ASEAN COOPERATION ON
ENVIRONMENT
An Overview
ASEAN's environment and natural resource endowments are unique and diverse. Half a billion people in ASEAN depend primarily on these natural resource endowments for economic and social development and livelihood. In many ASEAN countries, land resources and terrestrial ecosystems are under increasing stress due to growing population and extension of agricultural land into forest and other ecologically sensitive areas. This is compounded by pollution due to accelerated industrialisation and urbanisation in ASEAN member countries. These environmental problems are complex in nature and transcend national boundaries which call for increased regional and global cooperation.
The ASEAN leaders view the protection of the environment and the sustainable use and management of natural resources as essential to the long-term economic growth and social development of their countries and the region. The ASEAN Vision 2020 calls for "a clean and green ASEAN with fully established mechanisms for sustainable development to ensure the protection of the region's environment, the sustainability of its natural resources and the high quality of life of its peoples".
ASEAN recognises the synergistic benefits in addressing common environmental problems on a regional basis and has since 1977 developed a series of ASEAN Sub-regional Environmental Programmes (ASEP I, II, and III), followed by the Strategic Plan of Action on the Environment, 1999-2004 (SPAE). ASEAN Vision 2020 and the current Vientiane Action Programme 2004-2010 (VAP) , the successor to the Ha Noi Plan of Action 1999 - 2004 (HPA) , has further elaborated 12 strategies and 55 programme areas and measures to achieve the twin objective of promoting environmental sustainability and sustainable natural resource management.
The ASEAN Ministers responsible for Environment in November 2002 agreed to further synergise the regional environmental cooperation by identifying ten priority areas based on the World Summit on Sustainable Development Plan of Implementation. The 18th Meeting of ASEAN Senior Officials on Environment further agreed to rationalise the priority areas of sustainable forest management and sustainable management of protected areas into one priority area, namely sustainable management of biodiversity. Therefore the current nine priority areas are as follows:
ASEAN has a well-established governance structure to effectively develop, coordinate and implement regional initiatives and programmes as follows:
As environmental issues are interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral in nature and have impacts at the regional and global levels, concerted efforts have been made to coordinate activities with the relevant sectoral bodies of ASEAN, and other regional and international institutions. Environmental considerations have been incorporated into the development plans of other sectors to ensure that the goals of environmentally sound sustainable development are achieved. The ASEAN Secretariat plays an important coordinating and enabling role in integrating environmental factors into other development activities of ASEAN.