The Arafura-Timor Seas Ecosystem Action Program Phase 2 (ATSEA-2) Live Webinar of Mainstreaming Gender and Social Inclusion in Fishery and Marine Sector in the Arafura and Timor Seas Region was conducted via live YouTube on 10 June 2021.

Ms. Thea Arcella Bohol, ATSEA GESI Specialist, welcomed participants to the workshop on behalf of the ATSEA-2 project. Ms. Bohol informed that speakers and panelists of this webinar come from various areas of expertise, including government officials, civil society, the private sector, and research institutes. One hundred and fifty-four participants from different countries, including Indonesia, Timor Leste, the Philippines, Papua New, Australia, Cambodia, and Japan, attended the webinar. The webinar also celebrated World Ocean Day under the theme the ocean Life and Livelihood. This webinar response to the call for a more inclusive approach to reducing vulnerability in the fisheries and marine sector, particularly for women and minorities. The webinar seeks to answer how to apply further gender and social inclusion in the fisheries sector to ensure that minorities and women roles are appreciated and could also participate in sustainable fisheries marine management.

Ms. Yayan Hikmayani, S.Pi., M.Si. officially opened the event on behalf of the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries (MMAF). Ms. Hikmayani shared the gender discourse history since the early development in the seventies. In 1995, Indonesia issued presidential instruction no.9/1995 on mainstreaming gender in development. According to this regulation, gender should be an integral part of development processes to ensure men and women receive equal rights. The ministry has developed gender working groups and conducted several programs. The latest work was the development of the Gender Development Index (GDI) in 2020. The index can be used as the basis to examine men and women’s position in marine and fisheries sector and the formulation of future policies and regulations. Five panelists presented a wide range of gender and social inclusion issues, from the overall concept of GESI to GESI approach at the project level to the impact of Covid-19 on women and fisheries.

Ms. Yenny Widjaja of UNDP stressed the importance of gender mainstreaming. However, the social inclusion concept offers a more comprehensive approach to project implementation. Ms. Karen Hildahl of UNDP pointed that ideally, there should be more than one focal point at the project level to fully incorporate gender into project day-to-day activities. Ms. Kusni Setyowati, Director of PT. Kelola Laut Indonesia provides an insight into private sector experience in working with the community including women in fisheries product processing. Proper procedures and hygiene training should be provided due to the fragility of fisheries products.

Mr. Dedi Supriadi Adhuri of Research Center for Society and Culture, Indonesian Institute of Sciences suggested that a project can achieve better results when working with women organizations compare to working on an individual level. Participation of women, men, and minority is vital in any decision-making, and access is available to related resources to ensure an inclusive process. There should also be an increased awareness on cross-sectional of gender, climate change, and marine protection.

The EAS Congress 2021 was hosted by the Royal Government of Cambodia and co-organized by the Ministry of Environment (MoE) in Cambodia, Provincial Administration of Preah Sihanouk (SHV), and Partnerships in Environmental Management for the Seas of East Asia (PEMSEA) Resource Facility.

The risk of extreme climate-related disasters is expected to increase further due to climate change. Severe impacts of climate change on our nature and society have already been observed globally and locally. Thus, taking steps toward adaptation is crucial to mitigate and avoid such impacts.

The Asia-Pacific Climate Change Adaptation Information Platform (AP-PLAT) was established at the G20 summit in 2018 in Japan with the vision of nurturing countries in the Asia-Pacific

Region to build climate-resilient and sustainable society through science-based climate adaptation strategies and measures, risk-informed decision making, and pragmatic capacity building. The mission of AP-PLAT is to provide an enabling environment for climate-risk informed decision making and bankable adaptation actions through synchronizing and harnessing best available existing efforts on climate adaptation among partner countries and organizations.

This session will present the latest scientific findings and capacity building contents provided by AP-PLAT, which will be useful for making the region more resilient to climate change, especially in the Asian basins and coastal areas covered by PEMSEA. It will also discuss how synergies can be created through the partnership between AP-PLAT and PEMSEA, as well as the role of IGES as the PEMSEA Regional Center of Excellence (RCoE) in Climate Change

Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction and the promoter of capacity building activities in APPLAT.

In the session, introduction of useful scientific tools and online capacity building services available in AP-PLAT will be presented. Finally, the discussion on the future possible collaborations between AP-PLAT and PEMSEA among all the panels and audiences will be conducted.

The event aimed to:

a. To understand the current and future challenges caused by climate change in the Asia-Pacific.

b. To introduce useful scientific tools available in AP-PLAT website and how those tools are used for the development of adaptation measures in the region.

c. To introduce some of the latest online capacity development contents available in APPLAT, such as encountering compound risks, and understanding ISO standard related to climate change adaptation.

d. To discuss the opportunities of building partnership between AP-PLAT and PEMSEA, as well as the role of IGES as the RCoE and the promoter of capacity building activities in AP-PLAT.

The GEF-UNDP-IMO GloFouling Partnerships Project is aimed at catalyzing government action, industry innovation and capacity building in order to reduce the transfer of Invasive Aquatic Species (IAS) from international shipping and other marine sectors in a holistic approach. While the reach is global, all the intended outcomes, outputs and activities are directly geared towards the national and regional levels with a view to improving maritime institutions, technologies and operations as well as achieving improved monitoring and impact mitigation in the participating developing countries.

The Regional Seminar on Biofouling Management and Invasive Aquatic Species was jointly organized by the GloFouling Partnerships Project and the Partnerships in Environmental Management for the Seas of East Asia (PEMSEA) on June 23, 2021 via the Zoom platform to:

● Raise awareness on the issue of minimizing the transfer of invasive aquatic species through biofouling and capacitate government representatives to participate in future meetings and negotiations on the issue;

● Exchange information and knowledge on biofouling management, approaches, best practices and innovation that are currently available in the region;

● Identify existing challenges, knowledge and technical gaps in the region; and

● Examine and consider elements and options for regional cooperation and coordination of biofouling management measures that could feed into a strategy to promote regional harmonization of biofouling management.

The regional seminar served as a preparatory meeting for a regional workshop that will be conducted later in the year with the goal of defining a regional strategy for biofouling management.

The online dialogue on “Reducing pollution and solid waste” was organized by the project “Rethinking Plastics – Circular Economy Solutions to Marine Litter” and the Biodiversity Management Bureau (BMB) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) of the Philippines. The event, one of the collaboration sessions under the East Asian Seas Congress 2021, was held last 16 November 2021, at 2:00PM to 4:00PM (GMT+7). It aimed to be a platform for sharing a variety of strategies, tools, and lessons learned on circular economy for plastics to prevent and reduce marine litter with the following objectives:

1. To facilitate the knowledge and experience exchange in reducing plastic waste and marine litter among participating countries

2. To identify effective approaches and enabling mechanisms in mainstreaming circular economy and sustainable consumption and production of plastics