Now in its third year, the IRBM Project enters a pivotal phase in advancing integrated river basin management across Southeast Asia. “Midpoint Momentum”, the seventh edition of the project’s newsletter, highlights key developments – notably the review of the implementation progress at the Third Regional Steering Committee Meeting, including the completion of the Mid-term Review, the conduct of the orientation workshop on the REWEFe Toolkit for the ASEAN Member States, the official project launch in Viet Nam and the development of solutions templates to support IRBM pilot project planning and implementation.
 

This issue also features field stories, such as the Women of the Wetlands in the Pasac-Guagua Watershed, and announces the launch of the IRBM e-Portal on PEMSEA’s Seaknowledge Bank.
 

From establishing coordination mechanisms at the local, national, and regional levels to designing scalable solutions template for river basin-level implementation, the IRBM Project continues to accelerate momentum – strengthening regional collaboration, deepening stakeholder engagement, and enhancing capacity and knowledge sharing across the ten ASEAN Member States.

The GEF/UNDP/ASEAN Integrated River Basin Management Project convened a Regional Orientation Workshop on the Development of Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystem (WEFE) Toolkit for River Basins in Southeast Asia on 3 June 2025 in Bali, Indonesia to introduce and demonstrate the applications of the toolkit in selected river basins of the project.

The PEMSEA Resource Facility (PRF), in partnership with the National Marine Hazard Mitigation Service, Ministry of Natural Resources (NMHMS/MNR), convened the 2nd Blue Carbon Technical Working Group Meeting on 5–6 June 2025 in Haikou, Hainan Province of China. The meeting was attended by nearly 60 experts and stakeholders on blue carbon from 11 countries in the EAS region and beyond. The PRF Secretariat served as the Secretariat for the meeting. Online participants included members of the PEMSEA Network of Learning Centers and other Blue Carbon experts from the region.
 

The meeting aimed to:

• Draw consensus on the governance framework of an innovative Blue Carbon Ecosystem Services Management Mechanism (Draft 0) and the requirements to operationalize a regional blue carbon certification program.
• Improve understanding and consensus building among BC-TWG members on the draft regional blue carbon accounting protocol.

Expected outcomes of the meeting include:

• Refined concept of a Blue Carbon Ecosystem Services Management Mechanism, including a blue carbon stock monitoring network.
• Refined regional blue carbon accounting protocol.
• Refined workplan for 2025 and 2026 for review, guidance and/or approval at the 17th EAS PC in July 2025.

The PEMSEA Network of Learning Centers (PNLC), Burapha University and the PEMSEA Resource Facility co-organized the "Training on Integrating Blue Carbon into the Integrated Coastal Management (ICM) Framework" in March 2025 in Chonburi, Thailand.
 

The training, co-sponsored by Burapha University and the University of Hawai'i, with support from the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation of Thailand, Thailand Science, Research and Innovation (TSRI), Henry Luce Foundation, and the Center for Southeast Asian Studies-University of Hawai’i, brought together PNLC participants and Chonburi Province coastal management stakeholders to enhance the understanding of Blue Carbon concepts and explore how the Network can support.
 

PEMSEA's regional Blue Carbon program. The training had the following objectives:

1. Gain foundational understanding of ICM and its role in coastal resource management.
2. Learn about the impacts of climate change on coastal ecosystems and communities.
3. Understand the concept of Blue Carbon and its significance in climate change mitigation.
4. Acquire the knowledge to integrate blue carbon principles into coastal management strategies, ensuring more sustainable and resilient coastal zones and harness the potential of blue carbon ecosystems as nature-based solutions for climate action.
5. Identify work areas, in terms of knowledge, capacity and technical assistance, PNLC members need to strengthen to enable them to better support government and local community efforts in managing their coastal areas and associated blue carbon ecosystems.