Current Address: CETDEM, 17 Jln. SS2/53, 47300 Petaling Jaya, Malaysia.

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The CANSEA was established in January 1992 but formerly the idea of forming the regional network was raised when WAHLI of Indonesia, EPSM of Malaysia and Green Forum - Haribon Foundation of the Philippines were invited as observers to the Second INS Session in June 1991 in Geneva. It was felt that this form of partnership was needed to address the socio-political issues associated with the climate change debate and to exchange information, strengthen communication and coordinate activities at the regional level. This initiative further strengthened the region's link up with Climate Action Network (CAN) in Africa, South Asia, United States, Europe, Latin America, Eastern Europe, United Kingdom and the Pacific.

In August 1993, the Steering Committee in consultation with its partner NGOs at the national level, decided to rotate the Regional Secretariat every two years among member countries. In 1997, during the Steering Committee meeting in Malaysia, it was decided to do away with the Partners Assembly (because of the difficulty of raising funds for this meeting) and increasing the Steering Committee membership to 3 per country.

CANSEA is one of the eight regional networks of the Climate Action Network, an NGO established in 1989 in the run-up to the Second World Climate Conference of 1990. United by their common concern for the global climate, CAN members act in a number of different ways and roles in the climate process. CANSEA, like some CAN colleagues, are engaged in active lobby work with government representatives. CETDEM in the person of Gurmit Singh has very good influence with the Malaysian government especially with Mr. Chow Kok Kee, who is a key figure in the CoP/UNFCCC. Pelangi and Walhi have strong connections with the Indonesian government. They have at one time or the other been in the Indonesian delegation to the UN climate conferences (CoP) serving as advisers or in other capacities. CANSEA has represented the Southeast Asian voice in both the inter-sessional SBI and SBSTA as well as the regular CoP meetings of UNFCCC since CAN came into being.

The CANSEA regional network is designed to create synergy in the matter of doing advocacy work at the local and national levels with our respective governments and internationally to join forces with the rest of CAN bringing along the sentiments and concerns of the developing countries, particularly the Southeast Asian perspective, to the lobbying/negotiating arena (the UN Climate Conference of Parties with all its subsidiary bodies meetings [SBSTA, SBI])

1. To strengthen the ability of national groups to address climate change issues through communication, training and information campaigns.
2. To sustain regional and national efforts by exchanging and providing information
3. To expand the network to include other NGOs from Southeast Asia

Climate Action Network Southeast Asia is presently composed of 3 countries of Southeast Asia namely: Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Each country is represented on the Steering Committee by 3 persons namely the National Coordinator and 2 Steering Committee Members chosen from among the member organizations of each country member of CANSEA. The Regional Coordinator is rotated every two years around the member countries and is chosen by the Steering Committee of the host country. The Steering Committee should meet twice a year at least.

Membership to the National CANSEA should abide by the following criteria:

1. A would-be member must be recommended by preferably at least 2 bonafide members in good standing.

2. Only organizations and not individuals are allowed membership.

3. The candidate member must be independent from government and business sectors.

4. The candidate member must have climate change issues as its major concern .

The application should be cleared by the Regional Coordinator before final approval.