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Strategic Action Programme for the South China Sea

UN Environment South China Sea SAP Implementation

By IW:LEARN

June 21^st, 2018

This project entitled “Implementing the Strategic Action Programme for the South China Sea" is financed by the Global Environment Facility and implemented by United Nations Environment Programme (UN Environment). Making significant contributions to the environmental security pillar of the GEF 7 strategy, project activities will result in significant environmental stress reduction via actions to: establish appropriate forms of sustainable management established for 860,000 ha of mangrove; facilitate effective management arrangements for 153,000 ha of coral reef at 82 priority sites; establish arrangements for the sustainable use of 25,900 ha of known seagrass area in the South China Sea; and develop integrated management of 783,900 ha of coastal wetland at 19 sites.

The project will also strengthen knowledge-based action planning for the management of coastal habitats and land-based pollution, and will support consensus building on arrangements for strengthened regional cooperation in the management of the marine and coastal environment of the South China Sea. Importantly the project will promote strengthened results-oriented actions, including demonstration of measurable environmental stress reduction in the South China Sea basin. In the not so distant past, a common impediment in identifying and quantifying compromises to environmental security in coastal and marine areas was the often-prohibitive costs of obtaining remotely sensed information required to support coastal area assessments and characterizations.

The recent and somewhat rapid proliferation in the market-place of unmanned aerial vehicles, referred to by most as drones, has made the conduct of aerial visual survey an affordable option for projects working in large and often remote areas. Being lightweight and able to be operated over long distances collecting georeferenced, high definition video footage and still photography, drones can be operated by single persons to conduct rapid assessments to more focused threat analysis. This technology was tested during 2007-present as part of the linked SEAFDEC/UNEP/GEF South China Sea Fisheries Refugia Initiatives, and plans are presently in place for scaled-up application of the drone technology in support of detailed baseline setting and threat identification at more than 210 project sites.

Experiences to date have shown the imagery collected during the surveys is also highly effective in stimulating discussion among initiative stakeholders about what is happening in their backyards. Often participants in consultation process have not before been given much more than a topographic map overview of their coastal areas. So while drone technology is highly effective in providing scientists and resource managers with detailed information about precise locations of effluent outfalls, real time information about activities presenting threats to coastal habitats or fisheries resources, it also acts as a highly engaging participatory diagnostic tool for initiative stakeholders. Therefore, given the importance of consensus building in agreeing upon priority actions required to guide environmental security, the experience of the UNEP/GEF South China Sea Project in the used of drone technology will provide lessons and examples of best practice that will likely have potential application elsewhere.