South China Sea Countries to Cooperate on Integrating Fisheries and Marine Ecosystem Management

The South China Sea is the global center of shallow water tropical marine biodiversity, however the loss of coastal habitats in this marine basin are high and increasing. Each decade, 30 percent of seagrass, 16 percent of mangrove, and 16 percent of live coral cover is lost due to unsustainable use by the more than 270 million people that live along its coast. The new initiative – called the “Establishment and Operation of a Regional System of Fisheries Refugia in the South China Sea and Gulf of Thailand Sea" – aims to work with communities and governments to integrate habitat and biodiversity conservation considerations into fishery management and practices. The initiative is financed by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and implemented by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).