Review and Synthesis of Donor Projects in the East Asian Seas Region

This report reviews United Nations and donor-funded regional projects on the coastal and marine environment in Southeast Asia since 1980, covering Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. It synthesises eleven major regional initiatives and selected bilateral programmes, outlining their objectives, activities, outputs and lessons learned. The review is based on literature searches and agency records and focuses on projects exceeding United States dollar 0.5 million and involving multiple countries. It identifies three principal themes: technical assistance and capacity building, information management systems, and coastal zone management. The findings show sustained success in technology transfer and human resource development, limited sustainability of regional databases, and greater complexity in implementing coastal management programmes.