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Acid Deposition Monitoring Network in East Asia (EANET)
Background:
East Asian region has pursued an economic growth and increasing
demand for energy. Accordingly, the emissions into the
atmosphere are exceeded due to fossil fuel combustion and
intensified use of transport. As a result, an increase of air
pollution is now a priority issue among the environmental
problems in many Asian countries.
Sulfur and nitrogen oxides are the major pollutants which cause
the deposition of acidifying substances far from the emission
sources. The negative effects of them on ecosystems and human
life were observed and studied in other regions of the world.
The adverse impacts of acid deposition in East Asia will become
a serious problem in the near future if no proper actions are
done.
Acid deposition being a greater regional problem is not limited
by national boundaries, and corresponded assessment, researches
and measures need to be undertaken as international issues. This
aspect had led in Europe to the agreement on the Convetion on
Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP) in 1979. As
pointed out in Agenda 21 adopted by the United Nations
Conference on Environment and Development in June 1992, "The
programs (in Europe and North America) need to be continued and
enhanced, and their experience needs to be shared with other
regions of the world".
In the East Asian region, a series of experts
meetings were held since 1993 to discuss the state of acid
deposition in the region, effects on ecosystems and future moves
toward regional cooperation on this issue. As a result of the series
of meetings, the Acid Deposition Monitoring Network in East Asia (EANET)
was established in March 1998 during the First Intergovernmental
Meeting (IG) of EANET. EANET is a regional cooperation initiative to
promote efforts for environmental sustainability and protection of
human health .
Consequently, the preparatory-phase activities of EANET started in
April 1998. The ten countries participating in the preparatory-phase
activities, namely: China, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mongolia,
Philippines, Republic of Korea, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam,
concluded at the Second Session of IG in October 2000 that the
preparatory-phase activities had been successful, and so decided to
start the EANET activities on a regular basis from January 2001.
Objectives of EANET:
to create a common understanding of the state of the acid
deposition problems in East Asia,
to
provide useful inputs for decision making at local, national and
regional levels aimed at preventing or reducing adverse impacts on
the environment caused by acid deposition, and
to
contribute to cooperation on the issues related to acid deposition
among the participating countries.
Monitoring Activities:
The Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) of the Department of
Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is the National Center of
EANET in the Philippines. The EMB, particularly the Research and
Development Division (RDD) is tasked to conduct the following
monitoring activities of EANET:
 Wet
Deposition Monitoring
Dry
Deposition Monitoring
Inland Aquatic Environment Monitoring
Soil
and Vegetation Monitoring
In line with the EANET project, EMB had established two
monitoring stations for both wet and dry deposition monitoring
located in the Ateneo de Manila University Campus in Quezon City,
and in the University of the Philippines Los Banos, Laguna. For the
inland aquatic environment, Pandin Lake in San Pablo, Laguna has
been selected as a monitoring site. In addition, two stations are
established for soil and vegetation monitoring, namely: Mt. Makiling
in Los Banos, Laguna and UP-Quezon-Laguna Land Grant in Siniloan,
Laguna.
South China Sea Project: Reversing
Environmental Degradation Trends in the South China Sea and Gulf of
Thailand - National Coordination Component
Project Brief: Study on Land-based Sources of Pollution
Background:
The study is a sub-component of the UNEP/GEF Project
entitled: "Reversing Environmental Degradation Trends in the South
China Sea and the Gulf of Thailand", implemented on a regional basis
by countries bordering the South China Sea, namely: China,
Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia and Vietnam.
The project, also known as the "South China Sea Project", was a
result of a Trandboundary Diagnostic Analysis (TDA) conducted in
each participating countries and the Strategic Action Programme
which was developed during the project preperatory phase. THe TDA of
the South China Sea and its asssociated catchment areas, is a
process that focuses on identifying water-related problems and
concerns, their socio-economic root causes, and the sectoral
implications of actions needed to mitigate them. The analysis
further determines those issues which have transboundary (i.e.
involves more than one country) causes and/or impacts, appropriate
mitigation of which will have to be done on a regional or bilateral
bases. Project preparations and negotiations started in 1999, and
implementation begins 2002 until 2006. Funding support is provided
by Global Environment Facility (GEF), and in part by counterpart, in
kind contributions by participatiing governments. UNEP-EAS/RCU in
Bangkok, Thailand coordinates the project regionally.
Goals:
to create an environment at the regional level, in which
collaboration and partnerships in addressing environmental problems
of the South China Sea, between all stakeholders, and at all levels,
is fostered and encouraged; and
to
enhance the capacity of the participating governments to integrate
environmental considerations into national development planning.
Other Sub-components included in the Project:
Coral
reefs
Seagrasses
Mangroves
Fisheries
Wetlands
These are to be implemented by various concerned specialized
executing agencies (SEAs) such as UP MSI, DENR-CEPCO, BFAR, and PAWB,
accordingly. The EMB DENR acts as the national focal agency for the
overall Project implementation, as well as the SEA for the
land-based pollution component.
Specifically, the role of the sub-component on land-based sources
of pollution, to be implemented by EMB as the specialized executing
agency dealing on environmental pollution, is primarily to provide
national level scientific and technical information and data
regarding the state of the land-based pollution of various
ecosystems in the country, and threats to their continued management
on a sustainable basis.
Activities:
Activities for achieving the goals of this sub-component are to
be undertaken within the overall management framework of the South
China Sea Project. A 12-point activity program for this component,
as stated in the Workplan, are as follows:
1. Establish the national committee on land-based pollution and
organize meetings;
2. Review national water quality data and evaluate the
transboundary fate of pollutants in the SCS;
3. Pilot demonstration activities that lead to improvement in
water quality management at national and regional scales;
4. Conduct a preliminary demonstration of the costs and benefits
of alternative mitigation measures and conduct pre-feasibility
studies for three (3) selected priority pollution "hot spots";
5. Develop and agree on a South China Sea strategic approach to
mitigating priority regional "hot spots" for inclusion in the SAP
for the SCS;
6. Establish regional working group and convene six (6) regional
meetings;
7. Review regional quality data and evaluate the transboundary
fate of pollutants in the SCS;
8. Develop and adopt national and regional management plans and
strategic actions to be incorporated in the SAP;
9. Costs and benefits of alternative mitigation measures and
conduct pre-feasibility studies for three selected priority
pollution "hot spots";
10. Agree on a South China Sea strategic approach to mitigating
priority regional "hot spots" for inclusion in the SAP for the SCS;
11. Treaining and capacity building for improvement in water
quality management at national and regional scales; and
12. Study tours to demonstrate sites.
UNEP/GEF South China Sea Project: Reversing Environmental
Degradation Trends in the South China Sea and Gulf of Thailand -
Land-based Pollution Component
Manila Bay Monitoring
Metro Manila Drinking Water Quality
Pasig River Monitoring
PAWB Lagoon Monitoring Solid Waste Management Research
Framework Development
Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) and Metals Watch
Project
Solid Waste Management Research Framework
A major development in solid waste management in the Philippines
was the enactment of Republic Act 9003, also known as the Ecological
Solid Waste Management Act of 2000. The Act sets forth the policy
and implemenation framework of solid waste management in the country
from the national to the local level. In addition, the Act declares
it a policy to promote national research and development programs to
improved solid waste management and resource conservation techniques
including more effective institutional arrangement and indigenous
and improved methods of waste reduction, collection, separation and
recovery.
At present, the EMB is preparing research framework for the
municipal solid waste management that will focus on
policy/standards/guidelines development and solid waste assessment
and characterization, leachate treatment and risk assessment as well
as technology validation.
The RDD, with support from the National Solid Waste Management
Commission (NSWMC)-Secretariat has been tasked to conduct among
others, surveys of solid waste management practices of local
government units (LGU's), researchable areas, leachate
characterization and establishment of monitoring stations for
leachate as well as groudwater/surface water.
To date, RDD has surveyed 24 major dumpsites of cities across the
country and collected more than a hundred water/leachate samples for
analysis/characterization. Parameters include physico-chemical,
metals and organics.
Toxicity Testing Project
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