Endangered Species and Fragile Ecosystems in the South China Sea

The Philippines v. China Arbitration

Alfredo C. Robles, Jr.

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9789811398131
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Asian Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

This book presents an in-depth analysis of the environmental issues raised in the South China Sea Arbitration Awards, which have not attracted as much attention in the Philippines as the "nine-dash line". Specifically it focuses onthe conservation of endangered species and the conservation of fragile ecosystems in the South China Sea.

The aims of the book are two-fold. First, it seeks to explain the Philippine perspective on the environmental aspects of its dispute with China. The book reconstructs the Philippine perspective in part by consulting several dozens of the hundreds of documents that the Philippines submitted to the Tribunal. Some of these documents were classified as secret and would thus have never been made available to the public had it not been for the arbitration. Second, it attempts to explain the decisions of the Tribunal on jurisdiction and admissibility as well as the decisions on the merits of the dispute. The book does this by consulting not only the two Awards but also the hundreds of pages of transcripts, expert reports, supplemental submissions and written responses by the Philippines to questions posed by the Tribunal.

© The Author(s) 2020

A. C. Robles, Jr.Endangered Species and Fragile Ecosystems in the South China Seahttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-9813-1_1

Begin Abstract

1. Introduction

Alfredo C. Robles Jr.¹

(1)

De La Salle University, Manila, Philippines

Alfredo C. Robles Jr.

End Abstract

The South China Sea is a large marine ecosystem characterized by a high degree of biodiversity, but its living resources have been overexploited for decades now. Overexploitation has been accompanied by an increasing number of fishing incidents between China and the Philippines since the mid-1990s, involving Chinese fishermen engaged in the harvesting of endangered species in ways that also harmed fragile marine ecosystems, specifically coral reefs. Concluding that bilateral mechanisms had failed to resolve its various disputes with China relating to the South China Sea, the Philippines initiated arbitration under Annex VII of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (“the Convention”) on 22 January 2013. Among the Philippine submissions were the claims that China had breached its obligation to protect and preserve the marine environment by tolerating the activities of Chinese nationals who harvested endangered species and engaged in cyanide and dynamite fishing and by undertaking construction activities on several maritime features in the South China Sea. The proceedings are remarkable for the efforts of the Tribunal to ensure that its decisions were well founded in fact and law and, somewhat surprisingly, by China’s informal participation in the proceedings. Following this introduction, the book will explain the importance of marine biodiversity for the Philippines; compare the international framework for the conservation of biodiversity and that for the conservation of marine living resources; examine the jurisdiction of the Arbitral Tribunal over endangered species and fragile marine ecosystems; and discuss China’s violation of the obligation to protect and preserve the marine environment through toleration of harvesting of endangered marine species and fragile marine ecosystems and the use of destructive fishing techniques as well as through construction activities in the South China Sea.

I. An Overexploited Large Marine Ecosystem: The South China Sea

The significance for international trade of the South China Sea , a semi-enclosed sea spanning approximately 3.5 million square kilometers in the Western Pacific, is already well known to the public and experts alike.¹ Approximately $5.3 trillion worth of trade passes through it every year. Such trade includes up to half of the world’s oil shipments, 80% of maritime trade with China, and a large part of the trade connecting Europe, Africa, and Asia with Japan, Hawaii, and North and South America. Armed conflict that delayed or interrupted shipping in the area would result in losses estimated at $14.5 billion per day.²

For natural scientists, the South China Sea is significant as a large marine ecosystem, which is defined as a relatively large area of ocean space, of approximately 200,000 square kilometers or greater, adjacent to the continents in coastal waters where primary productivity is generally higher than in open ocean areas.³ The South China Sea is characterized by an extremely high diversity of species and habitats. The known species include 571 species of stony corals, 3365 species of marine fishes, more than 1500 species of sponges (of which the large majority appears to be endemic, or confined, to the region), 982 species of echinoderms (12% of which are endemic to the region),⁴ 45 mangrove species ,⁵ 20 seagrass species,⁶ 7 species of giant clams, and 6 of the world’s 7 sea (marine) turtle species.⁷ The habitats of many of these species are coral reefs, which occupy 12,000 square kilometers in the South China Sea .⁸ Most coral reefs in the South China Sea are shelf-edge reefs, found at the edge of a continental shelf, relatively near the coast.⁹ Offshore are oceanic coral atolls, the most well known of which are the Spratly Islands , the Paracel Islands, and the Pratas Islands.¹⁰ The first two are significantly rich in biodiversity . Thus, it has been estimated that in the Spratly Islands alone there are 382 stony coral species, 776 benthic species,¹¹ 524 spices of marine fish, 262 species of algae and seagrass, 35 species of seabirds, and 20 species of marine mammals and sea turtles. On Itu Aba, the largest feature in the Spratly Islands , a 1994 Vietnamese survey reported, among others, 399 reef fish species, 190 coral species, 99 mollusk species , 27 crustacean species, 4 echinoderm species, and 91 other invertebrate species .¹² It is not surprising that coral reefs provide 80% of the fish caught by coastal communities in the South China Sea .¹³

The extent of biodiversity explains the importance of the South China Sea as a fisheries area. The annual landing of fish was estimated to be 10.5 million tons in 2010.¹⁴ Pelagic (occurring in the open sea), transnational stocks of yellowfin tuna , mackerel, billfishes, anchovies, sardines, and several shark species, as well as demersal species (found in the deep water or on the sea bottom), such as groupers , some sharks, penaeid shrimps , giant clams, and sea cucumbers , are important commercial groups.¹⁵ The abundance and diversity of fishery resources provided the basis for significant expansion of the catch of six Southeast Asian countries (Indonesia, Malaysia , Myanmar , the Philippines , Thailand , and Vietnam) between 1956 and 2000.¹⁶

The predictable result is the overfishing of the waters of the South China Sea. A rapid increase from 1976 to 1983 in the capture of 12 small, commercially valuable pelagic species, such as mackerel , tuna, sardines, and anchovies, gave rise to a situation of full exploitation of most of the pelagic fisheries after 1987.¹⁷ Between 1950 and 2000, fish stocks at trophic levels 3 and above, e.g., tuna, mackerel, jacks, and sharks , in the South China Sea , declined by more than 50% .¹⁸ The coral reefs seem to have reached maximum harvestable potential even earlier, around the mid-1970s.¹⁹ That being said, the state of fish stocks varies from one part of the South China Sea to another. The heaviest fishing, indicated by depleted or fully fished species groupings, is on the western side of the South China Sea, in the shallower shelf fisheries. Stocks are in better conditions around Brunei, where fishing is prohibited around the numerous oil rigs and interconnecting pipes , Sabah, Sarawak, and parts of the Philippines .²⁰

Marine biologists suggest that the existence of dense groups of coral reefs in the Spratly Islands , which are potential source of larvae, could explain why the heavily fished species did not become extinct, despite overfishing.²¹ Unfortunately, the coral reefs in the South China Sea are no less threatened than the fish stocks. The most serious threats are overfishing and destructive fishing : As fishery resources close to shore are depleted, fishermen extend their activity to the more remote coral reefs and use explosives and cyanide.²² Other threats to coral reefs , particularly those close to shore, are coastal development, pollution, sedimentation, deforestation, tourism, and bleaching.²³ The reefs that have suffered the least adverse impact are in parts of the Philippines and the offshore reefs and atolls of the Pratas Islands , the Paracel Islands , and the Spratly Islands .²⁴

Fishermen respond to overfishing or outright depletion of fishery resources in their country’s territorial waters by venturing further out to sea. In so doing, they contribute to further overfishing in areas of the South China Sea where stocks may not have suffered as much from overfishing. Such is the risk for large pelagic fishes (tuna, mackerel, and swordfish ) in the eastern part of the South China Sea , the Philippines, Sarawak , Sabah , and Indonesia, where they have been only moderately fished or underfished, as well as for small pelagic fish (sardines and anchovies ), which have been only moderately fished or are underfished in northern and central Philippines .²⁵

Even worse, fishermen’s res...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Endangered Species, Fragile Marine Ecosystems, and the Philippines
• 3. The International Frameworks for the Conservation of Biodiversity and of the Marine Environment
• 4. The Protection and Preservation of Endangered Species and Fragile Ecosystems and the Jurisdiction of the Arbitral Tribunal
• 5. Endangered Species, Fragile Ecosystems, and the Obligation to Protect and Preserve the Marine Environment
• 6. Summary and Conclusions
• Back Matter