ASEAN SOCIO-CULTURAL COMMUNITY 2015:
READY FOR TRANSBOUNDARY ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES?
March 25, 2014
From Left to right: Dr. Wilfried Herrman, Dr. Eric Kemp-Benedict, General (ret) Bunchon Chawansin, Dr. Adis Israngkura, Dr. Peter Lehr, Mr. Apichai Sunchindah, and Dr. Chamniern Paul Vorratnchaiphan
HDFF’s third Chairman’s Circle of the year, in coordination with The Asia Foundation, was held on Tuesday, March 25, 2014 at the Imperial Queen’s Park Hotel in Bangkok. Discussion was based on the ASEAN community and the environment, following the title, “ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community 2015: Ready for Transboundary Environmental Challenges?” Dialogue focused on current environmental preservation issues being faced by ASEAN countries, sustainable and environmentally-sound energy methods and how ASEAN countries will develop laws surrounding these issues and implement them.
After a welcome and brief introduction of HDFF from General (ret) Bunchon Chawansin, Mr. Kim McQuay from The Asia Foundation introduced the idea behind the Chairman’s Circles and their importance to raise awareness of prevalent issues such as the day’s topic focusing on ASEAN and the environmental challenges it faces.
Chairman Circle attendees came from a wide range of prominent governmental agencies and organizations, both domestic and foreign. Participants included representatives from the Finnish, Korean, Indonesian, Philippine and Timor-Leste Embassies, World Vision, IUCN, Neighboring Countries Economic Development Cooperation Agency (NEDA), the Department of Border Affairs and the Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning.
Mr. Apichai Sunchindah giving his keynote presentation
March’s Chairman’s Circle dialogue was commenced by keynote speaker, Mr. Apichai Sunchindah. Mr. Apichai is an Independent Specialist on ASEAN issues and former Executive Director of the ASEAN Foundation. For the Circle, he presented on the “ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC) and its response to regional environmental challenges”. The ASEAN Environmental Cooperation Framework was introduced, giving participants insight on where Environmental Sustainability lies in the March 2009 ASCC Blueprint and what environmental issues it encompasses. Mr. Apichai pointed out that various ASEAN member countries each head an environmental working group within the Environmental Institutional framework, for example, Thailand is chair of the Multilateral Environmental Agreements (AWGMEA). Transboundary issues such as climate change, fresh water and marine resources and pollution (i.e. transboundary haze) as well as transboundary initiatives such as environmental education, urban environmental management and environmentally sound technologies within the ASEAN Environmental Framework were also touched upon in his presentation. Mr. Apichai highlighted an interesting current transboundary law proposed by Singapore that would fine producers of haze, even those which are international (primary producer of haze affecting Singpore being Indonesia). He stated that while this extra-territorial bill may be advancing environmental priorities, it could affect country relations and be very difficult to enforce.
Download Apichai’s presentation here.
March 25, 2014 Chairman’s Circle Panel
The Chairman’s Circle Panel was moderated by Dr. Peter Lehr from the University of St. Andrews. The panel theme was “ASCC 2015 – Ready to take on future environmental challenges?” The first panel speaker of the day was Dr. Eric Kemp-Benedict, Director of the Stockholm Environment Institute. Dr. Kemp-Benedict spoke on the “Regional Cooperation for Sustainable Energy.” His presentation focused on energy for development in the ASEAN community and the challenges faced, being energy allocation and the environment. Dr. Kemp-Benedict highlighted the importance of low-carbon energies in the future. Renewable energies are abundant in ASEAN countries; however, renewable energies hold certain potential problems such as non-uniformity, cost of transport and intermittency. He discussed the need of a large electricity grid going beyond bilateral agreements as a means to address renewable energy problems and promote its benefits in the upcoming ASCC 2015.
Download Dr. Kemp-Benedict’s presentation here.
The second panelist, Dr. Chamniern Paul Vorratnchaiphan, the Country Representative of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), spoke on “The importance of landscape strategy – which role for ASEAN?” He introduced the IUCN’s aims and work, and the 6 IUCN Thailand Transboundary Landscapes and Seascapes. These areas propose environmental problems such as pollution (haze, hazardous waste transport), sustainable development and resource management and environmental policies and databases to name a few. He highlighted the lack of and great need of environmental governance in the transboundary territories and local government inclusion. In his discussion, Dr. Vorratnchaiphan used the example of rosewood poaching in the Transboundary Landscape of Dong Phayayen-Khao Yai World Heritage Site to illustrate a complicated multinational issue causing serious environmental conflict currently.
Download Dr. Vorratnchaiphan’s presentation here.
Dr. Adis Israngkura, Advisor to the National Resources and Environment Program at the Thailand Development Research Institute, was the third panelist at the Circle. His theme was on the “Current situation and future perspectives for environmental policy mainstreaming in Southeast Asia.” In his presentation titled “ASEAN Challenges in Natural Resources and Environmental Management” he focused discussion on the dilemmas transboundary environmental issues create in ASEAN transnational law and policy, and potential means of alleviating potential areas of conflict. He stated that possible means of addressing transboundary environmental issues are reducing transaction costs, developing independent policies in coherence with national agenda and the specialization and separation of member countries to maintain regional sustainability.
Download Dr. Israngkura’s presentation here.
HDFF would like to thank the speakers and the participants for their attendence and participation in making the third Chairman Circle 2014 a valuable and informative experience.
The next Chairman Circle will focus on the developments in Thailand and the repercussions related to the ASEAN 2015 integration process. Details will be published in time.
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