Launching 'East Asian Civil Forum on Marine Litter'

Launching 'East Asian Civil Forum on Marine Litter'

 

East Asian countries are connected to each other environmentally, geographically, historically, or culturally through shared regional seas.  The East Asian region is one of the most dynamic economic centers with some of the busiest shipping lanes in the world.  With the spread of mass production and consumption over the last decades came the huge increase in solid waste generation.  There are, however, not enough waste treatment facilities and management measures, which makes the region vulnerable to marine debris pollution.

 

Entering the seas in large amounts, floating debris has become a source of concerns and conflicts among some neighboring countries.  This transboundary environmental problem requires concerted efforts of all the relevant stakeholders beyond sectoral and political boundaries.  In this regard, OSEAN (Our Sea of East Asia Network) and JEAN (Japan Environmental Action Network), the marine debris NGOs in Korea and Japan, have shared a vision in which people in the East Asia could act together as one community in protecting our precious marine ecosystems.  We believe that NGOs in the East Asian countries have an important role in sharing experiences and acting together to address the marine debris issue in the region from the bottom up.

 

The city governments of Shimonoseki and Nagato, and JEAN co-organized ‘2009 Marine Litter Summit - Shimonoseki•Nagato Meeting’ on October 16-18, 2009, in Shimonoseki, Japan.  OSEAN suggested in the meeting to start an ‘East Asian Civil Forum on Marine Litter’ through which relevant NGOs and organizations in the East Asia could share experiences and information and work together on the marine debris problems.  OSEAN and JEAN have reached a consensus to launch the forum and publish biannual newsletters.  Now we launch the East Asian Civil Forum on Marine Litter with this newsletter that delivers marine debris related news from Korea and Japan via e-mail to people who are concerned with this problem on local, national, and regional levels.  We hope that the forum could provide a venue for all of us to share our vision, experiences, and creative actions.

 

This is the first effort to link the East Asian people beyond geographical and language barriers to a common goal of protecting our seas from marine debris pollution.  NGOs and organizations that have interests and passion to make our seas clean and healthy are more than welcome to join us.  For more information, you can contact us at loveseakorea@empal.com.  Please let us know if you have any problem in receiving the newsletter.  This article is also available online at http://cafe.naver.com/osean.

All of OSEAN-JEAN