Aquatic Ecosystem Health and Management Society 20 year celebration

Abstract

Data from the Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS) shows that the coastal waters of Southeast Asia support an immense biodiversity making the region one of the mega biodiversity hotspots of the world. To the littoral states in Southeast Asia, these coastal waters are important economic assets, supplying food and services, and providing employment for hundreds of thousands of people. In fact, these waters, and the plethora of tropical aquatic ecosystems they engender, have become a cornerstone of the economy of many nations in this region, supporting fisheries and other marine based industries. All these activities and environmental services are totally dependent on the health of the aquatic ecosystems, such as rivers, estuaries, mangroves, sea grasses and coral reefs, that support them one way or another.Notwithstanding their importance, these areas are currently facing serious threats in the form of declining resources and biodiversity due to negative impacts of anthropogenic activities. Rapid economic development in the coastal regions of littoral states, without appropriate consideration to environmental issues, have resulted in pollution and habitat changes that have undermined the ability of the marine environment to sustain the productivity on which so many have come to depend. Threats to the sustainability of these resources in the form of land-based and sea-based pollution are becoming more and more serious by the day, seriously impacting on the socio-economic status and livelihood of the people, particularly coastal communities. The manifestations of this disregard for the aquatic environment are already obvious, as evidenced by the frequent reports on polluted rivers and seas, decreases in fish landings, declines of aesthetic values in water-based recreational areas and loss of biodiversity. In spite of the growing concern amongst many scientists, policy makers and stakeholders, these aquatic ecosystems continue to face damages, resulting in destruction of sustainable links between ecosystem health and continuous human needs.The broad spectrum of resources and activities in the tropical aquatic environment call for a comprehensive and holistic approach to its management. Aquatic Ecosystem Health and Management Society (AEHMS), has taken the initiative to address some these problems. In 2010, AEHMS together with Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), National Oceanography Directorate, Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation Malaysia (NOD-MOSTI), FanLi Marine and Consultancy Pte. Ltd., and other institutions, organized an international conference on ECOSEAS 2010–The First International Conference on Managing Ecosystem Health of Tropical Seas. ECOSEAS 2010 was held from the 9th to 21 October 2010 in conjunction with 50th anniversary celebrations of The Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC), which started on 8th June, World Oceans Day. The focus in this conference was on the management of ecosystem health of tropical coastal environments, deploying state-of–the-art technologies to rehabilitate and sustain ecosystem health.Besides ECOSEAS, various other activities have been initiated by AEHMS together with the local institutions in Malaysia. Earlier in 2006, a special issue on `Malaysian Monograph’ was published by AEHMS to address challenges in aquatic environments and their resources. The Malaysian Monograph played a very essential role. It brought together a wide spectrum of papers on all aspects of Malaysian aquatic environment, from aquatic and sediment pollution to fisheries and biodiversity. More important, it discussed the health the country's aquatic environment through the prism of these aspects, providing a comprehensive perspective of its current status and how future directions in management and research need to be pursued. This was followed by another special issue of the AEHM, in 2009, based on the conference entitled “Ecosystem sustainability and health of threatened marine environments: ESTHEME.” The conference and resulting special issue were organized in collaboration with the Institute of Oceanography, University of Malaysia, Terengganu.The initiatives pursued by AEHMS and its local-regional collaborators (who have included universities such as Putra University Malaysia and University of Malaysia, Terengganu) as well as professional private sector companies (such as FanLi Marine and Consultancy Pte. Ltd.) have resonated well with the local and global scientific community. Review publications on Malaysian ecosystem health are limited, but the Malaysian Monograph went far in internationalizing the issues facing the country in complying with its own commitment to sustainable development. Among local researchers, it resonated among those members of the scientific community who had long felt that the sustainability of ecosystem health is critical to ensure that aquatic ecosystems can continue to support the socio-economic status of rural communities, especially those living along the rivers, estuaries and coastal regions.In line with the current drive to establish research hubs on sustainable aquatic environment and resources in institutions of higher learning, there has been a major shift in research focus on ecosystem health. Local resource management agencies are now beginning to employ Ecosystem Based Management approaches for fisheries and forestry (particularly mangroves), a shift that would demand a greater emphasis on ecosystem health as a basis of sustainability.While AEHMS was not entirely responsible for the current wind of change, it did play a part in catalyzing a move in the direction management and research are now taking. The field is still wide open – no one imagines that the kind of change we need to see in the management of our ecosystem will occur overnight- but the awareness is there and the first steps have been taken. And at each step, we know that AEHMS is there, somewhere, behind us.