Dialogue partners help ASEAN
look after marine, coastal resources

Cooperation between ASEAN and three of its dialogue partners-Australia, Canada and the United States-has greatly strengthened the capability of member countries to conserve, use on a sustainable basis and repair their marine and coastal environment.

Three cooperative programmes on marine and coastal resources management have resulted in the identification of legal, institutional and socio-economic factors affecting the quality of the environment of ASEAN marine and coastal waters.

Now on its third phase, ASEAN-Australian cooperation on marine science started in 1985 and has focused on living coastal resources (CLR), tides and tidal phenomena (TTP) and marine science and technology management. The TTP undertaking, subsequently renamed regional ocean dynamics (ROD) has been aimed at developing human resources in the field of oceanography and promote better public understanding of tides and sea level signals. It has also been expanded to include a current metering experiment (CME). The project on living coastal resources has also been refocused to give due emphasis to human resources development in this field and to promote better understanding of tropical living resources. Another ongoing effort is the ASEAN-Australia Coastal Zone Environmental and Resource Management (CZERM) project.

These projects have become a major source of expertise and leadership in marine resources management.

The ASEAN Canada Marine Resources Programme, launched in 1992, seeks to establish criteria for the protection of marine resources to support ASEAN efforts to optimize the use by member countries of their marine resources without damage to the environment and without occasioning hazards to human health.

An endeavour that lasted from 1986 to 1992, the ASEAN-US Coastal Resources Management project provided opportunities for research, training and information dissemination in support of efforts to develop and implement coastal resources management strategies.

ASEAN is now starting to create a knowledge base as well as rules and protocols, in collaboration with another dialogue partner, the European Union, for an interdisciplinary approach to coastal zone planning and management. An ASEAN-EU Coastal Transect Workshop in Penang, Malaysia in 1995 capped an 18 month study on the sustainable use and management of coastal resources (SIMCOAST) by the International Centre for Living Aquatic Resources Management (ICLARM).

The management of the marine and coastal environment in the ASEAN region is a shared responsibility among governments, the local communities concerned and industry. New programmes will therefore be developed within the framework of this partnership.