There were the presidents and senior officials on the environment of the ASEAN member countries, representatives of Center for ASEAN Biodiversity (ACB) and the ASEAN Secretariat (ASEC) attending the meeting.
Mr. Nguyen Van Tai - Director General of Department of Environment said: ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Environment is one of the important activities in order to review and assess the results achieved in the implementation Project programs. Also discussing the effective co-operation within the framework of ASEAN cooperation on environment. Discuss and finalize important documents of ASEAN to the AMME13 consideration and adoption. Including draft ASEAN Joint Declaration on Climate Change (CC) prepared for the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP21). Draft Declaration agenda on environmental sustainability and climate change after 2015.
The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) have paid heed to the environment cooperation since an early DATE. The regional bloc compiled the first ASEAN Sub-regional Environment Programme (ASEP I) in 1977, and in 1989, two new mechanisms were launched in the field, which were the ASEAN Senior Officials on Environment (ASOEN) Meeting and the AMME.
The AMME meets every three years to decide the bloc’s strategy and policies on ASEAN cooperation in environment-related issues. The first AMME was held in Manila, the Philippines, on April 30, 1981. ASEAN members will host the event on a rotary basis. On the sidelines of the AMME, other meetings such as the AMME+3 and East Asia Summit-AMME meetings are held to promote collaboration in the field between ASEAN and its partners and dialogue partners.
The ASEAN Vision beyond 2015 has defined the goal for a green and clean ASEAN Community with adequate mechanisms serving sustainable development in order to ensure environmental protection in the region, the sustainability of natural resources and high life quality of each citizen. ASEAN environment ministers have set up a working group on Environmental Education and adopted an ASEAN action plan on environmental education (AEEAP) for the 2014-2018 period with a to promoting sustainable development via education and increase the public’s engagement in environmental issues.
An ASEAN Regional Centre for Biodiversity Conservation (ARCBC) has been set up with financial support of the European Union, with the task of strengthening regional collaboration in the field while serving as the coordinator for connectivity among related agencies of ASEAN member states and EU partners. ASEAN has also built and implemented a working plan to realize the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution. The ministers have also consented to submit a proposal on a Haze Supevision Mechanism to ASEAN leaders for approval.
