ATSEA: A Regional Collaboration to Address Transboundary Threats to Ecosystems for Human Well-Being in the Arafura and Timor Seas

Abstract

The Arafura and Timor Seas (ATS) are home to a wealth of both living and non-living marine resources, including major fisheries, significant oil and gas reserves, extensive coastal and marine habitats, and globally-significant populations of migratory, rare, threatened, and endangered marine species. These resources provide goods and services valued at more than US$7.3B to neighboring nations, annually. The waters of the ATS are bounded by Indonesia, Timor-Leste, Papua New Guinea and Australia; and significantly, are defined as a ‘semi-enclosed seas’ under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). UNCLOS places a responsibility and an obligation on countries bordering enclosed and semi-enclosed seas to cooperate in resource management, the protection of the marine environment and marine scientific research. Recent assessments indicate that the marine environment in the ATS region is in serious decline, primarily as a result of over-harvesting and other direct and indirect impacts of anthropogenic stresses and global climate change. Transboundary issues such as unsustainable and illegal fishing activities, marine and land-based pollution, marine habitat and biodiversity decline, and climate change negatively impact fishery resources, ecosystem quality, and human well-being. Over the past 2 decades ATS littoral countries have progressed toward transboundary management of the region. This paper elaborates on the current status and threats to coastal and marine resources in the ATS region and in particular, the major efforts of the four littoral ATS countries to address transboundary environmental issues at the regional, national, and project site levels through the US$9.7M, 5-year, UN GEF-funded ATSEA-2 program. A key result of the ATSEA Program is regional collaboration that supports stakeholder engagement for meaningful resource management and protection is essential for the sustainable use and development of marine resources in the ATS.