The 2025 International Conference on Marine Environmental Management opened Sept. 15-16 in Taipei City, highlighting the government’s commitment to working with partners to realize sustainable marine development.
Organized by Taiwan’s Ocean Affairs Council, the event brought together nearly 50 experts from Taiwan, France, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, the Philippines and the U.S. to address over 300 participants on topics such as debris management, oil pollution prevention, seawater and sediment quality protection, and international cooperation.
OAC Minister Kuan Bi-ling said in opening remarks that the global community is facing challenges such as climate change and overfishing. She added that only through international cooperation and the application of technology in ways that emphasize both conservation and sustainability can the members ensure healthy oceans that support a healthy Earth.
Kuan explained that the OAC initiated the National Ocean Policy White Paper, established a maritime legal system and a monitoring sharing mechanism and shared that Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim will announce the white paper’s newest version by the end of September.
The council also signed a memorandum of agreement with the Habibie Center, an Indonesian think tank, the OAC said. Witnessed by Kuan and Arif Sulistiyo, head of the Indonesian Economic and Trade Office to Taipei, the agreement marks a milestone for Taiwan’s Indo-Pacific marine waste management cooperation initiative, the OAC said.
According to the council, the participation of a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency representative at the forum to share its Trash-Free Waters project is evidence of the OAC initiative’s impact. Further international cooperation is in the works, including a collaboration with U.K.-based nongovernmental organization Environmental Justice Foundation to host a fishing gear recycling workshop in Thailand, and a project to share cutting-edge plastic recycling technologies with Japan’s Clean Ocean Material Alliance, it said.
The OAC is committed to working with global partners through multilateral collaboration to safeguard oceans and reach global sustainability, the council added. (YCH-E)
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