The following interview with Dr. Chua Thia-Eng is extracted from The PEMSEA Story, a narrative of PEMSEA’s development and the growth of Integrated Coastal Management (ICM) throughout the seas of East Asia. Dr. Chua was PEMSEA’s first Regional Programme Director of PEMSEA, serving from 1993 to 2007. He continues to work towards regional sustainability, serving as PEMSEA Chair Emeritus and providing advice to actors within the region.

 

On September 13, Partnerships in Environmental Management for the Seas of East Asia held a virtual ceremony to induct the State Key Laboratory of Marine Pollution (SKLMP) consortium as a member of the PEMSEA Network of Learning Centers (PNLC). The induction ceremony was held after SKLMP’s redesignation as a PEMSEA Regional Center of Excellence (RCOE) in Marine Pollution during the 14th East Asian Seas Partnership Council Meeting dated July 27, 2022. The ceremony was attended by PEMSEA’s Executive Committee, PNLC officers, and the PEMSEA Resource Facility staff.

 

Mr. Stephen Adrian Ross was Executive Director of PRF from 2014 to 2017. One of the founding members of PEMSEA, he worked with the organization for 20 years as a Senior Technical Officer for the IMO, and as PEMSEA’s Senior Programme Officer and Chief Technical Officer before being appointed Executive Director.

 

A primary goal of PEMSEA (Partnerships in Environmental Management for the Seas of East Asia) as a regional platform is the exchange of data, information, and knowledge among relevant coastal and marine stakeholders, and the building of ocean governance capacity.  This facilitates the implementation of Integrated Coastal Management (ICM) and other aspects of the shared “Sustainable Development Strategy for the Seas of East Asia (SDS-SEA)” at regional, national, and local levels.

 

The PEMSEA Network of Local Governments looks forwards to the participation of a new member, Gorontalo Province. Gorontalo is a past practitioner of Integrated Coastal Management  (ICM), and seeks to build on this for sustainable development purposes and to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

 

In 2015 PEMSEA established and implemented the ICM System Certification of its services. The ICM System Certification formally assess, acknowledges and certifies that a local government’s ICM system conforms to the requirements of the ICM Code. The ICM Code details good governance practices for an ICM system, including a long-term vision and strategy for the coastal area, an implementation plan, a multisectoral coordinating mechanism and supporting legislation, as well as enabling conditions for public awareness, capacity development and financing mechanisms.

The PEMSEA Network of Local Governments (PNLG) Annual Forum 2022 is taking place in Tangerang Regency, Indonesia. This saw the induction of new members, updates on strategic plans, and shared stories of progress. We have summarized some of those stories below!

 

Lessons from ICM implementation in Indonesia

 

In June 2022, PEMSEA successfully concluded the implementation of the Ship Waste Management in Philippine Ports project, one of the national pilot projects funded under the Rethinking Plastics --- Circular Economy Solutions to Marine Litter of the European Union and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH and Expertise France.