PEMSEA

                                                     

PEMSEA stands for Partnership in Environmental Management for the Seas of East Asia. The aim of this program is to abate the negative impacts of pollutions and minimize the potential conflicts that arise from the tremendous development phase in this region. The program is termed Integrated Coastal Management or simply ICM. As water flow is boundless, one activity in one country might effect the other country due to the semi-enclosed system of the ocean. Realizing on this, the program  has selected demonstration sites in the east Asian region to participate in this effort.

Among the demonstration sites are Chonburi (Thailand), Danang (Vietnam), Bali (Indonesia), Batangas (Philippines), Nampo (DPR Korea), Xiamen (PR China) and Sihanoukville (Cambodia). PEMSEA office is hosted by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Philippines with their office located at DENR compound in Quezon City.

Besides demonstration sites, PEMSEA also has pollution hotspot program such as the Gulf of Thailand, Malacca Straits, Manila Bay and also the Bohai Sea program. Besides this co-financing program, PEMSEA also give free technical expertise to "parallel site", a second demonstration site in any willing country, but the country itself has to shoulder their own funding throughout the program.


    10 ICM COMPONENTS

    1 - ICM Demonstration and parallel sites
            - 11 countries &
            - 2 parallel sites (Bataan, Philippines & Shiwa Lake, Korea)
    2 - Risk Assessment and Risk Management in sub regional sea area / pollution hotspots
            - Numerical representative of threats
            - Acts as guidelines for prioritizing of actions & countermeasures for the identified
              hazards
    3 - Capacity building
            - Outside expertise, execution by local people
    4 - Regional network / Regional Task Force
            - Sharing of knowledge/experience among countries
    5 - Environmental Investment
            - PPP (Public-Private Partnership) for environmental improvement
    6 - Scientific research - Academe input for future planning
    7 - Integrated Information Management System (IIMS)
            - Area Database with applicable GIS and modeling software - Data feeder for (Risk
              Assessment/Risk Management, Environmental Profiling, Coastal Strategy, Strategic
              Environmental Management Plan (SEMP)
    8 - Collaboration with civil society groups
            - Important voice of local people / stakeholders
            - Their presence/voice from the early stages through ‘Coastal Strategy workshop’
    9 - Coastal / marine policy
            - Coordinated legal tools
    10 - Regional mechanisms


PEMSEA office, or better known as RPO for Regional Program Office acts as a secretariat and center in coordinating the implementation of the program through its multi-talented and diverse multinational experts to the participating nations.

This program started in the year 1999 through September 2004. However, due to tremendous support from various parties, the program has secured an extension for another year until September 2005.