Heartfelt Closing Ceremony at the 8th EAS Congress in Xiamen

_{EAS Partnership Council Technical Session Chair Dr. Keita Furukawa synthesizes the combined outputs of almost 30 sessions about ocean and river solutions, which were spread over the three days of the 8th EAS Congress held in Xiamen, China. The closing ceremony capped off three intense days of learning and networking for over 800 delegates from 20 countries. (PRF)}

Three absolutely jam-packed days of learning and networking were capped off by the concise but meaningful closing ceremonies of the 8^th EAS Congress in Xiamen, People’s Republic of China.

The closing ceremony saw Dr. Shenghui Li, EAS Youth Forum Delegate for China and Deputy Director, Department of Land Resource Management, School of Management, Guangdong Ocean University, sharing her thoughts on the role of the youth in ocean conservation and sustainable development. The conservation icon shared her varied experiences in raising awareness about ocean sustainability in universities and schools, emphasized youth empowerment and most importantly asked the crowd “What you all can do for the ocean, not just what the ocean can do for you.”

Dr. Keita Furukawa, President, Association for Shore Environment Creation (NPO), who also sat as the Technical Session Chair for the East Asian Seas Partnership Council shared the combined conclusions and recommendations from the nearly 30 congress sessions, workshops and meetings, while Ms. Aimee Gonzales, Executive Director of the PEMSEA Resource Facility, gave a big thanks to the myriad partners, organizers and most especially the delegates for making the 8^th EAS Congress in Xiamen an unbridled success. “The beauty of a partnership is that we rely on our respective expertise, experience, resources and capacity to help one another, build synergies and ensure coherent, complementary and coordinated actions. I hope that your engagement as partners will not just take place during our congress years, but will continue in between congresses as well.”

_{The 9th EAS Congress shall be scheduled in 2027. Stay tuned to www.pemsea.org for more details. (PRF)}