ⓒ Ben Dilley
The Issue
The region of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, also known as ASEAN, is home to a third of the world’s coastal and marine habitats. This vast marine ecosystem is an intricate network that supports the livelihoods, economic stability and food security of millions. It is also a jewel of marine biodiversity, providing marine wildlife with breeding, nursing and feeding grounds.
Despite its importance, the ASEAN’s region’s rich marine ecosystem is also under considerable strain, facing increasing threats from unsustainable resource use, habitat change, pollution and the pressures of human population growth.
The ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity (ACB), through its regional project Effectively Managing Networks of Marine Protected Areas in Large Marine Ecosystems in the ASEAN Region (ASEAN ENMAPS), is working to strengthen the management of marine protected areas (MPAs) and associated marine corridors within the ASEAN region for the conservation of globally significant biodiversity. In addition, it seeks to provide support for sustainable fisheries and other ecosystem-related goods and services.
The project, which began in March 2024 and will run up to February 2029, focuses on 11 pilot sites spanning Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand, covering the four large marine ecosystems of Bay of Bengal, Indonesian Seas, South China Sea and Sulu-Celebes Sea.
Our Work
In an effort to strengthen marine conservation across Southeast Asia, the ACB and Global Fishing Watch initiated a collaboration to integrate the use of open data and satellite technology to achieve the ASEAN ENMAPS project goals. In September 2025, Global Fishing Watch conducted a hands-on workshop with the ASEAN ENMAPS teams in Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand, training participants on how to use Global Fishing Watch’s Marine Manager tool. The portal, developed in partnership with Dona Bertarelli, helps governments, researchers, conservation advocates and others advance global efforts to improve oversight of human activity in and around MPAs and facilitate stewardship of marine resources.
During the training, the ASEAN ENMAPS teams learned how to develop site profiles, build customized workspaces and integrate data layers to visualize and analyze activity within and around key MPA sites. The collaboration also promoted knowledge sharing across project sites and built technical capacity to effectively use Marine Manager as a decision-support tool for planning, monitoring and evaluation of marine conservation efforts in the region’s large marine ecosystems.
“Marine manager is a very useful portal that converts data into decisions, which is important in establishing MPA networks at the ASEAN ENMAPS sites,” said Dr. Sheila Vergara, manager of the ASEAN ENMAPS project. “Global Fishing Watch is the ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity’s integral partner in pursuing collaborative objectives for large marine ecosystems resilience.”
While measurable conservation impacts are expected to take shape over time, the collaboration has already strengthened the foundation for improved planning and monitoring of MPAs and MPA networks across the ASEAN region. The partnership has also demonstrated how transparency and open, accessible data can help build regional capacity and promote more effective ocean governance and MPA management. By visualizing human activity at sea, decision-makers can better understand potential threats to biodiversity and respond with informed strategies that both protect and preserve the vitality of our shared ocean.
