Implementation of IMO Legal Instruments: International Technical and Financial Cooperation - Prevention of Pollution of the Marine Environment from Vessels - page 130

IMO unsuccessfully tried to establish a Fund for Reception Facilities (FRF),
targeted at being financed by the actors who are benefiting from the economic
activities which are creating the risk of pollution. All the efforts under the IMO
regime to suitably finance reception facilities in developing countries have report-
edly failed. 34 In 2006, MEPC accepted an Action Plan to deal with the insufficiency
of port reception facilities all over world 35 and “urged all Parties to the MARPOL
Convention, particularly those Parties as port States, to fulfil their treaty obligations
on providing reception facilities for wastes generated during the normal operation
of ships.” 36 IMO also established a Port Reception Facility Database. 37 These
initiatives, however, failed to adopt any special measures for financing reception
facilities in the developing countries.

7.3.3 Reporting

Article 11 of the MARPOL 73/78 Convention obliges State parties to communicate
reports on various aspects, including (amongst others): national legislation; list of
reception facilities; and enforcement action. This mandatory reporting system has
not, however, proved very successful. Statistics on the basis of reports submitted
between 1985 and 2003 show that 50 % of the State parties never submitted any
report to IMO on the availability of reception facilities. The majority of States have
not complied with their obligation to report on reception facilities, be it in respect to
their own ports or the ports of other countries. 38
The report on enforcement action also presents a similar discouraging picture.
Statistics on the basis of State parties reports from 1991 to 2002 show that only

20 % of developing countries have ever submitted a report to IMO. Although
developed countries

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reports show a higher figure, this rarely rises above 50 %.
On the other hand, the same statistics show that more than 60 % of the MARPOL
parties never submitted a single report. 39

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34

Tan ( 2006 ), p. 267.

35

IMO, Reception Facilities, http://www.imo.org/OurWork/Environment/PollutionPrevention/
PortReceptionFacilities/Pages/Default.aspx , last accessed on 14 July 2014.
36

Report of the Marine Environment Protection Committee on Its Fifty-Fourth Session, IMO Doc.
MEPC54/21 (27 March 2006), p. 43.
37 IMO, GISIS Port Reception Facility Database, http://www.imo.org/OurWork/Environment/
PollutionPrevention/PortReceptionFacilities/Pages/Port-reception-facilities-database.aspx , last

accessed on 14 July 2014.
38 Tan ( 2006 ), p. 271.
39 Ibid, p. 278.