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Restoring Yellow Sea’s ecosystem through marine litter management, integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA), and wetland protection

GEF-UNDP/UNOPS Yellow Sea LME Phase II Project

By IW:LEARN

July 14^th, 2020

Oceans and seas contribute approximately $3-6 trillion annually to the global economy in terms of the market value of goods and services including fisheries, energy, shipping, tourism, recreational, and mining sectors, as well as non-market ecosystem services such as climate regulation, nutrient cycling and carbon sequestration.

More than 200 million people live in areas around the Yellow Sea and there are several important port cities along its coastline. It is home to 321 fish species from 113 families, an important stop-over site for over 50 million migratory waterbirds, and a critical habitat for several endangered marine mammals. In China, the marine GDP of the coastal regions along the Yellow Sea was at CNY2.54 trillion in 2016. While in RO Korea, the GDP of its coastal regions along the Yellow Sea accounts for 37.6 percent of the country.

Yet, the integrity of these ocean values and services is at significant risk. Human interference poses the biggest threat to oceans with increasing marine pollution coming from land-based activities, depleting fish stocks, habitat degradation and loss, agricultural wastes and other runoff, and increasing temperatures causing sea level rise, among others.

Anchored on ecosystem-based principles, the Yellow Sea Large Marine Ecosystem (YSLME) Phase II Project, funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and led by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), has been advancing innovations by facilitating research, best practices, integrated policies, new tools/technologies, and collaborative works to address key transboundary issues in the Yellow Sea. In collaboration with various partners, and in celebration of World Oceans Day 2020, the project launched three videos showcasing some of these initiatives and innovations in the Yellow Sea region.

Crack down on the small but dangerous microplastics and addressing marine litter

With the help of scientists and various stakeholders through the YSLME II Project, the causes of plastic pollution, its transport pathways and journey to the sea, and impacts are explained.

Sustainable mariculture through IMTA: The success story of Dongchu Island

IMTA is a concept borrowed from nature -- that in the food chain, one species always finds a feeding niche in the waste generated by another species. IMTA provides a good balance for pollution control and environmental conservation while maximizing economic benefits for the fishermen.

Saving critically-endangered Spoon-billed Sandpipers through coastal wetlands protection and restoration in the Yellow Sea

The location of the Yellow Sea is very important being exactly in the middle of the East Asian-Australasian migratory bird flyway. More than 200 species, nearly 50 million waterbirds migrate through this area. For generations, the intertidal wetlands of the Yellow Sea is a must-stop site for Spoon-billed Sandpipers, one of the world’s most endangered bird species. However, at the start of 2010, the habitats degraded, resulting in a significant decline in the population of visiting Spoon-billed Sandpipers.

The UNDP/GEF Yellow Sea Large Marine Ecosystem Project is a transboundary initiative that began in 2005 as a response through transboundary diagnostic analysis (TDA) of environmental problems, and development and implementation of the Strategic Action Programme (SAP) for the YSLME. Its overall aim is to help PR China and RO Korea achieve sustainable ecosystem-based management and restore the Yellow Sea’s natural resources for generations into the future. This second phase of the project provides assistance to China and RO Korea to implement the SAP and support institutionalization of the long-term regional coordination mechanism for the implementation of the SAP/YSLME beyond the life of the project.

For more information, please contact the Project Manager, Yinfeng Guo (yinfengg@unops.org), as well as visit the project page on iwlearn.net and the project website.