The International Forum on Protection of the Marine Environment of the Wider Caribbean opened yesterday at the Melia Hotel with a keynote address by Vice President Jaime David Fern?ndez Mirabal. The focus of the forum is marine pollution caused by ships (as opposed to land-based sources). The Vice President urged the nations of the Caribbean to work collectively to address this problem, or else face not only damage to the environment, but economic damage to fisheries and tourism businesses as well. He also called on all delegates attending the Forum to work to ensure that their delegations to the April meeting in Santo Domingo of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS) come with concrete proposals for joint action on ship pollution in the Caribbean Basin. The Forum, attended by government officials and experts from 30 nations, is sponsored by the London-based International Maritime Organization (IMO), the United Nations affiliate responsible for shipping and marine pollution issues. The IMO has several instruments addressing pollution from ships, including the 1990 International Convention on Oil Pollution, Preparedness, Response and Cooperation (OPRC) and Annexes IV (sewage) and V (garbage) of the Marine Pollution Convention (MARPOL). The IMO is trying to get more Caribbean and Central American nations to ratify these instruments and take advantage of IMO technical assistance to implement the agreements commitments. In his speech Vice President Fern?ndez Mirabal urged all nations in the region to ratify MARPOLs Annex V. The local organizers of the Forum are the Technical Secretariat of the Presidency, the National Planning Office (ONAPLAN) and the Forestry Directorate-General.