In 1995, the Global Environment Facility adopted the concept of Large Marine Ecosystems (LMEs) — the majority of which are transboundary — as a conceptual and biogeographic framework for promoting sustainable, ecosystem-based management of the world’s oceans and coasts. The LME approach promotes the creation of new and/or reformed institutions, the reform and implementation of marine resource and environmental management policies and legislation, and the leveraging of public and private sector investment for LME restoration and protection. At a regional scale, the GEF has supported 23 of the 66 recognized Large Marine Ecosystems in which multiple countries collaborate on strategic, long-term ocean governance of transboundary resources.

The Yellow Sea, South China Sea, East China Sea, Sulu-Celebes, Indonesian Sea, Bay of Bengal and Gulf of Thailand are seven LMEs of great ecological and economic importance to the region. The relationships developed through shared project implementation and coordination enables various LME partnerships to help countries incorporate the various SDG14 targets into existing dialogue and policy. Moreover, the forum provided by LMEs encourages important dialogues, emphasizes the exchange of experience and results, provides a focus to scale up existing investments, and catalysis resources towards the achievement of SDG14 targets.

Drawing on the LME experience, this partnership hub not only offered a brief introduction to the Asian LME portfolio in the context of SDG14, but more importantly it highlighted proven approaches that have succeeded in reversing and reducing impacts using integrated ecosystem-based approaches to sustainable ocean and coastal management at both a local and multi-country scale.

The Ocean Policy Research Institute of the Sasakawa Peace Foundation (OPRI-SPF) convened a Partnership Hub track 7 Session 1 entitled “Capitalizing upon Blue Economy Potentials for Achieving SDG14” at Conference Room 7 from 13:30-17:30 on Wednesday 27 November 2019.

Ecosystems along a continuum from source-to-sea are being degraded as an unintended consequence of economic activities that might happen far upstream or downstream in the source-to-sea system (Granit. J. et al, 2017). This is happening primarily for two reasons: 1) lack of awareness and understanding of the land-to-sea ecosystem linkages and flows of water, sediment, pollutants, biota and ecosystem services; and 2) lack of capacity and know-how to avoid or mitigate the interconnected threats and negative impacts coming from multiple sectors and multiple resource users. The impacts of climate change currently add further stresses in river basins and coastal and sea areas in most regions of the world. It is clearly evident that the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) include a number of targets (e.g., SDG 2, 6, 8, 11, 12, 13, 14 and15) that are directly dependent upon the ability of governments and their partners to overcome these barriers.

A related overarching concern is that water use among East Asian and Southeast Asian countries is growing rapidly, while water quality and quantity challenges persist in such a way that the situation in some areas has threatened to derail economic growth. Increased population has intensified freshwater usage, both surface and ground water. Water demand is increasing drastically due to rapid urbanization, industrialization and agriculture/food production intensification and expansion, and many areas in the region are projected to be water stressed by 2025 (Lee 2013).

These two issues are inseparably linked and require urgent attention.

The S2S Partnership Hub Dialogue session aimed to:

1. enhance S2S awareness by sharing the experiences and perspectives of policymakers, managers and practitioners at the regional, national and local levels;
    
2. identify priority demands, opportunities and challenges for further development and up-scaling of S2S solutions across the region;
    
3. explore and gather inputs on a regional approach to S2S, including potential value-add, focus areas, content, partners, etc. and, in doing so, confirm interest and informal endorsement of next steps.
    

Earth observations from space can provide unique and cost-effective information to greatly aid sustainable marine management in the East Asian Seas region. This is demonstrated through developments of scientific integration into services allowing actionable intelligence to end-users, such as those in fisheries and aquaculture, marine planning, water quality monitoring, maritime security, oil spill preparedness and response, and environmental protection.

The sessions specifically aimed to identify opportunities for the application or further integration of Earth Observation (EO) data, including training for the use of Earth Observation data to support future SDS-SEA (Sustainable Development Strategy for the Seas of East Asia) actions.

The Gulf of Thailand (GOT) workshop on the Use of Chemical Dispersants and Oil Spill Contingency Planning at the Sub-regional Level was successfully conducted on November 28, 2018 at Iloilo Convention Center, Iloilo City, Philippines.

The Workshop was attended by nineteen (19) representatives from the GOT national contact points and relevant agencies of Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam and partner organizations from the Partnerships in Environmental Management for the Seas of East Asia (PEMSEA), IMO-IPIECA Global Initiative for South East Asia (GI-SEA) and ITOPF.

Aligning with UN SDGs and the Sustainable Development Strategy for the Seas of East Asia (SDS-SEA), MABIK would like to introduce itself to EAS partners by describing facilities, research projects and outreach programs. Since 2015, MABIK has conducted researches on marine biodiversity including sea turtles, sea snakes, and Sesarmops intermedius. MABIK has run and expanded outreach programs as well as research projects for better ocean literacy. MABIK wishes to meet new partners and to establish effective networks for conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity.

Through the Partnership Hub session, MABIK hopes to initiate collaborative research projects, outreach programs and joint workshops. It would be a good opportunity to establish joint research laboratories in mutual institutions based on collaborative agreement.

EAS Congress 2018 Daily Bulletin for the 29th day of November.

Higher education institutions play a vital role towards the sustainable development of the coasts and seas through its core activities in education, research, governance and external leadership. Building on-the-ground capacity in implementing and scaling up integrated coastal management (ICM) programmes involve training and maintaining a critical mass of ICM leaders and practitioners in the East Asian region who can contribute to effective and efficient implementation of SDG 14 and other related ocean and coastal goals. In line with this, PEMSEA’s capacity development strategies include mobilizing universities and research institutes in increasing technical support available on the ground, providing scientific inputs from experts’ advice in focus issues in various phases of ICM cycle and buildingcapacity and skills to replicate and scale up the ICM practice in the region. This forum provided a platform for university leaders to share, discuss and commit to strengthening collaboration among ICM Learning Centers (ICM LCs) through joint initiatives under the wider umbrella of the PEMSEA Network of Learning Centers (PNLC), with an outcome that leads to education, research and outreach through various innovative activities.

It is often said that Southeast Asia has one of the weakest regional mechanism for the protection of the marine environment. One reason cited is the lack of a binding agreement for the protection of the marine environment in the region and the so-called ASEAN way preferred by the littoral States.

This session aimed to investigate and discuss the extent to which regional institutions can and may foster a common understanding of applicable international law and facilitate implementation.