The (West
Philippine/South China) Sea Cries while Politicians Roar
As Asia eyes the heating territorial struggle by
the Philippines, China, Vietnam, Taiwan, Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia’s of
the so-called West Philippine Sea (as claimed by the Philippine government) or South China Sea (as dubbed by China), the most
confronting challenge obscured by political rhetoric so underrated is the
destruction of the marine ecosystem.
The Sea’s status as a
critical waterway draws attention away from the fact that littoral Southeast
Asia is one of the world’s most diverse
global marine bio-systems, hosting 76 percent of the world’s coral
species and 37 percent of reef-fish species.
Over the past two
decades there have been documented
instances of Chinese
fishermen in the Spratly Islands and surrounding waters indulging in
large-scale illegal capture of fish using cyanide, dynamite,
and detonating cords. The wide range of sea life targeted has included
endangered sea turtles, giant clams, giant oysters, sharks, eels, and large
pieces of highly ornamental coral.
In the wake of a UN
tribunal’s quashing of Beijing’s claim to historic rights in the Sea, what has
been largely overlooked is the court’s censure of Beijing’s rampant destruction
of marine life around the sites of its reclamation and other activities in the
Spratly Islands. The construction, the judges held, had “caused permanent and
irreparable harm to the coral reef ecosystem.” Yet Chinese leaders refuse to
accept the tribunal’s criticism. Beijing, in fact, denies its island-building posed any danger
to the natural habitat of the region, even calling it a model “green project”.
Nor was the damage
inadvertent. The tribunal found that Chinese authorities were fully aware of
the nature and scope of activities undertaken but failed to prevent them.
Despite its obligation under Articles 192 and 194 of the United Nations
Convention on the Law of the Sea to preserve and protect the marine
environment, Beijing supported activities that harmed the fragile ecosystem of
the Sea.
For years, China’s most destructive
activity in the Sea has been giant clam poaching, which is
said to have destroyed more than 40 square miles of some of the most
bio-diverse coral reefs in the world. Chinese poachers reportedly use boat
propellers to loosen the valuable clams, whose shells are sold as luxury items
in China. Not only does digging up a reef destroy its ecosystem, but because of
the interconnected nature of Sea fisheries, damage in once place causes
repercussions elsewhere.
Evidence
notwithstanding, Beijing claims its activities provide a public good.
At the Shangri-La Dialogue earlier this year, Admiral Sun Jianguo, the People’s
Liberation Army’s deputy chief of general staff, said that apart from “meeting
the necessary defense needs,” China was carrying out construction on some
islands and reefs in the Sea to better
perform its international responsibilities, including environmental protection.
If anything, Chinese analysts say the widespread damage to the regional marine
bio-system must beblamed on rampant poaching that regional states
collectively failed to prevent.
Such claims serve to
distract attention from the destruction wrought by Chinese island-building and
other activities on the marine environment. Underinternational
law, island-building must be preceded by an environmental impact
assessment. Beijing’s omissions in this regard are inexcusable. In conceiving
their island-building plans, Chinese engineers would have considered the
environmental consequences. Surprisingly, China’s position paper submitted to the arbitral tribunal in
December 2014 did not mention any studies undertaken to assess environmental
damage caused by large-scale reclamation. By refusing to accept responsibility
for its actions, Beijing has shifted the onus for remedial action to other
littoral states.
Faced with an
environmental disaster, Southeast Asian states must collectively move to
preserve and protect their regional maritime environment. A primary
consideration is the conservation of fisheries, particularly the management of
straddling and migratory fish stocks. Recent reports suggest the stocks in the Sea are in a precarious
condition — fished
down to between 5 and 30 per cent of 1950s levels. With illegal, unreported,
and unregulated fishing at an all-time high, there is an urgent need to
coordinate efforts. Regional states will need to begin by creating greater
transparency about resource exploitation activities in the maritime commons.
Each side must promote best practices to ensure that the ecosystem is properly
preserved and sustainably exploited.
Creating a regional
mechanism to preserve the marine environment is going to be the most
challenging part of this project. In April this year, at the first meeting of a study group of the Council for
Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific in the Philippines, discussions were
held on evolving codes and protocols for marine environment protection. The
group stressed developing a collective approach in managing commercial and
livelihood activities in the oceans. But particular emphasis was given to
preservation of coral reefs in East Asia.
This isn’t the first
time regional states have come together in the interests of the natural
habitat. In 2011, when the UN Environment Program (UNEP) relocatedits Coral Reef
Unit to Bangkok, Southeast Asian states collaborated in developing tools and
methods to enable ecosystem-based approaches to coral reef management. In 2012,
the Asia Pacific was a target region in the UN document, “The Future
We Want,” and its
identification of coral reef protection as a central objective and a
Sustainable Development Goal to be achieved by 2020. But despite its calls for
“conservation and sustainable usage of oceans” and elimination of “the multiple
anthropogenic pressures on coral reefs,” practical measures undertaken have
been less than successful in protecting the marine ecosystem.
Even so, the UNEP has
been the principal instrument by which the region has applied ecosystem
management. The program has focused on preventing marine litter; building coral
reef resilience in the face of climate change and ocean acidification;
strengthening the use of the value of coral reef ecosystem services in public
and private decision-making; enhancing data and information for ecosystem-based
coral reef planning and management; and institutional support and outreach.
As the world obsesses
over the geopolitical effects of the Sea
dispute, there are urgent questions about the marine environment that need to
be answered. The marine resources of the Sea are central to the national economies, the
livelihoods of many of their coastal residents, and important as a source of
cheap and nutritious food. There is an impression, however, that the
sovereignty disputes have diminished the ability of governments to work
together to manage the marine resources of the Sea. Regional governments must dispel this
notion. China and its neighbors must put traditional rivalries on hold, and
combine effectively in a renewed bid to revive and restore the maritime ecology
of the Asia Pacific.
