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REGIONAL ASSESSMENT ON MARINE LITTER STATUS AND TRENDS IN THE EAST ASIAN SEAS

18 June, 12.00-13.00 (Indochina Time (ICT)

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OVERVIEW OF WEBINAR

Webinar on the Regional Assessment on Plastic in the Environment in the East Asian Seas

Opening Remarks by COBSEA and SEA Circular

RAP MALI and Ongoing Monitoring Efforts

Key findings of the Regional Assessment

Questions and Answers

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Opening Remarks:

SEA Circular Coordinator Kamala Ernest

COBSEA Coordinator Mahesh Pradhan

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COBSEA REGIONAL ACTION PLAN ON MARINE LITTER

Regional Action Plan on Marine Litter

Adopted by IGM 24 (2019), aligns with UNEA & 2030 Agenda

Guides coherent action at national & regional level toward global goals:

ACTION 1: prevent and reduce marine litter from land-based sources
ACTION 2: prevent and reduce marine litter from sea-based sources
ACTION 3: strengthen monitoring and assessment
ACTION 4: create enabling conditions for action (knowledge sharing, regional coordination, outreach & education, research)

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MONITORING EFFORTS IN THE EAS

Aim: Strengthen and harmonize monitoring and assessment for evidence-based action

In partnership with Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), with funding from inter alia Government of Sweden under SEA circular

Regional Guidance on Harmonized National Marine Litter Monitoring Programmes

Adopted by IGM 25 (2021)
Regional inventory of monitoring efforts, global best practices, quality standards
Guidance for robust and comparable data collection based on existing efforts and capacities in line with regional and global guidelines (GESAMP)

Building capacity on marine litter monitoring

Regional training of trainers on monitoring in Bali, Indonesia in September 2019 (GPML)
Regional training of trainers in Phuket, Thailand in July 2022
National trainings in Cambodia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Viet Nam (2022-2024)

Survey sampling on marine litter

Inland, river, coastal, and trawl survey sampling in Cambodia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Viet Nam (2022-2024)

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CONSULTATIONS WITH COBSEA WGML�(23-25 JUNE 2020; 10-11 OCTOBER 2022; 13 SEPTEMBER 2023)

STEPS	STATUS
Establish an inventory of existing marine litter monitoring efforts	Completed
Establish common objectives for marine litter monitoring in the context of COBSEA RAP MALI	Completed
Identify proposed common indicators, recommended methods and data standards	Completed
Capacity Building	Completed
Regional Assessment Plan (Oct 2022)	Completed
Development and Review of a Regional Assessment on Marine Litter	Here We Are!

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Tentative Reviewer Timeline

Webinar on Regional Assessment

18 June

Deadline for input for the first draft of Regional Assessment

15 July

Regional Assessment for consideration at IGM 26, 23-25 October

IGM-26

Deadline for input for the final draft of Regional Assessment

19 August

Draft document shared for review

2 July

Input to first draft from WGML, and relevant technical partners

Input to second draft from WGML and technical parties,

5 August

Finalise at WGML Meeting, 21-22 October

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COUNTRY REPORTS ON PLASTIC LEAKAGE

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Regional Assessment Report – some highlights

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Collected using scientific best practice, fulfilling the five tenets for designing national and regional scale marine litter monitoring programmes;

Consistent among participating countries to enable regional comparisons.

Member countries highlighted that they seek a monitoring approach that is:

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Survey areas

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Balanced survey design to account for potential variables between sites including: Stratification of sites across strata Randomisation of sites across locations Robust sampling hierarchy within each site including: Replication within sites Stratification within sites Randomisation within sites

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Survey training and data collection tools

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Survey sites in Cambodia, Malaysia, Philippines...

Map of inland (green), river (blue), coast (orange) sites surveyed, and trawls (red) conducted in Cambodia.

Map of inland (green), river (blue), coast (orange) sites surveyed, and trawls (red) conducted in Malaysia.

Map of inland (green), river (blue), coast (orange) sites surveyed, and trawls (red) conducted in the Philippines.

Country partners identify area of interest!

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Survey sites in Thailand and Viet Nam

Map of inland (green), river (blue), coast (orange) sites surveyed, and trawls (red) conducted in Thailand.

Map of inland (green), river (blue), coast (orange) sites surveyed, and trawls (red) conducted in Viet Nam.

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Some key findings

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Debris loads across the region

The highest debris loads recorded across the region occurred on coastlines (n = 368 transects, 109.0±10.5 items per transect, 5.0±0.5 items/m²), followed by riverbanks (n = 430 transects, 39.0±9.9 items per transect, 3.0±0.6 items/m²) and inland (n = 540 transects, 36.9±7.6 items per transect, 3.0±0.6 items/m²).

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COMPARISONS AMONG COUNTRIES

Coast transects had the highest average number of items per transect. Inland transects contained more items per transect than river for Viet Nam, Philippines and Cambodia, but river transects contained more items per transect than inland in Thailand.

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TOWARDS A REGIONAL UNDERSTANDING

Debris density varied markedly across the region, and by site type. These maps show the average number of items recorded per metre squared recorded across transect types in each 0.5° tile.

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COMMON WHOLE AND FRAGMENTED ITEMS FOUND

Most common six whole and fragmented items encountered in the region

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COMMON WHOLE ITEMS ACROSS THE REGION, BY SITE TYPE

Whole items – top six most common regionally and across site types
	Regional	Coastal	River	Inland
Food wrapper / label	1^st	4^th	1^st	1^st
Other bottles	2^nd	1^st		4^th
Beverage bottle	3^rd	2^nd	6^th	6^th
Bottle cap	4^th	3^rd		3^rd
Cigarette butt	5^th		3^rd	2^nd
Thin film carry bag	6^th	5^th	2^nd
Straw		6^th	5^th
Other			4^th
Other plastic bag				5^th

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COMMON FRAGMENTED ITEMS ACROSS THE REGION AND BY SITE TYPE

Fragment items – top six most common regionally and across site types
	Regional	Coastal	River	Inland
Polystyrene	1^st	1^st		5^th
Brick/cement	2^nd		3^rd	1^st
String/rope/ribbon	3^rd	2^nd
Food wrapper / label	4^th	4^th	5^th	2^nd
Other hard plastic	5^th	3^rd	2^nd	6^th
Other glass	6^th		1^st
Food container		5^th
Other foam		6^th
Thin film carry bag			4^th	3^rd
Ceramic			6^th
Other soft plastic				4^th

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FLOATING DEBRIS DENSITY IN THE REGION

The highest at-sea debris loads occurred off Thailand had the highest density of items (311,680.2±106, 115.0 items/km2), followed by Philippines (108,652.6±18, 815.4 items/km2), Cambodia (41,166.2±3,971.4 items/km2), Malaysia (25,165.0±5,638.9 items/km2) and Viet Nam (25,124.0±3, 260.0 items/km2).

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FACTORS RELATED TO INLAND DEBRIS

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FACTORS RELATED TO RIVER DEBRIS

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FACTORS RELATED TO COASTAL DEBRIS DENSITY

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REGIONAL PATTERNS

The density of litter was highest at coastal sites.
Fragments of polystyrene foam were the single most abundant item across the countries surveyed.
Single-use plastic litter associated with food and beverages dominated litter loads across inland, river, and coastal compartments.

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DOMINANCE OF SINGLE-USE PLASTIC ASSOCIATED WITH FOOD AND BEVERAGES

Food wrappers and labels were among the most common whole and fragmented items regionally.
Plastic bottles and their caps were among the most common whole items in all environments throughout the region.

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QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

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Upcoming Events:

Regional Finance Workshop (26-27 June, Jakarta)

Regional training on marine litter monitoring: Advancing Data Analysis (15-17 September, Bangkok)

SEA of Solutions Conference (18-20 September, Bangkok)

WGML-6 and IGM-26 (21-25 October, Siem Reap)

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THANK YOU!

unep-cobsea@un.org | www.cobsea.org

denise.hardesty@csiro.au | www.csiro.au