- Shengle Yin
- Posted on
- Bangkok, Thailand
From coral reefs with the sea’s highest biodiversity to the globe’s deepest and barren ocean trenches. And from some of the poorest countries on earth to some of the richest. Being part of UNESCO the IOC Sub-Commission for the Western Pacific (WESTPAC) coordinates marine research from the western Pacific to the eastern Indian Ocean.
How is WESTPAC approaching this and what are WESTPAC’s priorities when it comes to the Ocean Decade? Oceandecade.dk has taken a closer look at this.
Coordinating a vast and diverse region
WESTPAC’s activities are coordinated from Bangkok, and in the city’s large UN complex I meet Wenxi Zhu, who is head of the secretariat for WESTPAC which also serves as the Decade Coordination Office for the region. He says about WESTPAC’s role:
“We bring together various actors – i.e. researchers, government officials, resource managers, politicians and relevant ocean stakeholders, to advance ocean science, ocean management and governance. Based on countries’ needs, we foster ocean science-policy interface, enhance technical and institutional capacities, promote transfer of ocean technology, and jointly develop ocean science solutions to sustainable development in the Western Pacific and its adjacent areas.”
“In April 2024, we had our second UN Ocean Decade Regional Conference together with the triennial WESTPAC international marine science conference. This is our primary cooperation mechanism in the region for gathering marine scientific communities and relevant ocean stakeholders including authorities to share the latest ocean knowledge, forge partnerships, and catalyze concrete actions for transformative ocean-based solutions to sustainability challenges in the region. The conference brought together 1,200 international participants here in Bangkok, and is held every three years on a rotating basis in countries in the region.”
Question: What was the most important outcome of the conference and why was it the most important outcome?
“The remarkable turnout set a new benchmark in the region. Unfolded with a prestigious opening attended by the Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand, the Conference culminated in the issuance of the Early Career and Mid-Career Ocean Professionals Statement, and the Bangkok Declaration. These collective commitments from all participants aimed at accelerating the development of ocean science solutions, empowering diverse stakeholders as co-architects of ocean stewardship, nurturing ocean leaders through widespread literacy and education, harnessing technical and technological innovations, supporting early career ocean professionals, and advancing international ocean science development and cooperation in the region for a sustainable ocean.”
“Another important mechanism in the region is the Intergovernmental Session every two years for national competent agencies and ocean research communities. Through the intergovernmental process, WESTPAC countries define common priority issues and establish joint programs or conduct joint actions. Building on the process, WESTPAC initiated and has been implementing four Ocean Decade Actions, focusing on ocean currents such as “Asia’s Gulf Stream”, the Kuroshio Current, spatial planning of sea areas (“marine spatial planning”), plastic pollution and capacity building via its Regional Network of Training and Research Centers on Marine Science.”
The Far East’s Gulf Stream
The warm Kuroshio Current mentioned by Wenxi Zhu originates from the North Equatorial Current near the east coast of the Philippines, flows northward along east Taiwan into the East China Sea and up to the coasts of Japan, from where it continues into the northwest Pacific Ocean. The current is crucial for the transport of saline water and heat and affects the climate in East Asia.
Q: Why does the WESTPAC “community” place such a great research focus on the Kuroshiro Current?
“The Kuroshio holds a vast cultural and social-economic value to most of the countries in the North Pacific. It transports large amounts of heat and salt from the tropics to mid-latitudes, interacting and exchanging energy with the atmosphere along its path, and thus moderating the global and regional climate. The transportation of nutrients and organisms by the currents and associated ocean processes gives way to a high level of marine biodiversity along the path, and contributes to abundant marine fishery resources in the Western and North Pacific.”
Q: What are the biggest research questions the region’s scientists are trying to solve with regard to the current?
“Over the past decade, the Kuroshio region has been known as one of the most responsive areas to the global warming. Its drastic changes seem to directly affect the regional weather and climate patterns. The number and intensity of tropical cyclones in the North Pacific is increasing. Moreover, it is becoming evident that the distribution of many organisms is changing and some of them are even at risk of becoming endangered as a result of global warming and escalating human activities.”
Typhoons western Pacific November 2024 (source: https://www.metoc.navy.mil/jtwc/jtwc.html).
Q: How will the research benefit local communities – from the Philippines to Japan?
“Our objective no. 1 is to understand the Kuroshio and its impact on global and regional weather and climate, with a societal outcome to achieve improved regional weather forecasts and climate predictions.”
“Our objective no. 2 is to understand the Kuroshio in relation to its marine ecosystem, with a societal outcome to achieve better management of regional fisheries and aquaculture along the Kuroshio and in its adjacent regions.”
Lack of high-level attention is a challenge
With such an extensive ocean area bordered by 22 countries, each of which of course has its own national priorities, there will be challenges of one kind or another. A challenge, which is also seen in other parts of the world, is sincere attention from the policy/decision makers – those who formulate policies and laws. Wenxi Zhu says:
“Marine research is not always at the top of the politicians’ agenda, particularly in the developing countries, so in some places there is a lack of both national ocean research plans and mechanisms that can work across the silos thinking that you see every now and then. That there is no integrated or coordinated mechanism that can facilitate collaborations across different ministries such as fisheries and environment ministries.”
A lack of high level attention is perhaps also an indirect cause of another challenge, namely a lack of funding. Wenxi Zhu elaborates:
“With regard to activities in the Decade of the Ocean, we have not received much cash support, let alone funds to coordinate the implementation of Ocean Decade actions. But fortunately, the costs of many of the meetings and activities are borne by our countries as an in-kind support. Thailand, for example, financed the big conference in April this year, and Thailand also pays for being the host country for the WESTPAC secretariat.”
“For many countries in this developing region, marine research is not accorded priority because the economy is limited, and policy and decision makers always pay much attention to other pressing social economic development issues particularly on land such as political and social stability and job opportunities. In that way, our region probably does not differ from many other regions.”
Building research capacity for ocean sustainability
Wenxi Zhu believes that a secondary consequence of the under-prioritization is the lack of needed research capacity. He explains:
“Developing ocean research capacity of developing countries is one of most important ways of achieving ocean sustainability. That is why we have a strong component focusing on capacity development. In the “old” days, the region received strong support from the West – e.g. from Denmark, which contributed to building the marine biological research center in Phuket in Thailand and the Center’s research ship.
However, this Western support has gradually diminished during the 00s. Therefore, we must strengthen South-South cooperation in the region, as each developing country has its advantageous knowledge, skills, systems, and institutions in a specific area or some areas.”
“For instance, Thailand is not much specialized in ocean process and climate, but has quite good expertise and institutional support in marine biodiversity and management. As such we have placed dedicated training and research centers around the region, taking into account the host institutes’ specialization and strong willingness to serve the region’s and other countries’ needs. Thus, a developing country doesn’t only benefit from the opportunities provided by others, but also contribute capacity development opportunities to others. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”
“Meanwhile, we emphasized our efforts must be tied to national and local needs to create trust and services for society in the long term. You have to be very aware of why you are building the capacity in question and not just building capacity for the sake of capacity. It must be for the sake of development. Therefore, we integrate capacity building into all our programs, as capacity building serve as a stepping stone. People must be able to take action themselves, be more proactive and share their experiences.”
One of WESTPAC’s four actions in the Ocean Decade is precisely capacity building. This is done by strengthening and further developing regional training and research centers, which must particularly target young researchers from the developing countries. Until 2023, six centers had been established in Qingdao (China), Jakarta (Indonesia), Shanghai (China), Khán Hòa (Vietnam), Hong Kong (China) and Bolinao (the Philippines), and the centers address issues such as climate, biodiversity, plastics, food safety, ecosystem restoration and pollutant monitoring.
WESTPAC’s other three actions for the Ocean Decade are an increased focus on spatial planning of the ocean, getting something done about the large plastic input from Asia’s rivers, and researching the important Kuroshio ocean current.
Ocean Literacy – an understanding of the sea and us
One of the seven pillars of the Ocean Decade is ocean literacy. There is no actual definition of the term in Danish, but the intention of the term can be expressed as “awareness of the way humans affect the sea and how the sea affects humans”. Regarding the attention to ocean literacy in the WESTPAC countries, Wenxi Zhu says:
“We have only started this year to investigate systematically the ocean literacy status in the region, because until now what has been going on has been very fragmented and the scope of ocean literacy is still evolving. We would like to approach it more holistically. Ocean literacy is a very broad term – from formal to informal education, various public awareness activities and campaigns. So, something has been done in the past – but more importantly, we promote ocean literacy nowadays as a fundamental means to empower citizens and stakeholders to act in a more responsible manner for our ocean and its resources.”