My name is Yinfeng Geo,

the Chief Technical Adviser and Manager of UNDP/GEF,

Yellow Sea Large Marine Ecosystem, Phase II Project.

I'm very glad to be here.

And today, I'm going to talk about the implementation of strategic action program to

restore ecosystem goods and services

using Yellow Sea Large Marine Ecosystem as a case study.

Probably, all of you know something about the Yellow Sea.

It's a large marine ecosystem bordered by People's Republic of China,

Democratic People's Republic of Korea,

also Republic of Korea with a total area of 400,000 square kilometers.

The ecosystem services and goods in

the Yellow Sea provide a very fundamental basis for blue economy in the region.

Therefore, it is critically important to make sure

that the ecosystem health, all diversity,

and also the fish species are maintained at

the baseline level before the SAP was established.

The SAP was actually adopted in

the year 2009 with the endorsement of People's Republic of China,

DPR Korea, as well as RO Korea.

At that time, the DPR Korea also endorsed but unfortunately were not

able to participate during the second phase of the Chair Supported Initiative.

And in the fish and marine culture is a very important area.

There are targets related with that, for example,

there is a target one of the SAP says that

the 25 to 30 percent of the fishing efforts in the Yellow Sea will be reduced.

So this is a very ambitious target.

There also target related with the ecosystem health, for example,

the control of the marine data and the

introduction of the new technologies in particular use of wetland.

Wetland nutrient services, nutrient and

remediation services to control the pollution in particular nutrients.

There are also targets related with climate change, for example,

the better understanding of the relationship between the sea surface temperature,

increase and the implications on the plankton communities.

So these are also some of the targets.

So now I still want to use an example of a capture fishery and the marine culture to

demonstrate how the National Strategic Action Plans

are being implemented by the two countries.

And I'd like to cite the examples of capture fishery first.

And in both countries,

China and RO Korea,

some of the efforts are being taken at

a National level to control the fishing efforts as agreed in the SAP.

For example in China,

the fishing effort of the Yellow Sea is expected to decrease

by 25 percent in accordance with 35-year plan which covers 2015 to 2020.

So this is a ambitious target.

If this target is established in the case of China,

then it is mandatory to achieve it.

So this a very, very high politically important event also socially, also economically.

And in the RO Korea, similar efforts have also been made.

For example, in the past,

I think in the past 17 years,

about 30 percent of the production or remedy from the fisheries sector has been reduced.

So there is also a contribution to the reduction of fishing efforts by RO Korea.

Then in China, in addition to the reduction of fishing efforts,

more efforts have also been taken then committed during the SAP targeted face.

This included the expansion of the fish closure.

So this new policy is implemented from year 2017.

In addition to this,

the capacity that the fishing vessels has also been controlled in China.

So this is also to make sure that with reduced number of fishing vessels,

there is equally reduction in fishing capacity.

So these are the efforts made by the two countries as

a commitment to the implementation SAP of the YSLME.

And some of the efforts are also made by the two countries in addition

to the closure of fish impacting areas.

For example, in both countries restocking of the fish population is prevalent.

For example, in China as many as 42 marine ranches

demonstration sites have been established.

The same case in RO Korea.

I think in RO Korea,

a total of 36 marine ranching operations are being demonstrated.

This is also to the overall idea is the increase the fish species

and both being embedded in biomass at the same time through other complementary measures.

For example, the enhancement of the coastal habitats

and through the re-plantation of the seagrass and some other species.

So these are some of the efforts made.

At the same time with the reduced patch and

the livelihoods of the fishermen are also being considered in both countries.

For example, in China and there are

subsidy programs to make sure that the displaced fisherman who

joined the fishing vessels by that schemes as a effort to reduce

fishing efforts can be taken care of through

a social safeguard program also

integrated in a five-year plan of the National government.

So that is efforts made in China.

Similar efforts are also made in RO Korea.

And there are additional efforts actually in addition to

the reduction of fishing efforts also restocking,

which is the protection of the fish nursery,

spawning, and feeding ground.

So this is effort being implemented locally not nationally.

For example, in the province of Shandong which is one the largest marine culture also

capture fishery province in China with nearly two or three long coastal line.

A target of creating pang calibration areas for the fish spawning nursery sites

has been established in

their fishery development plan during the fifth, the five-year plan.

So this is a great initiative actually.

And for the project that

the Yellow Sea at Large Marine Ecosystem during the Phase II stage,

we plan to create Yellow Sea Large Marine Ecosystem,

Marine Protected Area Network which also include spawning and

nourishing sites of all the economically important species.

Some of the scaling up efforts are also being taken to address

not only the fishing effort issues but also

the environmental health in particular the ecosystem health in the Yellow Sea.

These include, for example,

the Blue Bay Program initiated by China in

recent years which are meant to address the land-based pollution.

And there are also programs at National level implemented by

the National government to reduce the pressure on the importance of

biologically and ecologically important areas through the Red Line program which

is one of the way to conserve those important areas for the biodiversity in the region.

Of course, this is very much related with

the protection of the fish species in particular the spawning sites as well.

So these are the complementary measures.

And in addition to that,

some of the efforts are also made to increase the seafood production to making

sure the continuously expanding seafood demand can be met in the two countries.

And in both countries

good practice demonstrated in the first phase of the project has been replicated.

For example, in China,

Shanghai Bay is a small village which demonstrated

successful replication also commercialization of integrated multi-trophic aquaculture,

a technology that is energy-efficient,

which can reduce the nutrients releasing

water color also improve the water quality at the same time.

And scientists also found that these practice can also

reduce the sequester carbon in the whole process.

And being considered as a true sustainable marine culture practice,

this has been replicated in other cities outside the Yellow Sea.

For example, in the RO Korea,

several sites are using as the research basis to

document accomplishment using the IMTA as a good practice.

And according to the initial studies,

when the different species are stocked

together using the tropic level as one of the important criteria.

There's less occurrence, actually no occurrence of diseases which would

otherwise happen if the fish species are cultured in mono-culture.

And there is also document in increase in

the growth rate for example of the bivalves or sea cucumber.

So these are some of the benefits.

And one of the most important benefits of adopting IMTA practice is

the increased production of fish output per

unit area in which case different species are

stocked together vertically rather than horizontally.

Vertically, so the area used through this production is minimized to the extent possible.

So this is also some of the very valuable points in

application of IMTA as a sustainable practice.

In spite of the good practice,

the project will support the documentation of the good practices

at the same time replication through

different means especially scaling up of a good practice.

And in RO Korea,

there is a initiative being considered by National Institute of Fisheries Sciences

to scale up the application of IMTA through legislation.

In China, similar efforts are also being considered.

Leading scientists in Yellow Sea Fisheries Research Institute

have drafted a proposal endorsed by

a total 17 eminent scientists in China to raise the attention of

the national government to use current capacity as

the key principle in the conduct of marine culture in China.

So we hope that this can be materialized sooner or later

to make sure that the continued demand for seafood can be met with the implementation,

during the implementation of the fishing board buyback schemes.

The Yellow Sea LME - Implementing the SAP

Large Marine Ecosystems: Assessment and Management

Meet the Instructors