UNEP PROJECT TO REVERSE ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION TRENDS IN SOUTH CHINA SEA AND GULF OF THAILAND

UNEP PROJECT TO REVERSE ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION TRENDS

IN SOUTH CHINA SEA AND GULF OF THAILAND

(Reissued as received.)

BANGKOK, 28 March 2001 (UNEP) -- To reverse environmental degradation in the South China Sea and Gulf of Thailand, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) will implement a $32 million project funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the Governments of Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam.

The project budget of $32 million is made up of $16 million from the GEF,  $9 million from participating countries, and $7 million from donors to support national activities.

The project is one of the largest to be funded by GEF in its international waters portfolio and the first time the seven countries have signed an agreement for collaboration to protect the marine environment of the South China Sea.

"Given the ecological and economic significance of the marine environment of this region, a new level of cooperation, analysis and action is required, if we are to safeguard these resources for future generations", said Klaus Toepfer, UNEP's Executive Director.

More than 270 million people (or 5 per cent of the world's population) live in the coastal subregions of the participating countries.   Twenty-five major rivers, draining 2.5 million square kilometres of catchment, flow into the South China Sea.  It provides 10 per cent (5 million tonnes/year) of the global fisheries catch, and five of the eight top shrimp producers in the world are border States.

An analysis of the state of the marine environment, prepared by the Governments in collaboration with UNEP, reveals that over 80 per cent of the region's coral reefs are at risk from climate change, coastal development, pollution, over-exploitation and cyanide and dynamite fishing.

Only a third of its mangrove forests remain, with around 65 per cent lost to settlements, industrial areas or tourist resorts, chopped for woodchips or firewood, or converted into shrimp farms.

And the flow-on effects of increased sedimentation and nutrients, plus destructive fishing practices, are also being felt in the region’s other major habitat – seagrass communities – of which 20 to 50 per cent is thought to be degraded.

Two thirds of the major fish species and several of the region’s most important fishing areas are fully or over-exploited.  Many nursery areas and breeding grounds are being degraded.

The UNEP has also found that, although numerous actions are taking place at national and regional levels to address marine environmental problems, they lack coordination resulting in significant duplication and loss of cost-effectiveness.

The major cause of environment degradation is the present density and growth of coastal populations (expected to double in the next 32 years), driven by world trade, tourism, industrialization, increasing fisheries development and oil exploration and exploitation.

“Without a concerted regional approach to environmental management, it is unlikely that the present rates of habitat degradation will be slowed, resulting in the loss of globally significant biodiversity and the livelihoods of millions of people”, said Mr. Toepfer, at a launch of the project in Bangkok today.

The project will produce a programme of action and a recommended framework for regional cooperation in the management of the environment of the South China Sea; a series of national and regional management plans for specific habitats and issues; nine demonstration management activities at sites of regional and global significance; a regional management plan for maintenance of spawning and nursery areas of transboundary fish stocks in the Gulf of Thailand; pilot activities relating to alternative remedial actions to address priority transboundary pollutants; and regionally agreed water quality objectives and standards.

“The real success of the project will be in providing a platform for ongoing marine protection programmes, beyond its five-year span.  Its major goals are to establish the national capacity, the mechanisms and the regional cooperation necessary to protect the marine environments of the seven participating countries”, Mr. Toepfer said.

The project will be implemented within the framework of UNEP’s Regional Seas Programme, through the East Asian Seas Regional Coordinating Unit.

For further information, please contact:  Tim Higham, Regional Information Officer, UNEP/ROAP, Bangkok, tel: (66-2) 288-2127, e-mail: higham.unescap@un.org; Dr. Hugh Kirkman, Coordinator, UNEP East Asian Seas Regional Coordinating Unit, tel (66-2) 288-1860, e-mail: kirkman.unescap@un.org; Tore J. Brevik, Spokesman/Director of Communications and Public Information, UNEP Nairobi,

tel: (254-2) 623292, fax: (254-2) 623692, e-mail: cpiinfo@unep.org.

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