GMS Environment Ministers Meeting

Shanghai, PRC: 25 May 2005

GMS Environment Ministers Agree to Step Up Cooperation in Managing Shared Natural Resources

The GMS Environment Ministers Meeting was held in Shanghai, PRC on 24-26 May 2005, with the overall theme "Managing Shared Natural Resources for Sustainable Development". The Meeting endorsed the initiative of the Working Group on Environment (WGE) to launch the Core Environment Program (CEP) by early 2006 as a development strategy to conserve GMS natural systems.

The CEP includes:

Biodiversity Conservation Corridor Initiative (BCI), which will improve connectivity in high priority GMS biodiversity conservation areas and mitigate degradation that may arise from economic corridor investments.
Environmental Performance Assessment, which will involve assessment, monitoring and evaluation of the impacts of the CEP, BCI and other interventions.
The setting up of the GMS Environment Operations Center (EOC), in Bangkok to serve as a program office to implement the CEP and support the WGE.

The GMS Environment Ministers agreed to submit these initiatives to the Second GMS Summit of Leaders, which will be held in Kunming in July 2005, for consideration.

Towards the end of the meeting, a Joint Ministerial Statement [ PDF: 343kb | 3 pages ] was issued and is expected to form the basis for preparing an announcement of the Core Environment Program, particularly the BCI, at the forthcoming Summit.

The meeting participants included delegations totaling more than 80 persons from Cambodia, PRC, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand and Viet Nam, with most country delegations headed by Minister or Vice Minister level. There were observers from multilateral and bilateral development agencies and international environmental organizations.

Keynote addresses were delivered by the following:

Mr. Shafqat Kakahel, Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), who noted the global significance of the meeting in relation to forthcoming UN General Assembly meeting.
H.E. Mr. Zhu Guangyao, First Vice Minister, State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA), PRC, who stressed the positive role PRC could play in addressing the region’s environmental challenges.
Mr. Liqun Jin, Vice President, ADB, whose keynote address highlighted the increasingly significant role of the private sector and market-based approaches in addressing environmental challenges.

There were two multi media presentations shown during the meeting. Tthe first dealt with the challenges in managing our shared natural assets and how the WGE was helping to lay the building blocks to address them effectively, while the second provided an introduction to the CEP as a strategic regional approach for managing shared resources.

Lastly, the meeting noted that funding arrangements that are now being formalized with the various development partners to launch the CEP, including the BCI and the EOC, and that there are indications of interest to support the CEP coming from additional development partners.

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Purpose

The meeting will take stock of achievements in GMS environmental cooperation and discuss future directions for regional cooperation in environment and natural resources management.

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Objectives

The meeting will finalize and endorse the following:

Implementation of the GMS Core Environment Program
Implementation of the GMS Biodiversity Conservation Corridors Initiative (BCI)
Establishment of the GMS Environment Operations Center (EOC)

The meeting will also:

issue a joint statement in support of sustainable management of natural resources and the environment
review achievements of the Working Group on Environment (WGE) and the primary challenges it faces.

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Expected Outputs