Hoang Tri's message

[John Pernetta]

Dear Colleagues,

I guess technically I am breaking protocol by posting a "new" topic during Tri's month as facilitator. Apologies Tri, but I am attaching herewith the draft of the Chairperson's report to the RSTC meeting at the end of November. All comments welcome. I suggest you send to me copied to Dr. Fan since I have discovered a disastrous bug in this forum software. If you get one e-mail and don't click on the link you never get another e-mail telling you someone has posted. I guess this means our group is getting smaller by the week!










United Nations UNEP/GEF South China Sea Global Environment
Environment Programme Project Facility

UNEP/GEF/SCS/RSTC.7/6-M
Date: 11th October 2006
Original: English

Seventh Meeting of the Regional Scientific and Technical Committee
for the UNEP/GEF Project: “Reversing Environmental Degradation Trends
in the South China Sea and Gulf of Thailand”

Siem Reap, Cambodia, 14th – 17th November 2006






REPORT OF THE CHAIRPERSON OF THE REGIONAL WORKING GROUP
ON MANGROVES

ORGANISATION OF THE SEVENTH MEETING OF THE REGIONAL WORKING GROUP ON MANGROVES

The members of the Regional Working Group on Mangroves (RWG-M) are as follows:

Cambodia Mr. Ke Vongwattana
China Dr. Hangqing Fan (Chairperson)
Indonesia Mr. Nyoto Santoso
Philippines Mr. Florendo Barangan
Thailand Dr. Sonjai Havanond (Vice Chairperson)
Viet Nam Dr. Do Dinh Sam (Rapporteur)
Regional Expert Dr. Gong Wooi Khoon
Regional Expert Dr. Sanit Aksornkoae
Regional Expert Dr. Nguyen Hoang Tri
PCU member Dr. John Pernetta

The Seventh Meeting of the RWG-M was held on Pontianak, West Kalimantan Province, Indonesia, 4th – 8th September 2006. Mr. Barangan, was unable to attend the meeting due to health reason. This was also the first time that a representative from Malaysia, Mr. Koh Hock Lye participated and there were a number of observers from the local university and government of West Kalimantan Province.

A short signing ceremony of the addendum to the Memoranda of Understanding was held; during which the Project Director, Dr. John C. Pernetta, and Mr. Nyoto Santoso, Indonesian Focal Point for Mangroves and Director of the Indonesian Institute of Mangrove Research and Development, co-signed the addendum to the MoU covering the operational plan for activities at the Batu Ampar site. The signatures were witnessed by, the Vice-Governor of West Kalimantan Province, Drs. H. L. Kadir.

STATUS OF ADMINISTRATIVE AND SUBSTANTIVE REPORTS FOR 2005 AND THE FIRST HALF OF 2006

No reports has been received from the Philippines since the first half of 2005
Thailand held a considerable unaccounted cash balance for Trat demonstration site

STATUS OF SUBSTANTIVE NATIONAL REPORTS

All, national reports except that from the Philippines, have now been published in local languages, and the meeting agreed that the PCU should proceed with publication of national reports in English even in the absence of the Philippines report.

PROGRESS IN THE IMPLEMENTION OF THE DEMONSTRATION SITE ACTIVITIES

Focal Points of the demonstration sites briefly presented the background to the demonstration sites, objectives, planned activities, status of implementation, and preliminary outputs for the four demonstration sites:
· Fangchenggang, mangrove (China)
· Peam Krasop Wildlife Sanctuary; mangroves, wetlands and transboundary demonstration site (Cambodia)
· Trat Province, mangrove and transboundary site (Thailand)
· Batu Ampar, mangrove (Indonesia)

STATUS OF THE NATIONAL ACTION PLANS

Members presented further revisions completed by the time of the seventh meeting and reported in detail concerning the situation with regard to publication and formal approval of these plans, as follows:

· NAP for Viet Nam has been published, but the approval had not yet been completed.
· There were some modifications of Indonesian NAP on the basis of comments from concerned Ministries; and the final approval by presidential decree would be granted in the near future.
· The content of Cambodian NAP had been reviewed and accepted by the National Coastal Zone Committee. It had been translated into Khmer for public consultations; and following these consultations, the English version will be revised.
· Chinese NAP had been considered by an Inter-ministry Committee meeting but was to be adopted at the Provincial Level rather than National Level.
· It had not been possible to approve Thailand’s NAP, which focuses on the Gulf of Thailand, within 2006 due to political situation within the country. A large national meeting would be convened in 2007 to consider and recommend the NAP to the government for approval.

FINALISATION OF INPUTS FROM THE MANGROVE SUB-COMPONENT TO THE REGIONAL STRATEGIC ACTION PROGRAMME

During the seventh meeting of the RWG-M, members conducted an extensive review and expansion the Annex 1 of the document UNEP/GEF/SCS/RWG-M.7/6, entitled “Inputs from the Mangrove Sub-component to the Revised Regional Strategic Action Programme (SAP)”. Detailed results of the review and discussion are presented in Annex 4 of the report of the seventh meeting (UNEP/GEF/SCS/RWG-M.7/3) and have been consolidated into the text of the revised Strategic Action Programme, presented to the RSTC as document UNEP/GEF/SCS/RSTC.7/10.

ECONOMIC VALUATION OF MANGROVE GOODS AND SERVICES

Since the fifth meeting of the RTF-E took place before the seventh meeting of the RWG-M. Members considered the outcome of the task force deliberations regarding the economic value of mangrove goods and services and the data assembled and considered during that meeting.

UPDATING OF THE REGIONAL GIS-DATABASE AND META-DATABASE AND EFFICIENT USE OF THE PROJECT WEBSITE

All members of the RWG-M had been registered as users of the new website and can log into the website in order to contribute information. The seventh meeting of the Regional Working Group considered the evaluation of the meta-data and agreed to revise existing entries and add new meta-data to the online meta-database.

It was suggested and agreed that each member would undertake to post something in the discussion forum once a week and various were proposed for discussion including sustainable charcoal production, timber production, and mangrove foods. It was agreed that each member of the RWG-M would take sequential responsibility for stimulating the discussion for one month, starting with Dr. Tri, in October, followed by Mr. Santoso, November, and then proceeding in reverse alphabetical order starting with Viet Nam. Each member would, as the moderator for the month, post no more than two topics and initiate and encourage discussion.

PROPOSED TRAINING ACTIVITIES INVOLVING THE MANGROVE SUB-COMPONENT

The group considered the content of the training course on wetland and mangrove ecosystems as proposed by the sub-committee of the RSTC and amended by the seventh meeting of the RWG-W. The group agreed that the content listed by the wetlands working group.

During discussion it was agreed that whoever had materials that could be used or translated for use in such a course would provide details of these, together with copies to the PCU. Dr. Gong noted that UNESCO/Universiti Sains Malaysia had run a mangrove-training course previously and that some of the materials might be suitable for use in the planned course and that the University might possibly be interested in organising the course. It was also noted that materials were available from the JICA centre in Bali that could be obtained for use in this course. Some of the materials from the RWG-M such as the national reports would be suitable as reference materials for trainees and that once completed the training materials developed for the course should be made widely available through the project website.

WORK PLAN FOR THE RWG-M FOR THE PERIOD 2006 TO 2007

The main tasks to be undertaken in the next teo years include:

· National Mangrove Committee meetings
· National Technical Working Group meetings
· Maintain national meta-database
· Publication of national reports in local languages
· Implementation of Demonstration Sites
· Finalisation, Adoption and Implementation of National Action Plans
· Finalisation of Strategic Action Programme (SAP)
· Update data to regional GIS database

Table 4 shows Framework Work Plan and Time Table for Mangrove Sub-component to December 31st 2007.


I HAVE DELETED TABLE 4 WHICH IS THE WORK PLAN FROM THE MEETING REPORT SINCE THE FORMAT GOES HAYWIRE

REGARDS TO ALL
JOHN

[Nguyen Hoang Tri]

Dear John and colleagues,

I have no objections for the report.

Regarding the posted topic, I am going to privide the conclusion of the council for EIA of the project by the end of this month. However it would be appriciated to have comments from China, Indonesia, Thailand among others.

With my best regards

Hoang Tri

[Nguyen Hoang Tri]

Dear Colleagues,

As promised, I am sending a final decision of the SAC (Scientific Appraisal Council) for Tourism Complex Facilities where mangroves and seagrasses are fragile due to the construction.

The final decision asked to investors to re-do their EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment), especially for mangroves and seagrasses and the Department of Natural Resources and Environment will be in charged of the follow-up assessment and the Council will be dissolved.

As you may imagine, there are only two ‘players’ in the ‘stadium’, we do not know exactly what will be happended. Can this also happen in your country?

Before leaving the forum motivator to other member, I express my sincere thank for your contribution with my best wishes and warm regards. Hoang Tri

[Chris Paterson]

This was posted during the Eighth Meeting of the RWG- Mangroves to show members how it is done!

[Gong Wooi Khoon]

This is the mangrove training course just trying to establish contact