Imagine this: members of a coastal community in a festive mood with their drums and buckets as they await the fishing net to be hauled back to the shore. The fisherfolks pulled the heavy net, only to find hundreds of jellyfish inside. The only fish caught was not enough to fill a bucket.
ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) Executive Director Theresa Mundita Lim shared this story at the 1st Digital Environment Conference 2020: Youth and Biological Diversity to illustrate the need for conservation and sustainable use of marine resources.
The webinar, which was held on 9 June 2020 and organised by the Youth Advocates of the Philippines, aimed to inspire the youth to participate in conservation initiatives and biodiversity mainstreaming efforts of youth organisations at the national and international levels. The fourth day of the virtual discussion focused on marine conservation efforts in celebration of the Coral Triangle Day on the same day and the World Oceans’ Day on 8 June.
The ASEAN region has a rich marine biological diversity, including abundant reef-building stony corals and we have 40 per cent of the world’s reef fishes, said Lim.
Overfishing and poaching of marine predators, however, can lead to ecological imbalance. From her previous community visit, Lim found out that sea turtles, the jellyfish’s natural predators, have disappeared, resulting in the overpopulation of jellyfish and affecting the food security of the community.
Lim emphasised that local, national and regional cooperation is important in marine biodiversity conservation since species such as the sea turtles move around the region’s waters regardless of national boundaries.
Global efforts on coastal and marine conservation are ongoing. To date, 5.3-7.45 per cent of the 10 per cent target marine protected areas (MPAs) have been established and are being managed through legal or other effective means. Recently, the UN Convention on Biological Diversity’s zero draft of the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework proposed to increase the MPA targets to at least 30% of the global ocean by 2030, dubbed as the 30by30 ambition.
We need to establish more MPAs, and manage better those that we already have, said Diovanie De Jesus, a Campaign and Science specialist from Oceana Philippines. Mangroves and wetlands conservation also fall under possible MPAs expansion, but these are threatened by reclamation and other sea-use conversion projects.
MPAs must be managed as a network, and it must include socio-economic considerations for the communities, said Ronald Olavides, Chief Marine Scientist from Bluenomads.Org Survey Philippines. He noted that one of the challenges in MPA establishment is providing sustainable alternative livelihoods to community members who are dependent on marine resources. Do not agonise, organise, is the way to win the participation and involvement of the community in biodiversity conservation, he said.
Marine conservation work should be done across sectors; it cannot be the responsibility of the environment sector alone, said Lim. We want to engage the youth so that when you become leaders, environment and biodiversity will be imbibed and integrated into the sectors that you will work in.
Empowering and capacity-building of the youth is among the ACB’s programmes. The ASEAN Youth Biodiversity Programme (AYBP) engages and trains Youth Biodiversity Leaders (YBLs) who are actively involved in conservation and lobbying efforts in their respective countries. The ABYP is supported by the European Union through the Biodiversity Conservation and Management of Protected Areas (BCAMP) project.
In closing, Lim reiterated the important role of the youth in biodiversity conservation: Transformational change is easier with the youth. You are the hope of nature. You are the hope of One ASEAN.
2020 Philippine Information Agency