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FISHERMAN. Children play among boats moored in a fishing village in Masinloc, Zambales. Photo by Jaen Manegdeg / Rappler.
MANILA, Philippines – As countries claiming parts or all of the South China Sea adopt lengthy drafting rules on the body of water, Chinese activities damaging to the marine environment threaten to leave nothing to other claimants but a “wasteland,” said an analyst on Friday, May 15.
Citing overfishing and harvesting of giant clams on the seafloor, particularly by Chinese poachers, Asia maritime analyst Gregory Poling said the “vast majority” of the shallow reef surface in the South China Sea is “severely damaged”, with some “dead” parts. permanently.”
The South China Sea is the body of water that connects the Asian continent, the islands of Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines, and Taiwan. The Western Philippine Sea is the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of the Philippines and the peripheral territories within what is internationally known as the South China Sea.
Although fishing boats from the countries surrounding this sea routinely exploit their resources, Chinese vessels have had the most dominant presence in recent years, often outperforming their neighbors, including the Philippines.
China has unilaterally imposed the fishing blockade on other claimants, while its own poachers have been documented fishing and scraping coral reefs with virtually no restrictions.
These, in addition to China’s claim of 7 reefs in the Western Philippine Sea, which has been turned into artificial islands with military bases.
“The South China Sea is becoming a wasteland. It is a boneyard, ”Poling said in a virtual forum organized by the United States Embassy in Manila on Friday.
Consisting of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is hard-pressed to get China to reduce its aggressive occupation of the sea. . Two decades of negotiating a code of conduct on water are said to be coming to a head, but many analysts, including Poling, hope that the resulting set of rules will hardly deter China’s actions.
“If there is no cooperation to stop overfishing, prevent the intentional destruction of the marine environment … and give the marine environment of the South China Sea time to repair itself, there will be no fish when the code of conduct ends Poling warned.
In April, Senator Risa Hontiveros said China owes the Philippines more than $ 200 billion in damages for environmental destruction in the Western Philippine Sea. The amount could be used to cover the Philippines’ expenses in addressing the coronavirus pandemic, he added.
A year earlier, in April 2019, the Department of Foreign Affairs filed a diplomatic protest with the Chinese government over the massive harvest of giant clams in Panatag Shoal, known internationally as Scarborough Shoal.
The Chinese coastguards have practically kept Philippine fishermen out of the Panatag Shoal lagoon, reducing their chances of a good catch and preventing them from accessing their natural harbor in bad weather.
The head of a fishermen’s organization in Zambales, the province closest to Panatag Shoal, told Rappler in September 2019 that the volume of their catches has decreased by 80% since 2012, when Chinese vessels occupied and blocked the lagoon by first time.
In 2018, ASEAN and China agreed on a “decade of maritime protection,” but so far there have been no negotiations to enforce it.
A United Nations-backed arbitration court called China’s environmentally destructive activities in its July 2016 ruling that asserted the sovereign rights of the Philippines in the West Philippine Sea. The ruling invalidated China’s so-called 9-stroke line that eats almost the entire sea.
Conflicting interests between ASEAN states and China tend to delay problem solving, particularly in the South China Sea. However, protecting their marine environment is a common interest and can be a starting point for consensus, Poling said.
“Much more important than conversations for a code of conduct, [the ASEAN should] lobby for something more real, and in reality would preserve the livelihood of those most affected, “he added. – Rappler.com
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