Iloilo City has been chosen as the venue for the upcoming East Asian Seas Congress 2018 to be held on November 27 to 30 at the Iloilo Convention Center (ICC). Iloilo Governor Arthur Defensor Sr. said that it is a great privilege to be the host city for the upcoming Congress as the ICC’s state of the art facilities has been “home to congregations that encourage dialogues towards sustainable development and bridging potential collaborations towards the future of the East Asian Seas region.”

 

June 5th is World Environment Day and PEMSEA (11 country partners, 22 non-country partners and secretariat) is proud to have been working for 25 years towards a shared vision of a healthy coastal and marine environment in the Seas of East Asia!

Join us for the East Asian Seas Congress 2018 to celebrate 25 years of partnership, learning, innovation and transformational change and usher in an era of concrete actions aligned with the key principles of the global ocean agenda. http://eascongress2018.pemsea.org/ #SeasAsOne

 

MANILA, PHILIPPINES—On June 8, international celebrations will mark World Oceans Day, an annual commemoration to honor, protect, conserve and sustain the world’s oceans. PEMSEA (Partnerships in Environmental Management for the Seas of East Asia) is one of the many organizations supporting global efforts towards sustainable oceans. PEMSEA’s interest in investing its technical resources and energy towards safeguarding the world’s oceans lies in its firm belief that oceans are vital to the economy and our way of life.

 

There could be more plastics than fish in the oceans by 2050 (PEMSEA / Gregorio Dantes Jr.)

 

Plastics were first conceived as an alternative material to scarce natural resources, such as ivory from wild elephants. Only a century later, this amazing breakthrough solution has become a tremendous problem, and nowhere is it as damaging as in our oceans.

 

Plastics by the Numbers

 

A mangrove nursery in the village of Patramanggala

 

Aimee T. Gonzales and four PEMSEA country representatives shared information about the EAS Congress 2018 with Mr. Peter Thomson, Mr. Kristian Teleki, and the GEF officials

 

PEMSEA has a strong relationship with the Global Environment Facility (GEF), which together with UNDP has provided generous support for PEMSEA since its beginning and shares a common vision of a sustainable future for the East Asian seas. We are proud to be taking part in the 6th GEF Assembly in Da Nang, Viet Nam. The GEF Assembly is the governing body of the GEF and meets every four years.

 

 

As the Philippines is the world’s third largest source of marine plastics, Filipinos have the power to make a huge difference to the health of the world’s oceans. Some driven organizations in the country are intent on bringing about such change. One example is Sip PH, an environmentally conscious social entrepreneurship from Loyola Heights in Quezon City.

 

We are pleased to share PEMSEA’s Annual Report for 2017.

 

The Philippine Department of Transportation (DOTR) invited a focus group discussion to gather comments for improving the proposal “Blue solutions for reducing maritime transport GHG emissions through increased energy efficiency of ship, port and truck activities” and to prioritize maritime GHG mitigation activities for funding. The meeting was hosted by PEMSEA with support of the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) on 11 July 2018 and was attended by representatives of a number of Philippine and international departments and organizations.

 

From left to right: Dr. Laura David, Dr. Antonio La Viña, Dr. Chua Thia-Eng, and Ms. Deborah Robertson.