Colombia, along its 3000 km of shores on the Caribbean and the Pacific, in addition to its island systems off both shores, is host to all the wealth, diversity and types of marine and coastal ecosystem production in the tropics.

Its jurisdictional waters in both oceans occupy an area as large as its mainland territory, with almost 1,000,000 square km. These marine and coastal ecosystems have an enormous capacity to provide goods and services, and sustained a wide and growing range of economic activities: industry, animal husbandry, commerce, mining, agriculture, and financial services, transport, fisheries and tourism, alongside the traditional uses of local communities.

Colombia has ratified a number of international conventions in order to prevent, reduce and control contamination of the sea arising from different sources, in order to protect the fragile and rare marine systems, and the habitats of species that have been decimated or are threatened or in danger of extinction, seeking the cooperation of other countries on the coasts if both the Caribbean and the Pacific coast, with a comprehensive regional focus.