Participants of the Southeast Asian Regional Workshop on Mine Reclamation and Mine Water Management, under the Global Innovation Initiative agreed to establish the Southeast Asian Network for Mine Environmental Management and formed its task force on 23 November 2017 at BIOTROP’s headquarter.

Mr Tonny H. Gultom from Indonesian Forum for Mine Environmental Management who was appointed as the network coordinator and four network members representatives, i.e. Dr Florante Victor Balatico from Cagayan State University (Philippines), Dr Preap Visarto from Royal University of Agriculture (Cambodia), Mr Jetsada Wongprom from Kasetsart University (Thailand) and Dr San Win from University of Forestry (Yezin, Myanmar), signed the agreement on behalf of the countries they represent.

The objectives of this network are: 1) to provide communication media for members of the network focusing in mine environmental management; 2) to promote knowledge exchange and for sharing best practices and lessons learned in mine environmental management; 3) to disseminate information on research studies in mining environment (contribution from research centers and universities); 4) to contribute to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG); 5) to explore better improvement in mine reclamation; 6) to support the implementation of non-tree production for mine closure; 7) to provide best practices on post mine closure; 8) to promote community-based approach in supporting mine environment management and mine closure; and 9) to provide opportunity for students to conduct research in mine area.

This two-year collaboration is a part of the implementation of study series on mine and environmental management in Southeast Asian region funded by Global Innovation Initiative, a cooperation between the British and the US governments administered by the British Council.