Since the Regional Seas Programme was initiated in 1974, action plans for the Mediterranean, Kuwait Action Plan Region, West and Central Africa, Wider Caribbean, East Asian Seas, South-East Pacific, South Pacific, and Red Sea and Gulf of Aden have been adopted, action plans in the East African and South Asian Seas regions are being developed, while the development of the action plan for the South-West Atlantic is under consideration (figure 1). UNEP was designated as the secretariat (co-ordinator) for four of the adopted action plans and of the legal agreements associated with these action plans, and was entrusted with the management of related regional trust funds. In this document the status of development of the three regional action plans revelant to Latin America and the Wider Caribbean region will be summarized.