Reducing Marine Litter By Addressing the Management of Plastic Value Chain in South East Asia
Jacqueline Chang, National Consultant, SEAcircular Project – Solving Plastic Pollution at Source
United Nations Environment Programme at MESTECC
Marine Debris and Plastic Pollution
Marine litter is everywhere – in the sea as well as in public discourse
Wide-ranging environmental, social and economic impacts
Opportunity to act but poor information base for decision support and tracking
East Asians Seas globally important – as a source and in finding lasting solutions
ImageCredit:ConserveEnergyFuture
Action Plan for the Protection and Sustainable Development of the Marine and Coastal Areas of the East Asian Seas Region
Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam
Intergovernmental meeting; Secretariat hosted by Thailand and administered by UNEP; Strategic Directions 2018-2022, Regional Action Plan on Marine Litter 2019
18 Regional Seas Conventions and Action Plans, 7 administered by UN Environment
East Asian Seas Action Plan 1994
COBSEA Countries
COBSEA Governance
Regional Seas
Regional Conventions, Action Plans & Strategic Directions
Regional Action Plan on Marine Litter (RAP MALI) 2019
As national policy frameworks vary significantly among COBSEA member countries, member countries agreed that synergy is to be established between the COBSEA RAP MALI and the ASEAN Framework of Action on Marine Debris in order to promote coherence and avoid duplication of efforts.
Reducing Marine Litter by Addressing the Management of Plastic Value Chain in SEA
Timeline 2018 – 2023 (4 years remaining)
Lead agencies UN Environment Programme and COBSEA
Partners COBSEA focal agencies, private sector, civil society & academia
Donor Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida)
Target countries Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, Indonesia, Singapore, the Philippines, Vietnam, Korea and China
in line with COBSEA RAP MALI and the ASEAN Framework for Action on Marine Debris
REGIONAL APPROACH
PLASTIC VALUE CHAIN APPROACH preventing land-based marine litter, land-sea interactions, towards a circular economy
MULTI-STAKEHOLDER PARTNERSHIP government, private sector, civil society, academia, international & UN-partners
PEOPLE-CENTRED APPROACH respecting the needs and interests of disadvantaged groups and their human rights
The SEA circular project
1. Market-based solutions • Stakeholders measure and report plastic footprint • Stakeholders manage their plastic value chain • Business incentives for plastic reduction and
recycling
2. Science-basis for decision making • Assessment of plastic leakage and hotspots • Marine litter monitoring national & regional levels • Knowledge hub / Regional Node on marine litter • Policy obstacles and opportunities identified
3. Outreach • Social and economic impacts better understood • Targeted training (MOOC) • Outreach campaigns/consumer awareness
4. Regional networking • Policy dialogue & constituency engagement • Regionally coherent national plans & policies • Information sharing & stakeholder engagement • SEA of Solutions partnership week
Variety of non-plastic and recycled plastic packaging increases
Plastic segregation at source and recycling rates increase
Strengthened policy and fiscal incentives to reduce virgin plastic use
Growing consumer demand for plastic pollution reduction
Less plastic wasted, reduced leakage & impact on the marine environment & communities
Elimination of single use plastics from selected value chains
The SEA circular project
A value chain approach targeting upstream sources of plastic pollution
Leveraging on SEA circular project for Malaysia’s Roadmap Towards Zero Single Use Plastics 2018-2030
• Addressing key challenges of land-based plastic marine pollution
• Provide market based solutions towards “less plastic wasted”
• Directly delivering on priorities and needs identified through COBSEA, in Strategic Directions and the RAP MALI (Regional Action Plan on Marine Litter)
• Using COBSEA mechanisms, including technical exchange and guidance through Working Groups on Marine Litter and policy dialogues through intergovernmental meetings
• Strengthening the evolving institutional framework of COBSEA through UN network
• Providing support for capacity building, technical assistance, addressing knowledge gaps, and partnerships to accelerate national planning and achieve regional goals
MESTECC&PENANGSTAKEHOL
DERS
REGIONALAPPROACH
inlinewithCOBSEARAPMALIandtheASEANFramework
forActiononMarineDebris
Our Collective Strengths for Collaboration
PLASTICVALUECHAINAPPROACHpreventingland-basemarinelitter,land-seainteractionstowardscirculareconomy
MULTI-STAKEHOLDERPARTNERSHIPgovernment,
privatesector,civilsociety,academia,international&UN
partners
PEOPLECENTREDAPPROACH
respectingtheneedsandinterestofdisadvantagedgroupsandtheirhumanrights
COMMITTEDtoworklocallyandregionallywithpartnersandstakeholders
PASSIONATEtodriveresultscollectivelyandeliminatesilomentalities
COMBININGNETWORKStostrengthencollaboration&nationwideengagement
SOLUTIONDRIVENMINDSETtenacityinstrategyimplementation&projectexecution
SYNTHESIZERopenminded,unifiers(connectingthedots)&enjoyinnovativeandcreativeactivities
GAMECHAINGINGPOLICIES&DRIVERSforplasticreductionandincreaseplasticcircularity
Four Key Objectives to Address and Achieve with Penang Stakeholders
• To discuss a collaboration to document a case study on a current 3R pilot project initiative on Penang Island in cooperation with local government to demonstrate good practice of 3R (reduce, reuse, recycle) interventions and implementation of circular economy solutions from 2020 onwards
• To receive updates on Penang’s current initiatives (community and commercial sectors) after implementation of the Waste Segregation at Source (WSAS) policy
• To nominate the project’s implementation partners and stakeholders in Penang, and
• To explore opportunities for collaboration among other initiatives and partners
Jacqueline Chang National Consultant SEAcircular Project – Solving Plastic Pollution at Source UN Environment Programme [email protected]
www.cobsea.org
https://www.sea-circular.org www.unenvironment.org
