Coastal and terrestrial areas provide many ecosystem services for human life and welfare. The sustainable use of these ecosystem services is expected to be able to provide benefits for humans and keep the ecosystem sustainable. And salt is one of the ecosystem services in coastal area.

To discuss more deeply about salt as ecosystem services in coastal area, SEAMEO BIOTROP held a Mini Workshop on Sustainable Use and Ecosystem Services in Coastal and Terrestrial Area on 15 July, 2022. This event was officially opened by Dr. Zulhamsyah Imran, the Director of SEAMEO BIOTROP. In his opening remarks, Dr. Zulhamsyah Imran, the Director of SEAMEO BIOTROP expressed his gratitude and welcomed to resource person in this event, also hoped through this workshop we can share our experiences and knowledge about salt industries as one of the most important product from coastal ecosystem services.

The resource person in this event were, 1) Dr. Zulhamsyah Imran the Director of SEAMEO BIOTROP; 2) Dr. Paulo V. Cenas  Vice President for Research, Extension, Innovation, Gender and Development, Pangasinan State University, Philippines; and 3) Mohamad Zaki Mahasin S.Pi, M.si the Directorate of Marine Services, Ministry of Marines Affairs and Fisheries.

 In his presentation, Dr. Paulo V. Cenas, the Vice President for Research, Extension, Innovation, Gender and Development said that local Filipino is preferred to imported salt from other countries because of the flavor. Not only that, Philippines still had a problem related to salt industry such as decline in production and failure to increase and improve production of salt. In consequence, Philippines still imported salt from other countries. 

This event was conducted in hybrid and was participated by 112 participants from 5 countries in Southeast Asia. In his closing remarks, Dr. Zulhamsyah Imran hoped that the knowledge we’ve got through this workshop will developing program salt industries in Southeast Asia as one of ecosystem services in coastal area.