South China Sea Project Research Articles

Fisheries refugia : A regional initiative to improve the integration of fisheries and habitat management

of southeast Asia are characterised by high levels of small-scale fishing. Increasing fishing pressure, coupled with continued decline in the expanse and quality of coastal habitats critical to the life-cycles of most species, has raised serious concerns regarding the long-term sustainability of fisheries in the region. This paper presents the process on establishment of fisheries refugia and the outcomes of a regional initiative under the UNEP/GEF South China Sea Project (2002-09) to improve the integration of fisheries and habitat management. The Fisheries refugia concept is defined as spatially and geographically defined marine or coastal areas in which specific management measures are applied to sustain important species (fisheries resources) during critical stages of their life cycle. To support the fisheries refugia approach, the ASEAN-SEAFDEC ministries responsible for fisheries endorsed the supplementary guidelines to substantiate the Regional Guidelines for Responsible Fisheries in Southeast Asia in 2006. In addition, the ASEAN-SEAFDEC Resolution and Plan of Action on Sustainable Fisheries for Food Security toward 2020, adopted in 2011, also support the establishment of Fisheries refugia for enhancing fisheries resources of the Southeast Asian region.

Review of the legal aspects of environmental management in the South China Sea and Gulf of Thailand

The mandate of the Legal Task Force established under the South China Sea project was to evaluate the present status of legal environmental instruments at national, sub-regional and regional levels with a view to exploring ways to strengthen regional co-operation in the environmental management of the South China Sea. This article provides an overview of: signatory states' obligations for regional co-operation under major global environmental conventions; the status of existing regional co-operative mechanisms and instruments, including regional agreements and ‘soft’ laws11Soft-laws are non-legally-binding instruments, such as Declarations, Guidelines and Action Plans. An example is Agenda 21. They are usually adopted where states will not or cannot agree on the terms for a legally-binding instrument.; national environmental legislation; and an analysis of national environmental legislation regarding major issues and themes of interest. This article demonstrates that, while the global and international conventions to which the countries of the South China Sea are parties convey obligations on the states to co-operate regionally, this obligation has generally not been met. In addition, there is no single legally-binding regional intergovernmental agreement on marine environmental protection that involves all the countries bordering the South China Sea. This review indicates that, while all countries have a suite of legal instruments designed to protect the environment and conserve natural resources, these are often not harmonised and integrated with national policies. Countries continue to be without an integrated coastal/marine management policy that sets clear priorities, principles and guidelines that can steer policy conflicts towards resolution and encourage government agencies and offices to see themselves as part of a larger effort towards proper management of coastal and marine habitats.The article concludes with a review of potential mechanisms for future regional co-operation in environmental management and proposes alternative models. Lessons learned from the global community and regional programmes indicate a growing emphasis on the domestic implementation of global instruments via regional co-operative initiatives and maximising effectiveness. An emerging trend is the proliferation of calls to ‘strategically’ address these two needs. This suggests that an appropriate course of action for a region seeking to strengthen co-operation would be forging a legal agreement that suits regional needs and interests and, in so doing, incorporates ‘effectiveness’ into the design.It is further concluded that the SCS region is in a unique and enviable position. Unlike most other regions, it has never adopted a legally-binding instrument and, consequently, it is free of precedent and other legal baggage. Regional co-operation is gaining momentum and South China Sea states are indicating a greater concern for environmental sustainability. There is also a growing recognition that the inefficient use of resources will only worsen without horizontal and vertical co-ordination and regional co-operation. It seems an appropriate time to consider an effective and region-appropriate course for long-term sustainability of the South China Sea and its resources, including consideration of a regional framework for co-operation, co-ordination and communication. Political commitment will determine whether any new co-operative framework becomes a paper tiger or an Asian tiger.

Environmental cooperation in the South China Sea: Factors, actors and mechanisms

Although it remains one of the most volatile maritime areas of the world, the South China Sea has witnessed an increasing level of environmental cooperation since the 1990s, culminating in the development and implementation of the South China Sea Project, an inter-governmental project implemented by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF). This paper seeks to explain why environmental cooperation occurred in such a sensitive and contentious region and contends that UNEP played a critical role in facilitating and brokering environmental cooperation. Through an analysis of the motivations, strategies and interactions among the three main actors, namely UNEP, China and the Association for Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), this article argues that environmental cooperation was deemed an instrument to facilitate the exchange and sharing of information not only for environmental protection but also for political purposes. While countries were trying to consolidate their sovereign claims, they still shared a desire to sustain a peaceful regional environment to promote the kind of prosperous economic development that the region has enjoyed in recent decades. Countries were actively looking for less sensitive “issues” in which they could cooperate without jeopardizing any sovereignty claims. Marine environmental problems provided such an issue.UNEP, with its distinctive symbolic power as a United Nations agency, played an instrumental and inductive role in mediating and facilitating environmental cooperation in the region. On the one hand, UNEP has played an instrumental role in promoting regional cooperation by helping countries to address common marine environmental problems and promoting confidence building measures between ASEAN countries and China. On the other hand, by framing environmental protection as a neutral and apolitical issue, UNEP has been able to induce the neighbouring countries to the negotiating table. This has internationalized environmental protection in the South China Sea, making non-participation in these cooperative efforts potentially problematic because it could reduce the prominence of a country's territorial claims. In this sense, UNEP has been able to play an inductive role to foster cooperation. The paper attempts to identify the sources of UNEP's influence, and give an account of the various roles and functions of UNEP that made environmental cooperation a reality under conditions that originally appeared untenable.

Development of a coral reef management strategy within the framework of the UNEP/GEF South China Sea Project

Development of a coral reef management strategy within the framework of the UNEP/GEF South China Sea Project

Outcomes of the SCS project and their applicability to multilateral cooperative initiatives for the management of coastal seas and marine basins

This paper summarizes the benefits of experience gained through the execution of the South China Sea project that offer useful insights into the successful development and implementation of similar multilateral interventions for environmental protection and remediation in other coastal and regional sea waters. These benefits fall into several categories: political commitment, management framework, cooperative arrangements; transparency; and scientific veracity. Experience gained in each of these categories during the South China Sea project is outlined to provide an exemplar for the successful formulation and implementation of similar interventions in other regional marine areas.

Fisheries refugia: a novel approach to integrating fisheries and habitat management in the context of small-scale fishing pressure

Fisheries of the South China Sea, including the Gulf of Thailand, are characterised by high levels of small-scale fishing effort. Increasing fishing pressure, coupled with continued decline in the expanse and quality of coastal habitats critical to the life-cycles of most species, has raised serious concerns regarding the long-term sustainability of Southeast Asian fisheries. This paper reviews the development of a UNEP/GEF South China Sea Project initiative to address the regional need to improve the integration of fisheries and habitat management.The concept of fisheries refugia was developed as a novel approach to the identification and designation of priority areas in which to integrate fisheries and habitat management in the context of high and increasing levels of small-scale fishing pressure in the South China Sea. Specific regional, national and local actions in establishing a regional system of fisheries refugia are outlined and discussed in terms of the effectiveness of the refugia concept in overcoming barriers to integrated management. The fisheries refugia approach is shown to provide an adequate platform for building partnerships and enhancing communication between the environment and fisheries sectors.The refugia concept also appears to be a successful approach in addressing a significant barrier to the integration of fisheries and habitat management, namely the adverse reaction to the Marine Protected Area concept that is elicited from fishing communities and fisheries officers at the local and provincial levels. It is anticipated that the experiences gained from this novel approach to the use of spatial management tools in fisheries management will be suitable for scaling-up in the South China Sea and replication in other aquatic habitats. This experience is considered important because of the potential global fisheries and biodiversity conservation benefits associated with effective fisheries and habitat management at the local level. This is particularly relevant in Southeast Asia where the contribution of fisheries to food security and the maintenance and improvement of the livelihoods of coastal fishing communities is so substantial.

Managing multi-lateral, intergovernmental projects and programmes: the case of the UNEP/GEF South China Sea project

The management of comprehensive and extensive, multi-lateral and multi-national programmes and projects in the field of coastal and ocean management poses numerous organisational problems encompassing co-ordination between: the actions of individual participating countries at the regional level; the national level actions of institutions from different sectors; and actions that are designed to address issues as diverse as: biological diversity conservation and sustainable use; fisheries management; maritime transport; and the control of land based pollution. Most large multi-lateral projects focus on sound scientific knowledge and information, and pay less attention to the design of a management structure that will ensure coherence and co-ordination of the interventions once the programme or project is under implementation. The project entitled “Reversing Environmental Degradation Trends in the South China Sea and Gulf of Thailand” was complex since it addressed three priority areas of concern namely the loss and degradation of coastal habitats, over-exploitation of fisheries in the Gulf of Thailand, and land-based pollution. It is suggested that the success of the management framework reflects the following key design elements:•The framework permitted and encouraged both “horizontal” (inter-country) and “vertical” (intra-country) interactions and networking between individuals at all levels of project implementation and execution;•Inclusion of a body (the Regional Scientific and Technical Committee) that served as a forum for reconciling both sectorial and national interests and priorities;•The clear separation between discussions of scientific and technical matters from discussions dealing with policy and principles at both the national and regional levels;•The framework facilitated the incorporation of sound scientific and technical advice and information into politically based decision-making;•The use of regional experts and consultants from the participating countries fostered “ownership” of the activities and outputs;•Restriction of the membership of the Project Steering Committee to government representatives only, and exclusion of observers from regional and international agencies and institutions other than UNEP; and,•The framework allowed for adaptive management and was not a rigid unchanging structure.

The UNEP/GEF South China Sea Project: Lessons learnt in regional cooperation

The UNEP/GEF project entitled “Reversing environmental degradation trends in the South China Sea and Gulf of Thailand” implemented by United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in partnership with seven riparian states bordering the South China Sea was initiated in 2002 and completed in 2008. The project was complex since it addressed three priority areas of concern identified in the Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis namely the loss and degradation of coastal habitats, over-exploitation of fisheries, and land-based pollution. The fourth component of the project was concerned with regional co-ordination including facilitation of national level execution and securing inter-country agreement on project related matters. A number of lessons learnt from implementing the project include, inter alia: the need for a well designed management framework to ensure smooth co-ordination and information exchanges among and within participating countries; the importance of individuals in terms of the success or failure of Inter-Ministry Committees at the national level; separation of scientific and technical issues from political decision-making; the importance of the demonstration site network in encouraging cooperation at the local level; ownership of the project by participating countries; strong involvement of regional and national experts in implementing project tasks; linkages between habitat and fisheries management for developing a regional fisheries refugia network; sharing data through the development of regional databases; productive services of the project coordinating unit; and development of a framework for long-term cooperation in environment management.

The East Asian Seas UNEP Regional Seas Programme

In East Asia, the Action Plan of the Coordinating Body of the Seas of East Asia (COBSEA) aims to protect the marine and coastal environment. COBSEA is funded by member countries and UNEP, member countries discuss common problems and resolve and diagnose cross-boundary degradation of marine environments. Success has come from funding for coral reef community activities and the Global Environment Facility funds for the South China Sea Project. COBSEA is actively engaged in the Global Plan of Action for Land-based sources of pollution and the Swedish Government is funding a programme to integrate marine and coastal activities in East Asian Seas. COBSEA is not always successful because of lack of member countries’ commitment and understanding of marine and coastal degradation by the wider community. COBSEA could easily combine with other agencies or have closer ties with them. It is suggested that the COBSEA member countries decide on a code of practice for donors and the responsibilities of funding recipients.