[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 43, Number 8 (Monday, February 26, 2007)]
[Pages 183-184]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Message to the Senate Transmitting the Protocols to the Convention for 
the Protection and Development of the Marine Environment of the Wider 
Caribbean Region

February 15, 2007

To the Senate of the United States:

    I transmit herewith, for the advice and consent of the Senate to 
ratification, the Protocol Concerning Pollution from Land-Based Sources 
and Activities (the ``Protocol'') to the Convention for the Protection 
and Development of the Marine Environment of the Wider Caribbean Region, 
with Annexes, done at Oranjestad, Aruba, on October 6, 1999, and signed 
by the United States on that same date. The report of the Secretary of 
State is enclosed for the information of the Senate.
    The Convention for the Protection and Development of the Marine 
Environment of the Wider Caribbean Region (the ``Cartagena Convention'') 
is a regional framework agreement negotiated under the auspices of the 
Regional Seas Program of the United Nations Environment Program

[[Page 184]]

(UNEP). It sets out general legal obligations to protect the marine 
environment of the Gulf of Mexico, Straits of Florida, Caribbean Sea, 
and immediately adjacent areas of the Atlantic Ocean--collectively known 
as the Wider Caribbean Region. The United States became a Party to the 
Cartagena Convention in 1984. The Cartagena Convention envisions the 
development of protocols to further elaborate certain of its general 
obligations and to facilitate its effective implementation.
    Negotiated with the active participation and leadership of the 
United States, the Protocol addresses one of the most serious sources of 
marine pollution in the Wider Caribbean Region. It is estimated that 70 
to 90 percent of pollution entering the marine environment emanates from 
land-based sources and activities. Among the principal land-based 
sources of marine pollution in the Caribbean are domestic wastewater and 
agricultural nonpoint source runoff. Such pollution contributes to the 
degradation of coral reefs and commercial fisheries, negatively affects 
regional economies, and endangers public health, recreation, and tourism 
throughout the region.
    The Protocol and its Annexes list priority source categories, 
activities, and associated contaminants that affect the Wider Caribbean 
Region, and set forth factors that Parties will be required to apply in 
determining prevention, reduction, and control strategies to manage 
land-based sources of pollution. In particular, the Parties are required 
to ensure that domestic wastewater discharges meet specific effluent 
limitations, and to develop plans for the prevention and reduction of 
agricultural nonpoint source pollution. The Protocol is expected to 
raise standards for treating domestic wastewater throughout the region 
to levels close to those already in place in the United States.
    The United States would be able to implement its obligations under 
the Protocol under existing statutory and regulatory authority.
    The Protocol is the first regional agreement to establish effluent 
standards to protect one of our most valuable resources, the marine 
environment. It differs markedly from other, similar regional agreements 
in its conceptual approach and the specificity of its obligations. As 
such, the Protocol is expected to set a new standard for regional 
agreements on this subject. Early ratification will demonstrate our 
continued commitment to global leadership and to the protection of the 
marine environment of the Wider Caribbean Region.
    I recommend that the Senate give early and favorable consideration 
to the Protocol and its Annexes, with the declaration described in the 
accompanying report of the Secretary of State, and give its advice and 
consent to ratification.
                                                George W. Bush
 The White House,
 February 15, 2007.

Note: This message was released by the Office of the Press Secretary on 
February 20.