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.

The PNLG Annual Forum 2022 saw the adoption of a new joint vision, the Tangerang Initiative. This was presented by Vice President of the PNLG, His Excellency Ahmed Zaki Iskandar, who invited all members to adopt the initiative.

 

Thank you to all youth from throughout the seas of East Asia who participated in this video competition. The people with the greatest stake in the long-term sustainability of our coasts and oceans are the youth, who will left in the future to manage the consequences of the actions of today. This year we asked for youth to share their views on life with the ocean. The winners tell stories in different ways. Our 1st place focuses on one specific eco-park, through which the story of global mangroves is taken.

PEMSEA is welcoming new talent to the PEMSEA Resource Facility (PRF) for the upcoming year! We look forward to their contributions towards healthy oceans, peoples, and economies.

 

 

Abigail Fiona Cruzada