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Journal of International Wildlife Law & Policy

ISSN: 1388-0292 (Print) 1548-1476 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/uwlp20

Building a Regional Network and ManagementRegime of Marine Protected Areas in the SouthChina Sea for Sustainable Development

Nguyen Chu Hoi & Vu Hai Dang

To cite this article: Nguyen Chu Hoi & Vu Hai Dang (2015) Building a Regional Network

and Management Regime of Marine Protected Areas in the South China Sea forSustainable Development, Journal of International Wildlife Law & Policy, 18:2, 128-138, DOI:

10.1080/13880292.2015.1044797

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Published online: 09 Jul 2015.

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Journal of International Wildlife Law & Policy, 18:128–138, 2015

Copyright C Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

ISSN: 1388-0292 print / 1548-1476 online

DOI: 10.1080/13880292.2015.1044797

Building a Regional Network andManagement Regime of Marine ProtectedAreas in the South China Seafor Sustainable Development

NGUYEN CHU HOI∗

VU HAI DANG∗

1. INTRODUCTION

The South China Sea (SCS) or Bien Dong Sea (in Vietnamese) is considered

one of largest semi-enclosed seas in the world, with an estimated area of

about 3,500.000 km2. The SCS is rich in biodiversity and has a high marine

conservation potential that supports rich fishery ground for fish and other

marine products.1

The SCS is surrounded by nine nations (China, Vietnam,the Philippines, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia,

and one territory of Taiwan) with about 300 million people (in 2000) whose

livelihoods depend on the marine waters.

The SCS is a fast developing area with one of the world’s most dynamic

economies over the last decades and main exploitations such as fisheries,

aquaculture, oil and gas, marine transportation, and tourism. However, almost

all the coastal states are also facing the complicated sovereignty claims and

maritime boundary disputes in the SCS.

To provide important benefits for national marine economic develop-

ment and environmental protection, almost all of the SCS’s coastal stateshave established the national system of the marine protected areas (MPAs).

∗Nguyen Chu Hoi, Associate Professor at Vietnam National University. E-mail: [email protected];

and Dr. Vu Hai Dang, Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam. The views expressed in this article are those of

the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of any government.1 Adonis S. Floren, Distribution Patterns of Ichthyoplankton in the South China Sea and Part of the

Sulu Sea, in PROCEEDINGS OF CONFERENCE ON THE PHILIPPINES-VIETNAM JOINT OCEANOGRAPHIC AND MARINE

SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH EXPEDITION IN THE SOUTH CHINA SEA 101 (2008).

Color versions of one or more of the figures in the article can be found online atwww.tandfonline.com/uwlp.

128


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BUILDING A REGIONAL NETWORK 129

However, the SCS’s environment and living resources are continuously de-

grading at an alarming rate due to both natural and human impacts, including

those from climate change. Besides, the region also lacks an effective regional

regime for marine environmental and MPA management cooperation between

coastal states. In comparison with many other regions in the world, the process

of regime building for the protection of the marine environment in the SCS

has been quite limited.2

Therefore, to address these problems, a MPA network with an effective

regional management regime should be developed in the SCS for protecting all

biodiversity types, for maintaining the unique, endemic, rare, and endangered

species, and for essential ecological connectivity. The MPA network is con-

sidered a way of implementing the ecosystem-based approach in the marine

region, too. Apart from this, the MPA network with effective regional man-agement regime will not only help in protecting the marine living resources

and environment but also will contribute to mitigating the tension between

the coastal states towards development of a healthy and peaceful SCS.

This article synthesizes the needs of the MPA network development and

the efforts in building the regional regime for MPA management in the SCS.

Based on the reviewed results, the authors provide some recommendations for

improving the regional cooperation on successful management of the MPA

network in the SCS.

2. NEED OF A MPA NETWORK IN THE SCS

The Indo-West Pacific marine biogeographic province, which includes the

SCS large marine ecosystem (LME), is well recognized as a global centre of

marine shallow-water, tropical biodiversity. The SCS exceeds 7,300 islands

with offshore archipelagoes such as Paracels, and Spratlys, where there is

a unique marine environment consisting of submerged coral reefs (shoals),

atolls sometimes with emergent islets, but always with lagoons and deep parts

of the ocean that connect the scattered coral reefs via ocean currents. These

currents carry propagules from one reef site to another. The lagoons hold the

nutrients needed for biological production and serve as habitats of marine

species.3

Recent estimates suggest that approximately 2 million ha of mangrove

forest or 12 percent of the world total are located in the countries bordering

the SCS LME. Six species of marine turtles, of which all are considered either

endangered or vulnerable by the IUCN, the dugong, and several other species

2 Vu Hai Dang & Nguyen Chu Hoi, Regional Marine Environmental Protection and Regime Building in

the South China Sea: Status and Challenges, 25 INT’L STUD. 71–98 (2011).3

D. G. Ochavillo, Kalayaan Island Reefs as Larval Source, in THE KALAYAAN ISLANDS: OUR NATURALHERITAGE (Porfirio M. Aliño & Miledel Christine C. Quibilan eds., 2003).


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130 HOI AND DANG

of marine mammal included on IUCN’s Red List of Threatened Animals

occur in the SCS. Twenty percent of coral reefs of Southeast Asia are rich in

sea-grass beds of which 18 sea-grass species are recorded in and adjacent to

the coastal waters of the SCS.4 The SCS is also an important fishing ground

for the states in the region of which stocks are estimated to include 1,027

species of fishes, 91 species of shrimp, and 73 cephalopods.5 Especially, the

presence of a high biodiversity in the Spratlys is of great importance because

their propagules are expected to be carried by ocean currents to the countries

surrounding the SCS.6

According to the results of the Philippines-Vietnam Joint Oceanographic

and Marine Scientific Research Expedition in the SCS (JOMSRE-SCS),7 the

fish species on the coral reefs of the Spratlys have been estimated to number

some 400 species in 45 families, including the common seven families of reef fish containing the target (food) species. The densities of fish go as high as

3,000 individuals/500 square meters.

A review and update of the regional experts in 20148 showed that the SCS

is a home of 517 known species of reef-building corals. The species centrally

distribute in the middle part of the SCS in which the Spratly archipelago area

hosts about 333 coral species of 71 genera, and in the marine area of South

Vietnam 406 species of 75 genera, while in the Chinese Southeastern marine

area only 95 species. The number of coral species existing in the Spratlys is

about 60 percent of the species reported in the southern Philippines, which

533 species.In comparison to the Coral Triangle with an estimated area of six times

more than the SCS’s area and 566 coral species also showed that the richness

of the reef-building coral species in the SCS is also very high. Based on the

updated results, Vo Si Tuan10 suggested that the western range of the Coral

Triangle would be expanded as a Coral Sub-Triangle in the SCS, which covers

the middle part of the SCS, including Luzon (the Philippines) in the north,

South Vietnam in the west, Palawan (the Philippines) in the east, and stretching

to Brunei in the south (Fig. 1).

4 UN Env’t Programme, The UNEP Large Marine Ecosystem Report: A Perspective on Changing Condi-

tions in LMEs of the World’s Regional Seas 297, UNEP Regional Seas Reports and Studies No. 182 (K.

Sherman & G. Hempel eds., 2008).5 VU HAI DANG, MARINE PROTECTED AREAS NETWORK IN THE SOUTH CHINA SEA: CHARTING A COURSE FOR

FUTURE COOPERATION (2014).6 John W. McManus, The Spratly Islands: A Marine Park?, 23 AMBIO 181, 181–186 (1994).7 A. C. Alcala, Summary of the Marine Biology Results of JOMSRE-SCS I, III, and IV and Their Man-

agement Implications, in PROCEEDINGS OF CONFERENCE ON THE PHILIPPINES-VIETNAM JOINT OCEANOGRAPHIC

AND MARINE SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH EXPEDITION IN THE SOUTH CHINA SEA 5, 6–7 (2008).8 Danwei Huang et al., Extraordinary Diversity of Reef Corals in the South China Sea, MARINE BIODIVER-

SITY, May 2014, at 14.10 Id. at 315–322.


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FIGURE 1. An Expanded Scheme of the Western Range of the Coral Triangle. Note: (i) The dashed

line is “traditional limit” and (ii) the solid line is “expanded limit” in the SCS (after Vo Si Tuan,

20149).© Vo Si Tuan. Reproduced by permission of Vo Si Tuan. Permission to reuse must be

obtained from the rightsholder.

Most of the fishery resources in the SCS are shared stocks or highly

migratory species.11 Yearly, the marine region lands some 6 million tons of

catches, about 10 percent of the world’s total catch and 23 percent of Asia’s. 12

In 2014, for example, only the fisheries sector in Vietnam greatly contributed

to the national economy with over 6.7 billion USD of GDP value from exports,

over half of them from marine catch fish.13

Although the SCS LME has special importance for the socioeconomic

development of its coastal states, the environment of the SCS has been under

some serious threats arising from the fast economic development and high

population growth in the region. These cause habitat loss and degradation,

unsustainable exploitation of marine living resources, and pollution of marine

environment at a very alarming rate. For example, some 40–70 percent of

11 Nguyen Chu Hoi, Resolving Comprehensively 3 Issues: Fishermen, Fisheries and Aquatic Environment

Towards a Sustainable and Responsible Fisheries Sector , J. AGRIC. & RURAL DEV., no. 7, 2014, at 24.12

DANG, supra note 5, at 20.13 Hoi, supra note 11, at 21.


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132 HOI AND DANG

mangroves, 50–80 percent of coral reefs, and 20–50 of percent sea-grass

beds have been lost and degraded due to different economic activities14 such

as coastal reclamation, destructive fishing by using poison and dynamite,

coastal aquaculture and mariculture, urbanization, sea-port development and

shipping, coastal tourism and settlement, and marine construction, especially

the change of shoal integrity in coral reef areas.

The other threats include marine and climate change impact and from

land-based sources. Under UNEP GPA support, inventory results of contam-

inant load from land-based sources into the Vietnam coastal environment

(2010) showed that some 30–70 percent of potential pollution in the coastal

marine waters is generated from land-based impact, especially in coastal big

cities and industrial zones.15 Similarly, the coastal and marine pollution hot

spots of the SCS can found in the Malacca Strait, Manila Bay (the Philip-pines), and the island of Sumatra (Indonesia).16 The marine litters, most of

which are plastic materials from fishing, shipping, and other activities, be-

come the concerned problem in the SCS. The oil spills and oil pollution level

relating to the busiest regional and international marine transportation routes

passing the SCS with daily about 200 tankers and with thousands other ships

and fishing boats is tendentiously increasing in temporal.17

The major research findings of the JOMSRE-SCS (1996–2007)18 also

showed the coral reefs and corals in the Spratlys are in reasonably fair to good

condition, but the fishery species (macro-invertebrates and fish) had lower

densities and biomasses in 2007 compared to those recorded in the late 1990sand in 2005. This is most likely due to heavy fishing pressure, but fish species

richness appears stable. In atoll-reef lagoons in the Spratlys there is a lack of

large vertebrates such as mammals and turtles, and there is evidence that these

have been overexploited. The turtle skulls on beaches remind us that they were

present there before. There was also noted a lower biomass of harvestable fish

at 39 tons/square kilometer in 2007 as opposed to 114 tons/square kilometer in

1997, showing depletion in abundance and biomass of biodiversity resources

during the past 10–11 years. Other marine species such as sea cucumbers and

giant clams have also been found to exist in reduced numbers. In fact, sea

cucumbers were found being dried by fishers in Jackson Atoll in 2007.19

As mentioned, the species richness of marine biodiversity of the SCS

LME generally and in the Spratlys particularly is very high, while threats to the

14 DANG, supra note 5, at 22.15 Nguyen Chu Hoi, Status and Management of Marine Protected Area System in Vietnam , 28 VIETNAM

NAT’L U. J. SCI. 77, 77–85 (2012).16 U.N. Env’t Programme, supra note 4, at 297.17 Nguyen Chu Hoi, A Blue Economy Pertaining to the National System of Marine Protected Areas in Viet

Nam, J. SCI., TECH. & ENV’T, no. 26–5, 2012.18

Ochavillo, supra note 3.19 Alcala, supra note 7.


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coastal and marine environment and biodiversity is more and more increased.

Thus the states surrounding and even outside the SCS, including Vietnam,

China, and the Philippines, should realize the importance of this fact and

should agree to conserve the biodiversity resources for the benefit of their peo-

ples. Any activity that harms this rich biodiversity will be counterproductive

to their interests and the welfare of the world and future generations.20 In sum,

there is a need for immediate protection and management of the marine biodi-

versity of the SCS including the Spratlys through a MPA network in the region.

3. EFFORTS IN THE ESTABLISHMENT AND MANAGEMENT

OF MPAS IN THE SCS

The SCS has a high marine conservation potential, and in fact, the SCS’s

states have established a national system of the marine protected areas (MPAs)

that provides important benefits for national marine economics development

and environmental protection. However, according to the statistics from the

Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), no state bordering the SCS had

more than 5 percent of its territorial waters protected in 2010. The coverage

rate of MPAs in the SCS and the gulf of Thailand was very limited: 0.31 percent

and 0.8 percent, respectively.21 The area of coral reefs in the 83 target coral reef

sites is 217,407 ha (29 percent of the total area in the SCS), of which 100,243 ha

(13 percent of the total area) is under management at the present time. In termsof management effectiveness only, around 5 percent of this area is considered

to be under successful management. For 29 percent of the sites, management

effectiveness is considered low, while around 13 percent is not under any form

of management.22 In addition, management types are quite diverse and different

among the countries in the region (not only MPA); coral reef management is

practiced by different sectors even in one country, and there has been weak

coordination among sectors, e.g., fisheries and environment management. The

national system of MPAs planned and approved by Vietnam’s government in

2010 includes 16 MPA sites, which is representative for marine areas of the

country and covers about 0.27 percent of the Vietnamese Exclusive EconomicZone’s (EEZ’s) area.23 In the total number of 1,097 established MPAs in the

Philippines, including coastal protected areas, there are 107 MPAs in the SCS

region.24

20 Id .21 DANG, supra note 5.22 Si Vo Tuan, Development of a Coral Reef Management Strategy within the Framework of the UNEP/GEF

South China Sea Project , 15 GALAXEA J. CORAL REEF STUD. 9, 11 (2013).23 Hoi, supra note 15, at 77–85.24

MARINE ENV’T & RES. FOUND., INC. & CONSERVATION INT’L PHIL., INITIAL RESULTS OF THE MARINE PROTECTEDAREAS GAP ANALYSIS FOR THE PHILIPPINES (2009) [hereinafter INITIAL RESULTS].


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134 HOI AND DANG

In 1995, some 90 percent of MPAs in EAS (a broader marine region in-

cluding the SCS) had failed or only partially achieved their management

objectives. In 2010, the gap analysis of ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity

(ACB)25 showed that among 152 coastal and marine key biodiversity areas

identified of ASEAN states (partly the SCS), only 35 are protected; 20 are

partly protected, and the rest are not protected at all. In Vietnam, only five

among 16 established MPAs have been managed,26 and in the Philippines only

541 among 1,097 established MPAs had geographical coordinate information,

while the rest of the MPAs did not have coordinates.27 Regarding the marine

biodiversity conservation in the SCS, there were some early initiatives, one of

which is the proposal of McManus JW (2004)28 to establish an international

marine park in the Spratlys in the middle SCS. The JOMSRE-SCS’s report

reminds of the need for MPAs in the Spratlys29

—even the experts have recom-mended that the Philippines and Vietnam should work for the establishment

of trans-border peace parks or MPAs in the Spratlys, with 30 percent of the

total area declared as no-take zones to allow buildup of biological resources

and ultimately to export marine propagules. Initially, protective management

should begin at the North Danger Reef and Jackson Atoll, as soon as pos-

sible, as marine resources show signs of diminishing, some of them rather

rapidly. The two countries should utilize the country’s experts on MPAs to

monitor and study the progress of the peace parks and to report periodically

on the progress of protection effort for dissemination to other countries of the

world.30

In the planning process of national system of the MPAs, an ecosystem-

based marine spatial planning (MSP) approach has been applied,31 and among

total 16 established MPAs, there is one MPA site situated in the Spratlys (called

Namyet Island MPA).32 A key output of the UNEP/GEF SCS project was

the Strategic Action Programme (SAP), including the National Action Plans

(NAP). Nevertheless, the South China Sea regional SAP and NAPs developed

under this project must be used as a starting point for the development of a

consensus and actions in the SCS and over a wider geographic region. 33 The

comprehensive initiative pertained to the MPA network and legal aspects of

sustainable development in the SCS can be found in the book of Vu Hai Dang

25 Id.26 Hoi, supra note 15.27 INITIAL RESULTS, supra note 24.28 McManus, supra note 6, at 181–186.29 INST. OF OCEANOGRAPHY, BIODIVERSITY IN SPRADLY FROM THE JOMSRE-SCS: AN INTERIM BRIEF OF THE

JOMSRE-SCS RESULTS (2007) (on file with Inst. of Oceanography, Hoa Province, Vietnam).30 Alcala, supra note 7.31 Nyguyen Chu Hoi, Application of Spatial Planning in Establishing a System of Marine Protected Areas

for Sustainable Fisheries Management in Vietnam, 56 J. MAR. B IOL. ASSOC. INDIA 28, 28–33 (2014).

32 Hoi, supra note 15, at 77–85.33 Tuan, supra note 22, at 14.


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(2014) on Marine Protected Areas Network in the SCS: Charting a Course

for Future Cooperation. This book suggests legal and political measures to

support the development of a network of MPAs in the SCS. 34

Although having a number of the efforts to promote regional initiative

of the peaceful marine park or MPA network in the SCS, the SCS states still

face many challenges for the development of a MPA network and regional

regime in managing it. The main challenges are following:

• Lack of a supportive legal and political framework;

• Lack of an effective system of compliance and enforcement;

• Uninvolvement of all relevant stakeholders;

• Do still not use of the best available knowledge;

• Lack of a sustainable financing mechanism for maintaining the MPA

network;

• Lack of a social network of MPAs;

• Diversity of the SCS states which are very different in many aspects;

• Possible strong resistance from existing users of the seas.

Despite having such situation, the MPA is still considered an effective

tool to conserve the coastal and marine biodiversity and other resources, as

well as the marine environment, to create restoration inside the MPA site

and spillover effects for outers.3536 Except that in the context of the SCS,

the effective management of a national MPA system and regional network

of MPAs will also contribute to mitigating the tension between the coastalstates of the region towards peaceful and prosperous marine waters in the

long term. It means that the SCS states would need to make much greater

efforts to establish and effectively manage a MPA network to get close to the

Convention of Biological Diversity’s (CBD) 2020 target and beyond.

In the SCS, China, Chinese Taipei, and Vietnam have sovereignty claims

to the Paracel archipelago. There are also sovereignty claims and disputes be-

tween China, Chinese Taipei, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Brunei

for the whole or part of the Spratly archipelago. Furthermore, China’s and

Chinese Taipei’s claims within the U-shaped “nine dashed lines” in the SCS

overlap to varying degrees with claims to EEZ and continental shelf areas

made by Vietnam to the east of the Vietnamese coast, made by Indonesia to

the northeast of the Natuna islands, made by Malaysia to the north of the coast

of the state of Sarawak and to the northwest of the state of Sabah, made by

Brunei Darussalam to the north of its coast, and made by the Philippines to

the west of the Filipino archipelago.37

34 DANG, supra note 5.35

Hoi, supra note 15.36 DANG, supra note 5.


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136 HOI AND DANG

Obviously, the existing sovereignty claims and maritime boundary dis-

putes in the SCS is very complicated, while coastal states have not been able

to develop effectively regional cooperation. The complex nature of these dis-

putes is exacerbated by important security and economic interests at stake

in the region. These disputes pose a major threat to stability, peace, and co-

operation in the region. Though initiatives towards a legal resolution have

been undertaken, these disputes will not likely be resolved in the near future

because of their complexity. In this context, MPAs and a regional network

of MPAs offer a political opportunity to maintain a peaceful, cooperative,

and stable environment. And the MPA is considered a mechanism to promote

cooperation and peace in the SCS. The development of a regional network of

MPAs in the SCS with a peaceful marine park is to help decrease the tension

and to enhance cooperation between disputing claimants.38

Unlike cooperation of oil and gas exploitation, cooperation in the devel-

opment of a regional network of MPAs to protect marine resources and the

environment does not require any type of commercial extraction and sharing

of marine resources.39 It even maintains and adds natural assets for blue econ-

omy development.40 Therefore, cooperation to protect marine resources and

environment in a disputed area might be accepted by relevant claimants (from

a political viewpoint) more easily than other marine cooperative activities

(because the marine resources and environment are transboundary issues).

4. REGIONAL REGIME FOR THE MPA NETWORK IN THE SCS

Based on the concept of international and regional regimes defined by Stephen

D. Krasner (1983),41 the authors have analyzed some of the most important

regional arrangements and mechanisms relevant to the marine environmental

protection and biodiversity conservation of the SCS. The arrangements include

Workshops on Managing Potential Conflicts in the SCS, the Declaration on

the Conduct of Parties in the SCS (DOC), the GEF/UNEP project “Reversing

the Environmental Degradation Trend in the SCS and Gulf of Thailand,” and

the JOMSRE-SCS. There are other mechanisms under the broader regional

framework of marine environmental protection in East Asia Seas such as

PEMSEA and COBSEA, as well as under the ASEAN framework such as

ASEAN Working Group on Coastal and Marine Environment (AWGCME).4243

37 RAMSES AMER, DISPUTE MANAGEMENT IN THE SOUTH CHINA SEA, NISCSS REPORT NO. 1 (2015), available

at http://en.nanhai.org.cn/uploads/file/file/20150302 Ramses.pdf.38 DANG, supra note 5.39 Id.40 Hoi, supra note 17.41 INTERNATIONAL REGIMES (Stephen D. Krasner ed., 1983).42 Dang & Hoi, supra note 2, at 71–78.


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The analyzed results showed that the results of the process of regime

building in the environmental protection in the SCS are rather disappointing;

despite some initiatives, no legally binding treaty has been able to be adopted

in the SCS in this field, and all existing mechanisms still have a long way

to go. This backwardness of the region can be explained by many reasons,

such as complex marine disputes, lack of marine environmental awareness of

the coastal states, the reluctance regarding regionalism and multilateralism,

the limited influence from scientific experts, and the traditional preference

for soft law instruments and informality in multilateral regime building of

the SCS. Thus, for the process of regime building for the management of the

MPA network in the SCS to move on, the coastal states need to overcome the

above-mentioned challenges.4445

The JOMSRE-SCS can be considered a practical lesson in bilateralrelationships and increase confidence between Vietnam and the Philippines

(Press release of Philippines Ministry of Foreign Affairs No. 359–03 dated 17

July 2003). Therefore, the JOMSRE-SCS has received strong support from

the leaders of both countries (Statement of the Prime Minister of Vietnam in

visiting the Philippines of 10 August 2007). Scientifically, the JOMSRE-SCS

cruises also provided the scientific baselines for reasonable use, marine living

resources and environmental protection, and marine biodiversity conservation

in the region and contribute to marine security and peace in the SCS. Thus the

JOMSRE-SCS has been discussed with China about a negotiation mechanism

to expand the cruises in China’s participation. Through three negotiationmeetings, three countries have agreed about purposes, scientific activities and

surveyed staff composition, surveyed data/information, and specimen sharing,

but they withdrew the cruise transect and area and vessel kind. After 2009,

the negotiation meeting has not been implemented until now. 46

To develop a MPA regional network in the SCS, the step-by-step ap-

proach needs to be applied. Discussing this issue, Vu Ha Dang (2014) has

analyzed and proposed six criteria for a network of MPAs in the SCS, includ-

ing transboundary MPAs and a national MPA system of the coastal states. He

has also identified the steps and key factors for the development of a network

of MPAs.47 Based on the selections, he proposed to form a Regional Forum

for MPAs Experts in the SCS, then adopting a Regional Framework Agree-

ment for MPAs Network, creating an inventory natural site of conservation

interests, formulating a list of MPAs in the SCS importance, establishing a re-

43 Vu Hai Dang & Nguyen Chu Hoi, Regional Marine Environmental Protection and Regime Building in

the SCS , 89 INT’L STUD. NO. 2, June 2012, at 179–194.44 Dang & Hoi, supra note 2, at 71–78.45 Dang & Hoi, supra note 43.46

INST. OF OCEANOGRAPHY, supra note 29.47 DANG, supra note 5.


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138 HOI AND DANG

gional monitoring program for MPAs, and establishing a specialized regional

compliance mechanism.

The building of a regional regime for MPAs in the SCS has to focus on

national and regional actions—at the national level, encouraging to review

the national MPAs in consideration of regional conservation targets and, at

the same time, improving regional cooperation through establishing a trans-

boundary MPA to conserve marine biodiversity in the region, implementing

the SCS fisheries refuge project, designating sites of importance for migratory

species in the SCS, designating the Particularly Sensitive Sea Area (PSSA)

in the SCS, joint research on un-sensitive environmental issues in the SCS,

and continuing implementation of the phase II of the GEF/UNEP project

“Reversing the Environmental Degradation Trend in the SCS and Gulf of

Thailand.”

5. RECOMMENDATIONS

In the above-mentioned context of the SCS, building a MPA regional network

and management regime should be implemented step by step and using an

ecosystem-based approach. Building a regional regime for MPA network

management will contribute to implementing article 6 of the DOC48 and is

considered one of the peaceful measures for the SCS region.

The first priority is to create a regional forum for sharing information

of national MPA management between the SCS states. This requires politicalsupport from the SCS governments and commitments from stakeholders,

including the communities in the region. The second priority is to establish

a transboundary MPA in the SCS and the SCS Body for Coordinating MPAs

and developing a sustainable financing mechanism to maintain the activities

relating to the MPA network.

48 ASEAN-China, Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, ASS’N OF SE. ASIAN NA-

TIONS, http://www.asean.org/asean/external-relations/china/item/declaration-on-the-conduct-of-parties-in-the-south-china-sea (last visited 13 April 2015).

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