In accordance with resolution 2997 (XXVII) of the United Nations General Assembly, UNEP was established "as a focal point for environmental action and co-ordination within the United Nations system". The Governing Council ofUNEP has defined this environmental action as encompassing a comprehensive, transsectorial approach to environmental problems which should deal not only with the consequences but also with the causes of environmental degradation.

2. Among the priority areas in which activities are to be developed, the UNEP Governing Council has designated "Oceans". In order to deal with the complexity of the environmental problems of the oceans in an integrated way, the Governing Council adopted a regional approach as exemplified by its Regional Seas Programme. 

3. Although the environmental problems of the oceans are global in scope, a regional approach to solving them was adopted in the Stockholm Action Plan and subsequent Governing Council decisions. This approach focuses on specific problems of high priority to the States of a given region, thereby more readily responding to the needs of the Governments and helping to mobilize more fully their own national resources. It was thought that undertaking activities of common interest to coastal States on a regional basis should, in due time, provide the basis for dealin