MAMLas AT THE HELM : WMU EXPERT CONFERENCE

During the month of March, the World Maritime University (WMU) held an online conference on Marine Pollution from Plastic Waste (GloLitter Project), as part of the Governance of Human Activities Affecting the Ocean course. The Conference was attended by various experts in the area, including our Alternate Member Paola Acuña Chacón.

The GloLitter project is an initiative funded by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD) under the auspices of the IMO and FAO for developing countries to join together to eradicate marine plastic garbage and discarded, lost and abandoned fishing gear at sea to strengthen the legal system with the implementation of the IMO conventions, the London Convention and Protocol and Annex V of MARPOL and the FAO Voluntary Guidelines on the marking of fishing gear. Thirty countries are participating in this project, 20 countries as partners and 10 main partner countries, leaders in their regions, including Costa Rica, leading in the Central America and Caribbean Region.

The GloLitter Focal Point in Costa Rica is managed by the Maritime and Port Division, where Paola Acuna Chacón is Coordinator of the National Focal Point and the National Working Group.

In this way, the students of the specialization in Sustainability, Governance and Management of the Oceans (OSGM) had the opportunity to learn about the GloLitter Partnerships project and its application in Costa Rica.
During her presentation, Paola Acuna talked about the good practices that Costa Rica has implemented in the eradication of plastic, the national regulations that have been put in place to ban single-use plastic and the use of stereofon.

She also highlighted the marine governance models implemented by his country to protect marine resources and marine biodiversity, along with Costa Rica's commitment in the GloLitter project to eradicate marine pollution and channel all efforts to meet the goal of reducing marine plastic garbage and fishing gear with the creation of regulations and policies that help to impact the national, regional and global level.

Paola Acuna Chacón, has a Bachelor's Degree in Law from the Universidad Escuela Libre de Derecho (2008), and a Master's Degree in International Maritime Law from the International Maritime Law Institute (IMLI), Malta (2008-2009), being the only Costa Rican graduate of this Institution.

In addition, she is a Specialist in Notarial Law by the Universidad Escuela Libre de Derecho (2010), Professor of the Public International Law course at the Universidad Santa Lucia (2015) and since 2021 she has taught the Maritime and Air Law course at the Universidad San Juan de la Cruz.

Since 2019 she is a Member of the National Commission of Port Women, where she works hard to make visible the role of port women in the maritime sector within their daily activities from administrative, operational, logistical, legal and even managerial positions, in order to achieve gender equality and break the existing gaps in maritime-port activities. On the other hand, since August of the same year, she has been working as legal advisor of the Maritime Port Division, Ministry of Public Works and Transportation (MOPT) and secretary of minutes of the National Port Council, where she coordinates the preparations, summons the members, preparation and circulation of the minutes and agenda of each session, the topics to be discussed session by session, and follows up on the agreements taken. She also advises the Vice Minister of Maritime and Air Transportation. 

Since the year 2021, she is an Alternate Member of Red MAMLa, where she is part of the Legal Committee, where, together with the other members of the Committee, they were in charge of the revision of the current regulations of our organization, establishing the guidelines to follow and the structure that currently governs us.

Paola, we can only express our admiration and pride for your vast achievements in your professional development. We hope that your path continues to be full of success and that you continue to leave trails in the sea. Proudly MAMLa!

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