Some 140 participants at the 6th Global Environment Facility (GEF)-United Nations Development Program (UNDP)-IMO GloBallast R&D Forum and Exhibition on Ballast Water Management (16-18 March) under the banner “Ballast Water Management Convention – moving towards implementation” and will share knowledge and experience on treatment technologies and alternative methods and highlight current research. Compliance monitoring and enforcement including sampling and analysis will also be discussed.
The Forum, which brings together scientific experts and academia with the maritime industry and leaders in technology development for ships’ ballast water management, was launched by Marc Garneau, Minister of Transport, Canada. IMO’s Stefan Micallef, Director, Marine Environment Division, delivered an opening speech. Mr Micallef stated that the Ballast Water Management Convention needed to enter into force for effective implementation of its provisions. But he highlighted the huge amount of collaborative work which had been undertaken since the first GEF-UNDP-IMO GloBallast R&D forum 15 years ago, leading to a great deal of progress in the BWM field in terms of testing and approval of ballast water management systems, ballast water sampling and analysis, and the availability of ballast water management systems.
