Atty. Jonas R. Leones has 31 years of experience in various technical, legal, and managerial capacities with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in the Philippines. He currently serves as the Undersecretary for Policy, Planning and International Affairs, with the rank of Career Executive Service Officer (CESO), Rank I. He coordinates all international environmental concerns including the implementation of international environmental treaties and the participation of the Philippines in international environmental bodies and conferences

Atty. Leones supervises the Manila Bay Coordinating Office (MBCO) and River Basin Control Office (RBCO), and oversees the rehabilitation of Manila Bay, one of the Department’s priority programs. He also acts as the Spokesperson of the Department and the supervising Undersecretary for the Forest Management Bureau and Ecosystems Research and Development Bureau. He also serves as the Philippine focal person in the International Review Panel Steering Committee of the United Nations Environment Programme. He is also a member of the Pollution Adjudication Board, and served as its Board Secretary and Legal Counsel, in concurrent capacity from August 2005- July 2013. 

Atty. Leones holds a Master’s Degree in Public Management from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy of the National University of Singapore and the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Massachusetts, USA. He obtained his Bachelor of Laws from the New Era University, Quezon City in 2005 and passed the Philippine Bar Examination in 2006. As a full scholar, he also finished his Master’s degree in Environmental Science from the University of the Philippines – Los Baños, Laguna in 2000, and his Bachelor of Science in Forestry degree in 1990, where he received the College of Forestry Award for Leadership.

Mr. Thang currently serves as the Deputy Director of the Bureau of Marine Resources Control and Marine, Island Environment Protection of Viet Nam Administration of Seas and Islands. He also serves as Viet Nam’s Alternate National Focal Point for the ASEAN Working Group on Coastal and Marine Environment and a member of various other regional and national platforms such as the UN Joint Group of Experts on the Scientific Aspects of Marine Environmental Protection. 

Previously, Mr. Thang was a national coordinator for the PEMSEA/SDS-SEA Project, Coordinating Body on the Seas of East Asia, and other regional programs in Viet Nam. He also worked with the National Environment Agency, Viet Nam Environment Protection Agency, and Viet Nam Environment Administration. He has 20 years of experience in integrated coastal management, environmental impact assessment, marine pollution, and monitoring and evaluation of the coastal and marine sector of Viet Nam.

He has a Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in Environmental Management from Ha Noi National University and a Bachelor’s degree in English from Ha Noi University of Foreign Studies.

Dr. Yu Xinwei currently serves as Director of the Marine Cooperation Division of the International Cooperation Department of China’s Ministry of Natural Resources (State Oceanic Administration).  Her career spans more than 18 years in the fields of marine and polar cooperation, regional program management, and international ocean governance.

Dr. Yu’s work has evolved from leading collaborations with the European Union and Small Island Developing States to focusing on bilateral and multilateral partnerships with neighboring countries in East and Southeast Asia. Her expertise covers technical, legal, and policy dimensions of ocean affairs, including the law of the sea, marine policy development, and program coordination.

She has served as the national coordinator for the implementation of the PEMSEA/SDS-SEA project in China and was the primary liaison for China’s hosting of the East Asian Seas Congress in 2024 in Xiamen.

Dr. Yu holds a Ph.D. from the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, a master’s degree in Law from Peking University, and a bachelor’s degree in Marine Engineering from Tianjin University.

Dr. Suk-jae Kwon is currently a Principal Research Scientist at the Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology. Previously, he held the role of Director of the International Cooperation Department of the same institution. 

He has more than 19 years of experience in economic evaluation of marine environmental and natural resources, marine disaster assessment, and integrated coastal zone management. 

He received his Ph.D in Environmental and Natural Resource Economics at the University of Rhode Island in the United States, and completed his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Economics at the Sungyunkwan University in the Republic of Korea.

Dr. Kazumi Wakita is a professor at the School of Marine Science and Technology, Tokai University, specializing in integrated coastal management (ICM) and marine spatial planning (MSP).

With more than 20 years of experience, she combines academic research with hands-on implementation of ocean and coastal governance in Japan and across East and Southeast Asia.

Dr. Wakita earned her Ph.D. in Agricultural Science from the University of Tokyo, and holds both master’s and bachelor’s degrees in civil engineering from Waseda University. She also completed advanced training in integrated coastal zone management at the MEDCOAST Institute in Turkey.

Earlier in her career, she worked as a programme officer at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), managing projects under PEMSEA.

She later advanced ICM efforts in Japan through her work with the Ocean Policy Research Foundation, where she supported Shima City’s membership in  the PEMSEA Network of Local Governments and its eventual hosting of the PNLG Forum.
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She co-chaired a 2021 policy proposal on integrated coastal and ocean management spearheaded by the Japan Society of Ocean Policy and the Japanese Association for Coastal Zone Studies.

Since 2024, Dr. Wakita has been a research fellow with the Japan Foundation Indo-Pacific Partnership Program and a visiting fellow at the University of Wollongong’s Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security, working on a regional project focused on ocean planning and well-being.

She currently sits on several national and local policy committees, including Japan’s Cabinet Office Committee on Maritime Domain Awareness, the Ministry of the Environment’s National Committee on Marine Restoration, and coastal management councils for Shizuoka Prefecture and Kita-Kyushu City. She is also a member of the UNESCO-IOC Sub-Commission for the Western Pacific (WESTPAC) and a co-lead of its Harmful Algal Bloom Program. She also serves on the Working Group on Sustainable Ocean Planning and Management under UNESCO-IOC.

Her research work bridges science and society, exploring socio-psychological dimensions and policy frameworks in sustainable ocean governance. She has received multiple awards, including the JAMSTEC Nakanishi Award and multiple Excellent Paper Awards from the Japanese Association for Coastal Zone Studies.