
Breadcrumb
PEMSEA eBulletin - July 2024
PUBLICATION DATE:
Wednesday, July 31, 2024
PUBLICATION TYPE:
Magazines and Newsletters
STATUS:
Available (Newsletter)
DESCRIPTION:
Dear PEMSEA community,
Welcome to the July e-bulletin.
We are pleased to announce the release of the program for the International Conference segment of the East Asian Seas (EAS) Congress 2024, set to take place on 6-8 November 2024 with the theme “Blue Synergy for a Shared Future: One Sustainable and Resilient Ocean.” The International Conference will feature a range of activities, including Plenary and Parallel Sessions, Workshops, and exhibits. Do register to join using the button below.
Also in the news, the third edition of the IRBM Project Newsletter features the launch of the State of the River Basin Reporting for seven priority river basins, as well as the 2nd Regional Steering Committee Meeting in Siem Reap, Cambodia, field visits to the Kampong Bay River Basin, and discussions on the project scope and boundaries in the Pasac Watershed in the Philippines.
The ATSEA-2 Project is working on mangrove conservation in the Aru Archipelago’s Southeast Aru Marine Protected Area. The second quarter ATSEA-2 newsletter highlights key environmental initiatives in the Arafura and Timor Seas region, including the senior officials’ meeting in Brisbane that finalized the draft for the ATS Ministerial Forum. It also details the new Strategic Action Programme (SAP) for 2024-2033, adopted by Australia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and Timor-Leste, along with the adoption of Papua New Guinea's first local-level fisheries management law and the inauguration of the Tok Derek Women’s Cooperative fish shop in Timor-Leste.
From our partners, the Second Bataan State of the Coasts (SOC) evaluated the province’s progress in ICM implementation from 2017-2022, using the First Bataan SOC report, which covered data from 2000 to 2015, as a baseline. The East Asian Seas Initiative on Clean Oceans (EASICO) project concluded noting achievements in citizen science and marine plastic pollution reduction. Dongying integrates industrial growth with environmental stewardship through its Integrated Coastal Zone Management strategy.
RELATED PUBLICATIONS
Integrated River Basin Management Project Newsletter - Edition 7
Now in its third year, the IRBM Project enters a pivotal phase in advancing integrated river basin management across Southeast Asia. “Midpoint Momentum”, the seventh edition of the project’s newsletter, highlights key developments – including discussions from the Third Regional Steering Committee Meeting and the Mid-Term Review, the ASEAN Workshop on the introduction of the REWEFe Toolkit, and continued progress in developing solutions template to support IRBM pilot project planning and implementation, most notably marked by the official project launch in Viet Nam.
This issue also features field stories, such as the contributions of the Women of the Wetlands in the Pasac-Guagua Watershed, and announces the launch of the IRBM e-Portal on PEMSEA’s Seaknowledge Bank.
From establishing coordination mechanisms at the local, national, and regional levels to designing scalable solutions template for river basin-level implementation, the IRBM Project continues to accelerate momentum – strengthening regional collaboration, deepening stakeholder engagement, and enhancing capacity and knowledge sharing across the ten ASEAN Member States.
Workshop Report_Regional Orientation on ReWEFE Toolkit
The GEF/UNDP/ASEAN Integrated River Basin Management Project convened a Regional Orientation Workshop on the Development of Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystem (WEFE) Toolkit for River Basins in Southeast Asia on 3 June 2025 in Bali, Indonesia to introduce and demonstrate the applications of the toolkit in selected river basins of the project.
Proceedings of the 2nd Blue Carbon Technical Working Group Meeting
The PEMSEA Resource Facility (PRF), in partnership with the National Marine Hazard Mitigation Service, Ministry of Natural Resources (NMHMS/MNR), convened the 2nd Blue Carbon Technical Working Group Meeting on 5–6 June 2025 in Haikou, Hainan Province of China. The meeting was attended by nearly 60 experts and stakeholders on blue carbon from 11 countries in the EAS region and beyond. The PRF Secretariat served as the Secretariat for the meeting. Online participants included members of the PEMSEA Network of Learning Centers and other Blue Carbon experts from the region.
The meeting aimed to:
- Draw consensus on the governance framework of an innovative Blue Carbon Ecosystem Services Management Mechanism (Draft 0) and the requirements to operationalize a regional blue carbon certification program.
- Improve understanding and consensus building among BC-TWG members on the draft regional blue carbon accounting protocol.
Expected outcomes of the meeting include:
- Refined concept of a Blue Carbon Ecosystem Services Management Mechanism, including a blue carbon stock monitoring network.
- Refined regional blue carbon accounting protocol.
- Refined workplan for 2025 and 2026 for review, guidance and/or approval at the 17th EAS PC in July 2025.
Proceedings of the Training on Integrating Blue Carbon into the Integrated Coastal Management (ICM) Framework
The PEMSEA Network of Learning Centers (PNLC), Burapha University and the PEMSEA Resource Facility co-organized the "Training on Integrating Blue Carbon into the Integrated Coastal Management (ICM) Framework" in March 2025 in Chonburi, Thailand.
The training, co-sponsored by Burapha University and the University of Hawai'i, with support from the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation of Thailand, Thailand Science, Research and Innovation (TSRI), Henry Luce Foundation, and the Center for Southeast Asian Studies-University of Hawai’i, brought together PNLC participants and Chonburi Province coastal management stakeholders to enhance the understanding of Blue Carbon concepts and explore how the Network can support.
PEMSEA's regional Blue Carbon program. The training had the following objectives:
- Gain foundational understanding of ICM and its role in coastal resource management.
- Learn about the impacts of climate change on coastal ecosystems and communities.
- Understand the concept of Blue Carbon and its significance in climate change mitigation.
- Acquire the knowledge to integrate blue carbon principles into coastal management strategies, ensuring more sustainable and resilient coastal zones and harness the potential of blue carbon ecosystems as nature-based solutions for climate action.
- Identify work areas, in terms of knowledge, capacity and technical assistance, PNLC members need to strengthen to enable them to better support government and local community efforts in managing their coastal areas and associated blue carbon ecosystems.