PEMSEA eBulletin - February 2025

Dear PEMSEA community,

As we step into a new month, we are thrilled to share some remarkable milestones and collaborative efforts that highlight PEMSEA’s ongoing commitment to environmental sustainability.

The month began with PEMSEA receiving recognition from the DENR-EMB for the strong collaboration particularly through the MOF/PEMSEA ODA Marine Plastics Project in the Philippines. In the Arafura and Timor Seas, representatives from Australia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and Timor-Leste came together in Australia to tackle the ghost net crisis.

Discover how the IRBM Project is fostering transparency and accountability with its new Grievance Redress Mechanism, empowering voices to be heard. Learn more about the data-driven efforts in the Philippines and Timor-Leste, where beach monitoring is shaping policies to tackle marine plastics.

And don’t miss the update from PEMSEA’s inaugural Blue Carbon Technical Working Group meeting, where stakeholders across the region came together to advance the Blue Carbon Roadmap and set the direction of the program.

The Ciliwung River Basin, located in Indonesia, originates in the Bogor Regency and flows 118.25 kilometers to the Java Sea, passing through the cities of Bogor, Depok, and Jakarta. Covering 421.47 square kilometers, it supports over 3,852,000 people and provides essential resources for agriculture, livelihoods, and transportation. The Ciliwung Dam, constructed in 1911, irrigates 333 hectares of rice fields and contributes to the region's renowned tea plantations. The river basin faces significant pollution challenges from domestic and industrial waste. The Integrated River Basin Management (IRBM) Project aims to mitigate these issues through improved governance, community engagement, and sustainable waste management practices.

This PEMSEA e-brochure provides a quick introduction to the partnerships, its role, its networks and the services it offers.  For more detailed information, please go to the homepage and browse the various sections of the website.

The 2024 Forum of the PNLG with the theme, “Blue Synergy for a Shared Future: One Sustainable and Resilient Ocean” was hosted by PNLG and PEMSEA and co-organized by the PNLG Secretariat and Coastal and Ocean Management Institute (COMI) of Xiamen University. The forum was conducted on 6-8 November 2024 in Xiamen. 

About one hundred participants from: 

1. 21 PNLG member local governments;
2. 5 PNLG Associate members;
3. PNLC members;
4. resource speakers and other invited experts,
5. the PNLG Secretariat,
6. the PNLC Secretariat, and
7. the PRF attended the forum.

They are from eight countries, namely Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Philippines, RO Korea, Timor-Leste and Viet Nam.

"Steering the Flow" is the fifth edition of the Integrated River Basin Management (IRBM) Project's newsletter, highlighting key milestones and meetings for the last quarter of 2024 and the beginning of 2025. From the IRBM Project's participation in the 2024 East Asian Seas Congress and The Pavilion for People at the 2025 World Economic Forum, to the launch of the State of River Basin Guidebook and the ongoing assessment of the interplay between water use conflicts and the water-energy-food-ecosystem security nexus in ASEAN river basins — the IRBM Project is set to steer the governance and management of priority river basins in ASEAN Member States.