There are many trivialities about the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The Bangkok Declaration established the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) in 1967. Its founding members include Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and Thailand. Brunei Darussalam was joined in 1984. Vietnam joined in 1995. Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia joined in 1997.
Asean, originally conceived, is an economic alliance that promotes cooperation. It facilitates economic, social, political, and socio-cultural integration among members. It is not surprising that no mention was made about cooperation in environmental issues. However, global events in the area of environment culminated in the 1972 UN Stockholm Declaration that called for regional cooperation. Asean’s subregional environment program was established in 1978.
2003 saw the Asean Charter give legal personality to the bloc. Since then, the Asean Charter has operated as a coalition consisting of all the states that were created out of the Bangkok Declaration. Asean leaders created a roadmap for the Asean Community by 2015, which consisted of three community blueprints, political security, socio-cultural, and economic pillars, to realize the Charter’s purposes.
This is the Asean history of environmental diplomacy.
Environment Committee
Asean’s structure was not ready for formal environmental diplomacy. In the absence of an established committee, environmental issues were dealt with by a subregional arrangement. This was under the Asean committee for science and technology. It was supported by the UN Environment Program (UNEP), and other international organizations.
A Ministry of Human Settlements was formed under the 1973 Philippine Constitution. This constitution adopted a hybrid system of government. The Asean Ministerial Meeting on the Environment included the human settlements minister. He worked closely with the Asean Senior Officers on the Environment. The minister was involved in the 1981 convening of the first Ministerial Meeting on Environmental Management in Manila. The Asean meeting produced the Manila Declaration on the Environment. This declaration officially established an Asean Committee on the Environment with priority area as follows: environmental management; nature conservation and terrestrial ecologies; marine environment; industry, environment; environmental education, training and information.
Asean was only five members at the time. Representatives from two Asean nations declared that they didn’t have the authority to sign any legal instruments during the last day of the meeting. This meant that the Manila Declaration would not have been signed.
The session was canceled and the Philippine human settlements minister conferred with the two delegates privately. They agreed to the minister’s persuasive arguments, even though it meant losing their jobs upon returning home, as they claimed.
The two top officials didn’t lose their jobs. The Manila Declaration became the basis for Asean environmental diplomacy. It also led to active cooperation on environmental issues.
Agreement on Nature Conservation
The original five Asean nations began exploring conservation issues in a regional context in the late 1970s. A communication was sent to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, through its Commission on Environmental Law, regarding the possibility of assistance in the creation of a working draft of nature conservation agreements for the region.
Those were the years conservation was being recast within the context of global human developmental. UNEP, WWF, and IUCN launched the World Conservation Strategy. The Asean region requested that the IUCN Law Program translate new concepts into international law, such as maintaining essential ecological processes and life support system, conserving biodiversity, and ensuring sustainability for species and ecosystems.
The IUCN Environmental Law Center and the CEL had held a workshop with legal and technical experts to review and amend the draft by May 1981. The draft was well-received at the workshop and was adopted by the Asean Senior Officers on the Environment in 1983. The final text was agreed upon at the Asean Environment Ministers Meeting, 1984, and signed by the Asean foreign ministers conference in 1985.
The IUCN deemed the text to be the most advanced regional conservation agreement in existence, and a major achievement on the ground of policy and law. The Agreement’s entry into effect was delayed due to insufficient ratification by six states, including Brunei Darussalam. Brunei Darussalam joined the Asean group in 1984.
The Agreement was signed by only three states, and it required six ratifications for it to enter into effect. Consensus is the Asean’s standard decision-making process. Although it was accepted by the Asean environment and foreign ministers, there were some countries that opposed it and signatures were not followed.
In 1998, a member nation was noted to have stated that “…the Asean Agreement did not represent the Asean Way.
Today, there are 10 member states but signatures/ratifications are still insufficient.
Approach to Ecosystems
Asean Agreement was first treaty instrument that included an ecosystem approach and translated the World Conservation Strategy’s objectives into a framework for duties and rights in environmental laws. It was part of a group of special regional agreements that, along with the Bern Convention of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats and after the African Convention, represented “the most advanced policies in applying environmental laws for regional needs”. The IUCN Law Program considered this treaty to be a model that could be replicated in other regions.
It contained articles from the World Conservation Strategy conservation and ecology of species and ecological processes. It required Contracting Parties that they take actions to preserve genetic diversity and ensure sustainable uses of harvested species. It contained provisions for pollution control, measures for land-use planning, protected areas and environmental impact assessment, as well as national scientific research, training, administration, and training.
The Agreement never entered into force but it remains an important international legal instrument in the history modern environmental law for its conceptual advances, positive impact on the region and other aspects. Many of the forward-looking principles contained in the agreement were adopted into the region’s activities. Importantly, member states began to work individually to implement the agreements concepts at the national level. In 2000, the Philippines, Sarawak and Sabah in Malaysia, and Indonesia had adopted conservation principles or were in process of incorporating them into their laws regarding natural resource use and conservation.
The Agreement was seen as the first attempt to establish a comprehensive agreement for sustainable development. It was groundbreaking and far-reaching for the 1990s. “It is considered a forerunner at the regional level of the Convention on Biological Diversity which later incorporated many concepts from the Asean Agreement,” said Dr. Francoise Burhenne Guilmin, an internationally renowned environmental expert and former director, IUCN Environmental Law Center Bonn (Germany).
The author was the first director of the Environmental Management Bureau, also known as the DENR Environmental Management Bureau. He was also the coordinator of the Asean Experts Group on the Environment, now known as the Asean Senior Officials on the Environment.