New islands will harm ASEAN's marine ecosystem

Subject

The environmental politics of artificial island-building in the South China Sea.

Significance

Recent satellite photography has illustrated China's land reclamation and island-building work in the disputed Spratly islands in the South China Sea. Artificial island-building is likely to facilitate increases in the permanent population of the area. This raises the question of island-building's environmental, social and industrial implications.

Impacts

• Extracting any South China Sea oil and gas reserves could damage maritime ecology further.
• If artificial island populations grow, waste management could become a problem.
• Mutual need to protect fishing stocks could provide an avenue for multilateral discussion on maritime disputes.