East Asia is a hotspot for the leakage of plastic waste to the oceans. Most of the world's largest-contributing countries lie within the region. While countries and local governments in the region have been early innovators in plastic waste management, there remain major gaps in capacity needs and development.
Funded by the Government of Norway, Project ASEANO is led by the Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA) and the Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS) Indonesia in close collaboration with the PEMSEA Resource Facility and ASEAN Secretariat under the purview of the endorsing ASEAN sectoral body, the ASEAN Working Group on Coastal and Marine Environment (AWGCME).
The main goal of the ASEANO project is to build capacity to tackle plastic pollution from key sources in the ASEAN region through improved knowledge on sources, releases, transport, plus the ultimate fate of plastic pollution. The project promotes the development of sound and sustainable measures to reduce the impacts of plastic pollution and their implications on socioeconomic development and the environment. It focuses on the local level, with the Philippines' Imus River and Indonesia's Citarum River as its two Southeast Asian project sites.
PEMSEA worked with the Provincial Government of Cavite, through the Provincial Government-Environment and Natural Resources Office in the design and implementation of the Philippine component of the ASEANO regional project.
The results of the project have been synthesized into knowledge products (LGU toolkit, policy best practices handbook, monitoring tools and technologies for plastics management, etc.) that can be used as a reference by local governments across the ASEAN region with similar priority management concerns.
Project Reports
- Inception workshop for ASEAN-Norwegian cooperation project on local capacity building for reducing plastic pollution in the ASEAN region (ASEANO) and associated activities: Report
- The situation and causes of plastic pollution in the Imus River, Cavite: Report
- Mapping and Characterization of the Imus River Watershed: Primer and Report
- Mapping of Sources and Concentration of Plastic Waste in the Imus River Watershed: Primer and Report
- Assessing Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices Concerning Plastic Waste Along Imus River: Primer and Report
- Survey on Plastic Litter Along Imus River: Primer and Report
- Social Implications of Plastic Pollution Mitigation Initiatives Along the Imus River: Primer and Report
- Study on Plastics Use and Waste Management in the Food Service Industry: Primer and Report
- LGU Toolkit for Marine Litter: Digital toolkit
- End of Project Stakeholders Forum: Proceedings
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