State and Trends


Figure 2.3.5: Projected land-use system, 2030


Most pollution in the ocean originates from industry, agriculture or domestic sources on land. One exception is the extraction of gas and oil from the sea floor. Deep-sea mineral extraction is a potential future threat, particularly in relation to the exploitation of manganese nodules in the Cook Islands, Kiribati, Niue and Tuvalu; cobalt-rich crusts in Fiji, Niue, Papua New Guinea, Palau, the Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu, and seafloor massive sulphide deposits in Kiribati, the Republic of Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Samoa and Tuvalu (SPREP 2014; Halpern et al 2012).


Species loss (abundance and diversity) Source: Eitelbert et al. 2015


There is a growing concern over the increased amount of plastic debris and micro-plastic hazardous waste finding its way into the sea that has adverse impacts on marine organisms. There are no updated data available on the amount of marine debris deposited into the marine and ocean environment within the Asia and the Pacific region or the specific impacts on biota (Chapter 2.6).


The Asia and the Pacific region contains the world’s largest number of threatened species (Figure 2.3.6). In 2015, 4 071 plants and 5 250 vertebrates (mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish) were categorized as threatened species, with Indonesia at the top of the list with 186 species of threatened mammals. The overall number of threatened mammal species in Asia and the Pacific has increased steadily, from 1 031 in 2004 to 1 138 in 2015. In the Pacific islands, more than a third of all sharks and rays, 25 per cent of hard (reef-building) warm-water corals, a fifth of marine mammal species and a quarter of conifers and cycads are threatened. The number of threatened invertebrate species has increased from 824 species in 2008 to 1 025 species in 2015 (Pippard 2008; IUCN 2015). In addition, threatened plant species in the Asia and the Pacific region have increased from 3 466 in 2006 to 4 114 in 2015 or 18 per cent (IUCN 2015). Southeast Asia contains almost 34 per cent of the world coral reefs. However, over 70 per cent of coral reefs in the region are threatened by overfishing, destructive fishing practices and sedimentation from land-based activities (Burke et al. 2002).


Although high rates of threatened species and extinction are reported in this region, at the same time new species have been discovered and described due to its diverse habitats. For example, 1 584 species of plants and vertebrates were discovered in the Greater Mekong region (Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand, Viet Nam and Yunnan province of


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