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PRESS RELEASE
Twelfth Meeting of the ASEAN Senior Officials on the Environment
Bandar Seri Begawan, 4th August 2001: The Twelfth Meeting of the
ASEAN Senior Officials on the Environment was held on 3-4 August, 2001
in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Darussalam. The Meeting was attended
by
Senior
Officials
from
each
ASEAN
Member
Countries,
and
representatives from the ASEAN Secretariat.
The
Meeting
reviewed
developments
relating
to
environmental
cooperation in the ASEAN region, and discussed implementation of
cooperative activities based on the Ha Noi Plan of Action and Strategic
Plan of Action on the Environment. The areas of cooperation include
transboundary haze pollution, nature
conservation
and
biodiversity,
multilateral environmental agreements, coastal and marine environment,
and various other environmental activities. The Senior Officials also
discussed follow-up actions on the decisions made by the Environment
Ministers at their 8th formal meeting in October, 2000 in Kota Kinabalu,
Sabah, Malaysia and the 6th Informal Meeting in May 2001 in Phnom
Penh, Cambodia.
On transboundary haze pollution, the Meeting noted that there was a low
chance of an El Nino developing later this year.
However, during the
current southwest monsoon, there was still a likelihood of some areas
(Central and South Sumatra), experiencing drier than normal weather.
This could lead to periodic occurrences of slight to moderate haze in the
region.
The Meeting resolved to step up efforts to mitigate land and
forest fires.
The Meeting noted the difficulties in implementing the zero burning policy
at the field level, particularly for the local communities. The Meeting
therefore agreed to work towards banning all forms of open burning as a
long-term strategy within the period of southwesterly monsoon, especially
during the months of July to September. As a short-to-medium term
strategy, the Meeting also agreed to continue the current efforts on public
awareness programmes and development of guidelines and techniques for
controlled burning method.
The Meeting also noted that considerable progress had been made with
regard to the formulation of the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary
Haze Pollution, and that the Senior Officials are committed to ensure that
the Agreement would be signed during the ASEAN Summit in November
2001 in Brunei Darussalam.
Regarding multilateral environmental agreements, the Meeting noted that
a training workshop on chemical-related MEAs would be held in Kuala
Lumpur, and an ASEAN case study on synergies and interlinkages among
MEAs would be conducted soon. The Meeting also agreed to hold an
experts meeting of climate change focal points in October, 2001 in
Singapore to discuss, among others, follow-up actions of the recent
climate change negotiations, regional activities on climate change, and
preparation for COP 7.
On coastal and marine environment, the Meeting endorsed a proposal on
Regional Coordination for Integrated Protection and Management of
Coastal and Marine Environment in South East Asia for implementation.
The Meeting also agreed to forge closer collaboration with the relevant
activities of other international organizations in the region.
The Meeting noted that the “Second ASEAN State of the Environment
Report 2000” has been published. The ASEAN Secretariat would launch
this publication as well as other environmental publications, such as ”Fire,
Smoke and Haze: the ASEAN Response Strategy’’ and the ”ASEAN
Environmental Education Action Plan 2000-2005” on 14 August 2001 at
the ASEAN Secretariat, Jakarta. The event is part of ASEAN’s efforts to
publicize its regional environmental activities, and for the relevant parties
to be informed and to partake in enhancing regional cooperation on the
environment.
The
Senior
Officials
discussed
cooperative
programmes
with
representatives of the Governments of Japan and the Republic of Korea
within the framework of ASEAN+3 Cooperation. The Senior Officials also
discussed cooperative activities with several international organizations,
namely the United Nations Environment Programme, the United Nations
University, and the United States Asia Environmental Partnership.
The Meeting was held in the traditional spirit of ASEAN cordiality and
solidarity.