About North East Asian Subregional Programme for Environmental Cooperation (NEASPEC)
(http://www.neaspec.org)
Making up over 44 percent of the entire population of Asia and the Pacific region, the subregion of North-East Asia is a vast and diverse area comprising six major countries: China, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Japan, Mongolia, Republic of Korea and the Russian Federation.
This subregion has a long history of development and its extremely rich resource endowments offers tremendous potential for further progress particularly in the key sectors of agriculture, industry, mining, transport and energy. However, past experience has shown that such development has not been without its drawbacks and also caused considerable environmental problems in these countries. Air and water pollution, degradation of coastal and marine resources, proliferation of toxic chemicals and hazardous wastes, loss of soil productivity and biodiversity are some of the major environmental problems facing the subregion.
To tackle such environmental problems and to foster cooperation on these important issues, a Meeting of Senior Officials on Environmental Cooperation in North-East Asia was held at Seoul in February 1993. The First Meeting recommended that as a follow-up to the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, the subregional cooperation programme should be developed on a step-by-step basis. The framework for the North-East Asian Subregional Programme of Environmental Cooperation was developed and adopted through the consultation process in a series of Senior Officials Meetings.
