Regional Cooperation and Environmental Issues in Northeast Asia

Hayes and Zarsky describe the rapidly emerging agenda for regional collaboration on environmental issues in Northeast Asia. In Part One, they describe briefly some of the major transfrontier or regional environmental issues in Northeast Asia that represent a menu of opportunities for cooperation (and potential conflict) between states. These issues include transfrontier air pollution (acid rain only), marine pollution (radionuclides and oil only), migratory species (fish only), and trade-environment linkages related to increasing regional economic integration. Part Two examines the emerging and somewhat overlapping regional environmental management regimes. These include UNEP’s Northwest Pacific Action Plan or NOWPAP, the IOC WESTPAC, the ESCAP/UNDP Northeast Asian Environment Program, and the UNDP Subregional Technical Cooperation and Development Program.