Regional Cooperation in the South China Sea: Analysis of Existing Practices and Prospects

What is at stake? Status and threats to South China Sea marine fisheries

“…This will also incur substantial economic loss, as it was estimated that the annual production value from SCS mangroves, coral reefs, and seagrasses was around USD 5 9 10 9 , USD 1 9 10 9 , and USD 87 million, respectively . Nevertheless, despite the undisputed importance of SCS fisheries, improvements in governance and management systems in the SCS have tended to remain frustratingly static (Pomeroy et al 2007;Kao et al 2012). Lack of political will is a major contributing factor (Carbonetti et al 2014) to the perpetuation of unsustainable fisheries at all scales.…”

“…Another barrier to environmental cooperation in the SCS has been national governments' prioritisation of economic development over environmental protection (Chen 2013). On a positive note, there has been regional cooperation in protecting SCS marine and coastal systems since the 1980s (Kao et al 2012), with recent multilateral attempts to shift SCS ocean management to an ecosystem-wide approach through regional cooperation in scientific research (Basiron and Lexmond 2013;Chen 2013).…”

“…Nevertheless, a weakness of multilateral, regional projects to date is that they would not have been possible without the assistance of global organisations (Kao et al 2012).…”

Marine Scientific Research Cooperation and Regulation in the South China Sea

“…Perhaps, if the scientists can make available to the decision-makers the full range of knowledge necessary to understand the potentials of the South China Sea, even if only from a biological perspective, more cooperative linkage can be formed and communication channels opened. [14] MSR in the South China Sea region is fragmented and sometimes even overlapping. Greater coordination, integration and support of mutually identified research priorities in the South China Sea are necessary.…”

“…The priorities favored by extraregional actors do not necessarily reflect the needs or desire of the littoral states. [14] It has been commented that "contributions from other organizations […] sometimes have to be targeted to satisfy the interests of the donor rather the immediate concerns". [14] Thus the fund for the development of South China Sea Regional MSR Programme has to come from the littoral states.…”