"An estimated 80% of marine pollution originates from the land and this could rise significantly by 2050," the report of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said.

UNEP experts stressed that the problem of coastal urbanisation is mostly found in developing countries and essentially needs a financial solution.

The report "The state of the marine environment" presented by UNEP's executive director Achim Steiner at a press conference here Wednesday, will be sent to around a hundred countries expected to participate in a UNEP conference in Beijing on the Global Programme of Action for the Protection of Marine Environment.

The UNEP report noted "good progress is being made in being made on three of nine key indicators" like oil pollution but also a turn in "the wrong direction" for four other indicators including dumping waste water, garbage and a related excess of nutrients in the water.

"Nutrients from sources like agriculture and animal wastes are fertilizing coastal zones, triggering toxic algal blooms and a rising number of oxygen deficient dead zones," the experts warned.

On the other hand the report welcomed the drastic reduction, by 90 percent, of oil pollution since the mid 1980s.

The experts also noted that there was a reduction in persistent organic pollutants such as pesticides and chemicals, thanks to measures taken as part of the 2001 Stockholm Convention.

Almost 40 percent of the world population lives on a narrow coastal band that takes up only 6.7 percent of the earth's surface and depend on natural resources. The population density in the coastal region which was 77 people per square kilometer in 1990 could go up to 115 people per square kilometer in 2025, UNEP warned.

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