This issue of Tropical Coasts focuses on environmental issues that are shared by countries in the East Asian Seas region as well as some of the possible responses to these issues. The challenges include those relating to the sea transport of ultrahazardous radioactive materials, navigational safety, ballast water control and management, and oil spills.

This issue of Tropical Coasts is about new approaches in policies related to our marine environment. The focus is primarily on national efforts towards developing coastal, marine and ocean policies in the East Asian Seas region through an examination of recently enacted policies or efforts to develop them. As may be gathered from the articles, there are no clearly agreed upon definitions of what exactly a national "coastal," "marine," or "ocean" policy is. Despite semantic differences, the key is that these policies represent new integrative approaches towards the marine environment. They identify the major issues that need to be addressed and establish a process for treating them in an integrated, inter-sectoral, and inter-agency manner in order to promote sustainable development of the coastal and marine areas.

This issue of the Tropical Coasts presents various legal remedies both domestic and international on liability and compensation for damages that occur as a result of accidents, such as oil and chemical spills. Each regime has its own strengths and weaknesses.

This issue of the Tropical Coasts tackles several very controversial stories, which took place in the last few years. At the height of these controversies, these stories occupied headlines of the major newspapers and were covered extensively by the broadcast media. The story of Boracay, for example, even took on national significance and was taken up in a Cabinet meeting of the Philippine government. These controversies were also highly emotional for the parties concerned. Bolinao, a small coastal town located in the province of Pangasinan, Philippines, was polarized into warring groups because of a proposal to set up a large cement plant complex in the town. Families and friends became bitter enemies as they became embroiled in the feud.

As reflected in this issue of Tropical Coasts, the challenge of developing a "public-private partnership working model" is being taken up in Eat Asia, South Asia, the Caribbean and Central America. The reported efforts cover a variety of environmental issues, ranging from port development and operation, to protection of a coral reef, to integrated waste management, and each evolved as a mechanism to respond to a practical local problem. Although the described public-private partnership mechanisms have been developed and tested in isolation of one another, there are common elements that were expressed by each, namely: (1) enhancement of the ability of the local community, and the stakeholders therein, to manage their local environment; (2) sustainability of environment programs and (3) socioeconomic benefit derived to the local community as a result of improved environmental programs.

This eighth issue of the Tropical Coasts presents work on how coastal tourism can be sustainable through the assessment of the resources and associated economic activities including carrying capacity. By analyzing or evaluating these factors and parameters, decision makers and stakeholders will be able to appreciate the intrinsic, sometimes manifestly intangible values of coastal resources and ecosystems in quantitative economic and physical terms.

This issue of Tropical Coasts contains articles on analytical techniques and models like environmental risk analysis and environmental impact assessment, which were applied to existing environmental data compiled by some countries in the region, providing important findings and insights in the resolution of identified management issues.

This issue of Tropical Coasts focuses on "biodiversity", a term that was introduced in the 1980s and has since become popularly used in documents relating to environment and development. In short, it refers to the variety of natural habitats, the variety of plants and animals, and the variety of genetic material among living organisms. Development has caused the loss of habitats while pollution has degraded what remains of it. To address the problem of biodiversity reduction, international agreements such as the 1992 Rio Declaration and the Convention on Biological Diversity have been introduced. These global protocols demonstrate the growing concern on habitat loss and degradation and call for action to protect biological diversity. In many instances, such loss could have been minimized or prevented if accompanied by careful planning and proper management.

This issue of Tropical Coasts highlights economic opportunities that galvanize stakeholders in the prevention and management of marine pollution, especially the conference theme on public sector-private sector partnerships. Such partnerships take advantage of the private sector's dynamism, technical expertise, financial resources and entrepreneurial spirit. This issue also explores case studies such as the cleaning of rivers in Singapore, tourism development in Thailand and the management of subregional seas such as the Malacca Straits. It also covers case studies in the Philippines on the Built-Operate-Transfer (BOT) scheme and participation of NGOs, market-based instruments such as reducing tariff and fee system, as well as infrastructure and capacity that enhance marine pollution prevention and management like the marine electronic highway and the manpower resource from the seafaring industry.