Report of the Fourteenth Meeting of the Coordinating Body on the Seas of East Asia (COBSEA) on the East Asian Seas Action Plan

The Intergovernmental Meeting on the East Asian Seas Action Plan which was held in Bangkok, 9-11 December 1981, agreed inter alia, to establish the Coordinating Body on the Seas of East Asia (COBSEA), to serve as the overall authority to determine the contents of the Action Plan, to review the progress of the Action Plan and to approve its programme of implementation during the annual meetings of the governments (intergovernmental meetings) that participate in the action plan. The eleventh meeting of the Coordinating Body on the Seas of East Asia (COBSEA) was held in Bangkok, 28-29 October 1994. This meeting was preceded by the Meeting of Plenipotentiaries on the East Asian Seas Action Plan (Bangkok, 27-28 October 1994). The meeting of plenipotentiaries decided to enlarge the geographic coverage of the Action Plan to enable Australia, Kingdom of Cambodia, People's Republic of China, Republic of Korea and Socialist Republic of Viet Nam to participate in activities concerning the Protection and Sustainable Development of the Coastal and Marine Areas of the East Asian Seas. The decision to revise the Action Plan, originally adopted by five countries of the region in 1981, was taken in order to: (a) bring it in line with new developments, particularly with regard to the decisions of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) and its programme, Agenda 21; (b) allow the addition of the new member-states; and (c) take into consideration emerging environmental issues of the past thirteen years.