As of late, ICBM is a member of the Global Partnership on Marine Litter (GMPL). A few days ago, Dr Shungu Garaba received the certificate confirming the membership from the GPML secretariat. Garaba, who is a research assistant at the ICBM research group Marine Sensor Systems headed by Prof. Dr Oliver Zielinski, had only recently applied for the entry, with the consent of Zielinski.

The project on Global Partnership on Marine Litter (GPML) had been already launched at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) in June 2012. It is led by a steering committee, assisted by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) providing secretarial support.

The GPML is a multi-stakeholder partnership that is meant to interchange, create and advance solutions to prevent marine litter and plastic pollution. It is a unique global platform for sharing the latest trends in knowledge and experience, which joins partners from all sectors concerned with this global issue. GMPL members benefit from offers such as participating in webinars, learning about events and opportunities as well as showcasing their own work.

Garaba substantiated his letter of application with numerous activities of ICBM around micro and macroplastics litter in the oceans. He himself does scientific evidence-based research, amongst others, on identifying and categorizing aquatic plastic litter from remote sensing technologies utilizing artificial intelligence approaches and is the current scientific chair of the International  Ocean Colour Coordinating Group Task Force on Remote Sensing of Marine Litter.

Weblinks
https://ioccg.org/group/marine-litter-debris/
https://www.gpmarinelitter.org/