East Asian countries, many of Which depend on marine related activities on a large part of their gross domestic product, are faced with many acute coastal environmental problems. These environmental issues are not the problem of just one or two of these countries, but must be approached by the East Asian region as a whole. For this purpose, the PEMSEA initiative facilitates a joint vision to resolve environmental issues as a region, while assisting countries to build strategies and action plans to achieve that vision.

　

 Eleven governments in East Asia formed the Regional Program on Building Partnerships in Environmental Management for the Seas of South East Asia (PEMSEA), in collaboration with the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the International Maritime Organization (IMO), and are now collectively addressing the marine environmental problems of the Seas of East Asia, by focusing on areas of common concern and building capacities to tackle environmental issues of the region.

　

　

 These countries are Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, China, the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, all of which border the Seas of East Asia, and have always relied on the vast resources of the ocean for food supply, livelihood, medicine, energy minerals, transport and recreation. Geographically, these countries semi-enclose five large marine ecosystems; the Yellow Sea, the East China Sea, the South China Sea, Sulu-Celebes Sea and the Indonesian Seas.

 The Seas of East Asia play a significant role in the economy of the region. The estimated total values of the seas and oceans in the region come close to $US13 trillion in terms of goods and services, and the coral reefs in the South Asian Seas generate an estimated value of $US1 12.5 billion per year in tourist dollars. Maritime trade has increased from 15% of the regional GDP in 1970, to over 50% in 1995, as exports have grown by 1O% per annum (World Bank, 1998). Half of the world's merchant fleets sail through the Malacca and Lombok Straits, and nine out of twenty of the world's largest maritime ports are currently located in the region, particularly within the shipping corridor between Singapore and Japan.

 However, it is well recognized that coastal and marine environmental conditions in most parts of the region are in a severe state of degradation. Environmental stresses have begun to impact on human health and reduce the capacity of the resource systems, which is subsequently impeding economic growth. Many cases are reported in this region where less than 1O% of sewage is treated, and already there are more than 250 million reported cases of gastroenteritis and upper respiratory tract infections as a consequence of people who are in contact with seawater. Widespread red tide outbreaks are the cause of several million dollar losses in the fishing and aquaculture industries each year, and in the Philippines and Thailand, for example, not only have more than half of their mangrove forests have been lost, but much of their sea-grass beds have been wiped out by bottom trawling and pollution. While the actual cost of recovery is not yet fully understood, the World Bank has reported that remedial measures require slightly less than 1% of the gross domestic product (GDP) for the region, which is expected to rise to an annual cost of 1-1.5% of the regional GDP in 2020.

 Above all, the situation is particularly worrisome with respect to environmental and natural resource use across national or administrative boundaries. While specific and localized environmental issues have been addressed in some countries, trans-boundary issues are often nobody's business. Consequently, the net impacts of trans-boundary environmental degradation have started to take their toll on the functional integrity of not only the shared resource systems, but also the resource systems within national boundaries.

 At the Singapore Summit held in November 2000, the ASEAN and North East Asian leaders favorably considered a new economic realignment for the nations of the region, a collective effort that recognizes the regions economy and environment as being two sides of the same coin. Protection of the environment is an indispensable part of social and sustainable economic development. Environmental management should therefore form an inseparable part of a regional program of action for the new East Asian Economy.

　

 A number of international environmental conventions and agreements have been enacted over the past years. Of specific relevance to the protection and management of the coastal and marine areas are the United Nations (UN) Conference on the Law of the Sea, Chapter 17 of the UN Conference on Environment and Development, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Convention on Biodiversity, and other specific international conventions and protocols of IMO and the United Nations Environment Program. The implementation of these conventions, however, is an even greater challenge than their ratification, and in many countries of the region effective implementation of these global instruments is lacking.

 In response to this situation, PEMSEA has confirmed its niche among the countries of the East Asian Economy(ASEAN+3) and has established its aims to build a multi-country, multi-shared vision for the Seas of East Asia, along with supporting strategies and environmental action programs for attaining that vision. A functional regional framework is the ultimate target of PEMSEA, which among other mechanisms will incorporate integrated implementation of international environment instruments such as the Global Program of Action, Climate Change Convention and the Biodiversity Convention.

　

PEMSEA activities focus on;

a. Enabling local governments to effectively manage coastal and marine resources and their environment through strengthening local capacity in the integrated planning and management of their coastal areas, in collaboration with civil society and other stakeholders.

b. Promoting multi-country and multi-agency cooperation in managing sub-regional sea areas and marine pollution hotspots through shared visions, strategies and common action programs.

c. Developing management related methodologies, techniques, working models and standards to strengthen practical efforts in the field.

d. Providing policy support and scientific advice to decision-makers.

e. Identifying and demonstrating the synergies and linkages between related international instruments and facilitating their integrated implementation.

f. Creating environmental investment opportunities, sustainable financing mechanisms and institutional arrangements for implementing marine environment related international conventions.

　

 In implementing its long-term development objectives and activities, PEMSEA intends to establish a "Regional Ocean Think-Tank" for the Seas of East Asia to brainstorm specific policy issues of common concern. It will create a "Multidisciplinary Expert Group" comprising of senior regional and international experts to provide sound scientific advice to the region, and invite regional experts to serve as senior advisors to the Regional Program. Furthermore, in order to build a critical mass of regional experts, PEMSEA will also institute a "Regional Task Force" to provide interdisciplinary technical and scientific services to the region through PEMSEA activities.

　

　

　

 An amazing 38 trillion cubic meters (38×10¹²m³) of river water flows into our oceans each year, almost all of which is rainwater, created through the evaporation of our seas. Through the continual circulation of this huge amount of water from land to sea, the many problems carried by rivers are swept straight out to sea without resolve, seriously affecting our oceans and their resources. To restore our oceans to the former pleasure is going to require a serious reconsideration of the relationship between them and our rivers.

　

 Generally speaking, where there is land there are rivers, and the water in them flows in one direction from land out to sea. It is no secret that water runs from high places to lowlands and therefore painfully obvious that river water runs out to sea. However, as Table 1 points out, it must be remembered that more rain falls on land than water is evaporated from it, or in other words via the earth's atmosphere the oceans supply land with much of its water.

 As Table 1 shows, a very large part of the water that exists on earth is seawater, and of the small amount of fresh water that does exist, most of it is in the form of ice and groundwater. Of the resources of fresh water that mankind can get close to, lakes and wetlands are only a tiny 0.007% of the total, and rivers and streams make up an even smaller proportion of just 0.00014% or a minute existence of only 2 trillion cubic meters (2×10¹²m³). However, when you view the situation from the perspective of the "water cycle" or the way water evaporates to form steam or clouds, is transformed back into rain, and then returns to land or the ocean's surface, the picture dramatically changes. As you can see in Diagram 1, the total amount of water evaporated from earth per year is 496 trillion m³, 425 trillion m³ from the ocean and 71 trillion m³ from land, but this is 38 times the value of the existing water in the atmosphere, listed in Table 1 as 13 trillion m³. This therefore means that the water in the atmosphere is completely renewed every 10 days.

 Similarly, in contrast to the 2 trillion m³ of water that exists in rivers and streams, 19 times that amount of water, or 38 trillion m³ as shown in Diagram 1, flow out to sea per year, meaning that the water in rivers and streams is on average totally renewed approximately every 20 days.

 Although the amount of water in the atmosphere or in rivers and streams is only a very small portion of the total in existence, the most important thing to remember about fresh water resources is the way they are always being replaced. Furthermore, if you retrace the origin of the water that ensures the flow of river water from land out to sea, you will find that it is mostly supplied from the oceans by evaporation.

　

　

　

　Ultimately aiming to exit out into the sea, river water flows from places of high altitude down to those of lower ones under the force of gravity. However, through this process deposits that have fallen away from the terrain in the river basin or chemical substances and waste material created by organic matter or human activity are up taken by the flow and either dissolved into the water or taken out to sea. With the help of gravity, rivers play the role of a passageway that carries not only water from land, but also sediment and many other substances.

 In the workings of rivers that are recently under so much attention, there is also the role of a natural passage for living matter. Of course, since historic times it has been well known that fish come and go between rivers and sea, but we now also know that many plants, birds, insects, frogs and many other larger scale mammals also depend on the rivers as a passageway that links mountain and ocean. In other words for living matter, rivers are the roads that connect the sea with inland regions.

 Humans too, use rivers as passageways. Recently, rising expectation for the revival of the river shipping industry, which was degenerated by the road and rail transport industries in the last century, is becoming eminent as the world's attention turns towards efficient energy consumption. Such transportation was very popular during the Meiji Era only 100 years ago, but for reasons such as the current of rivers being too strong, the depth being too shallow or the possible transportation distance being too short, the existence of river shipping fell by the wayside. Today, although there maybe a question mark surrounding the future of commercial river transportation, the revival of river shipping for excursion and tourist purposes is definitely something that should be considered, especially as there are advantages in low energy consumption.

　

 Japan has complex topographic features and very intricate coastlines. The total length of Japan's coastline extends to more than 35,000 kilometers, which far exceeds the 20,000-kilometer length of that of the United States. Furthermore, because Japan has many open and enclosed bays, inland seas and islands that shut out the external forces of tidal currents and ocean waves, many of its waters are very gentle, and moreover, due to the constant outflow of sediment from its rivers, are also relatively shallow.

 There are many semi-land regions in Japan that take on the form of tidal lands during low tide, providing the perfect habitat for living matter such as crabs and shellfish, and also excellent breeding grounds in the surrounding shallow waters for the production of seaweed, oysters, scallops and the like. Again, the estuarine waters created by the inflow of freshwater into that of saltwater at river mouths, also provide the environment for other unique living matter such as Japanese Shijimi (a variety of small shellfish).

 In recent years, the importance of such tidal lands and river mouths has been strongly advocated from the environmental protection prospective and development projects such as the Isahaya reclamation on the coast of the Ariake Sea, the waste treatment plant planned for the Fujimae Tidal Flats in Nagoya Port and the land filling of the Sanbanze Tidal Lands in Ichikawa City of Tokyo Bay have been aborted and strong public debate on such issues continues.

　

 Our coastlines, the line of tangency between land and sea, contain a variety of forms such as reefs, sea cliffs, the muddy shores of enclosed bays and the manmade coastlines of harbors and fishing ports. However, most people associate coastlines with flowing white sand and green palm trees. Different from the slimy character of tidal lands, many of Japan's coastlines used to be a precious place where clean and beautiful swimming areas existed and you could always lie down and get the feel of that beach that everyone associates in their minds.

 Unfortunately, these beaches are being abruptly lost through a reduction in sand supply, which has resulted from the construction of sediment controls and dams, and ironically also because of the negative effects of seawalls, that were actually constructed to prevent erosion. There is even data that suggests that 10,000 kilometers of Japanese beach coastline has on average retreated 8 meters in the last 100 years since the Meiji Era. In response to this, the flushing out of sediment accumulated in storage reservoirs with the discharge from dams, the construction of slit structures in sediment controls that allow the accumulation of rocks but don't disturb the flow of downstream gravel or sand, which therefore doesn't allow deposits to accumulate, and other similar efforts are presently being made.

　

 In the new millennium, a huge effort is required to restore the distorted relationship between river and ocean to its closest natural form. In other words the following attempts are needed: 1. To secure the supply of sand into coastal regions, plan the restoration of beaches with white sand and green trees and increase the opportunities for humans to interact with the ocean in beach areas. 2. To preserve our natural tidal lands and river mouths as much as possible and create some way of making our manmade zones more natural. 3. To make further efforts to improve he water quality of rivers and prevent the dumping and drifting of waste flowing out to sea, in order to clean up the pollution along the coastline and in the coastal zones of Japan.