1. Indonesia hosted the Sixth Meeting of the ASEAN Senior Officials on the Environment (ASOEN) held on 20-22 September 1995 in Bali, Indonesia. The Meeting was chaired by the ASOEN Chairman, the Honourable Dr. Delfin J. Ganapin, Jr., Undersecretary for Environment and Programs Development, Department of Environment and Natural Resources of the Philippines and attended by delegates from all ASEAN Member Countries. Officials from Viet Nam participated in the Meeting for the first time since becoming a member of ASEAN in July 1995. Representatives from the ASEAN Secretariat were also in attendance.

2. The Meeting reviewed the activities of the six ASOEN Working Groups on: Nature Conservation; ASEAN Seas and Marine Environment; Transboundary Pollution; Environmental Management; Environmental Economics; and Environmental Information, Public Awareness and Education. The Meeting also reviewed the status of ASEAN cooperative programmes in the field of environment with its Dialogue Partners, namely, Australia, Canada, European Union, Japan, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, United States and UNDP. The Meeting agreed to proceed with the establishment of a Sectoral Dialogue Relationship with Pakistan on Environmental Protection and Research.

3. As part of the process of operationalising the ASEAN Cooperation Plan on Transboundary Pollution which was adopted by the ASEAN Ministers on the Environment in June 1995 in Kuala Lumpur, the Meeting expressed its appreciation to Indonesia for taking the initiative to organise the recent visit to fire-prone areas by officials from several ASEAN Member Countries. This contributed to a better understanding of the causes of and possible solutions to the problem of transboundary haze pollution in the ASEAN region. The Meeting noted the valuable services and assistance of the ASEAN Specialised Meteorological Centre in Singapore in providing an early warning system for detecting "hot spots" through satellite monitoring. The Meeting emphasised the need for strengthening national and regional capacities for implementing both preventive and reactive measures in addressing the problem. In this regard, the Meeting agreed to establish a Haze Technical Task Force to be chaired by Indonesia and comprising representatives from Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore to provide a more coordinated effort in combating the problem through improved ground verification of satellite-based images, implementation of appropriate monitoring and response systems and effective collection and dissemination of relevant information.

4. The Meeting considered the draft ASEAN State of the Environment Report for 1995 which represents a baseline information to gauge the progress made in the implementation of environment-related activities in the region. The Report is expected to be published in time for distribution at the Fifth ASEAN Summit scheduled to be held in Bangkok in December this year. It is envisaged that the Report will be updated every three years.

5. The Meeting agreed to convene an ASEAN Workshop in Bangkok on 19~20 October 1995 to integrate relevant aspects of the ASEAN Strategic Plan of Aption on the Environment into the Regional Action Programme on Sustainable Development for Asia and the Pacific to be adopted at the Asia and the Pacific Ministerial Meeting on the Environment and Development which will be held in November this year in Bangkok.

6. The Meeting reviewed matters pertaining to ASEAN Member Countries' implementation of various international conventions and protocols related to the environment, namely: Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer; Basel Convention on the Control of the Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal; Framework Convention on Climate Change; and Convention on Biological Diversity. The Meeting noted that:

• all ASEAN Member Countries have ratified the 1987 Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer as well as the 1985 Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer and that all member countries except Brunei Darussalam have ratified the 1990 London Amendment to the Montreal Protocol;

• Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Viet Nam have ratified the Basel Convention on the Control of the Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal and that both Singapore and Thailand are in the process of acceding to the Convention;

• Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam have ratified the Framework Convention on Climate Change;

• Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Viet Nam have ratified the Convention on Biological Diversity.

In this connection, the Meeting noted that Indonesia would host the Second Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity which will be held on 6-17 November 1995 in Jakarta.

7. The Seventh Meeting of ASOEN will be held in 1996 in Malaysia.