SKLMP leads a ten-year "Global Estuaries Monitoring (GEM) Programme, endorsed by United Nations

SKLMP has been endorsed by the United Nations (UN) to lead the ten-year “Global Estuaries Monitoring (GEM) Programme” as one of the ‘Ocean Decade Actions’ for the “UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development”. “The Decade is embracing a participative and transformative process so that scientists, policy makers, managers, and service users can work together to ensure that ocean science delivers greater benefits for both the ocean ecosystem and for society.” The GEM Programme led by Professor Kenneth Leung is the only endorsed proposal from Hong Kong in this first round of application and one of two endorsed “Ocean Decade Actions” from China. The results of GEM Programme will reveal the pollution situation around the globe, identify the estuaries that require attention and improvement, recommend priority contaminants for control, and promote best practices to combat the pollution problems and thereby creating cleaner estuaries for all.

The core collaborative partners of the GEM Programme include, Professor Alistair Boxall from the University of York, UK, Professor Martina Doblin from the Sydney Institute of Marine Science (SIMS), Australia, Professor

Bryan Brooks from Baylor University, USA, and Dr Yuan Shen from the State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science (MEL) in Xiamen University, China.

The first phase of the sampling will be launched in May 2022 in major urbanised estuaries in the southern hemisphere, and extended to the northern hemisphere in November of the same year. It is expected that about 100 countries or regions will participate. The research team expects to publish the report after the completion of the first phase in 2023, revealing the pollution status of global estuaries.