Global International Waters Assessment: Sulu-Celebes (Sulawesi) Sea, GIWA Regional Assessment 56

This report presents the GIWA assessment of the Sulu-Celebes (Sulawesi) Sea region, which includes some of the land and sea areas of the three nations the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia. The region is situated in the centre of the world's marine biodiversity with many species of global significance and is surrounded by a rapidly growing population and rapidly deteriorating marine ecosystem. Habitat loss and community modification, having strong linkages with unsustainable exploitation of living resources and suspended solids in the drainage basins, were considered to have the most severe transboundary environmental and socio-economic impacts in the region. The past and present status and future prospects of these issues are discussed, and they are traced back to their root causes. Policy options to mitigate these problems are proposed that aim to provide solutions to these fundamental issues, in order to enhance the management of the region's aquatic environment.