manage the marine environment and related coastal ecosystems of the region in an environmentally sound and sustainable manner.
  • SASP is part of the global Regional Seas Programme established under the auspices of the UN Environment Programme(UNEP).