Abstract: The South China Sea is a potential hotspot due disputes over territory and jurisdiction. ?Preventitive diplomacy? has resulted in the Workshop on Managing Potential Conflicts in the South China Sea. Initiating several confidence building measures, biodiversity studies has made the most progress.

A proposal called Exercise Anambas, prepared by NUS in 1999 was adopted by the 11th Workshop in March 2001. A year later, Raffles Museum and the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), launched a 10-day international expedition.

After more than a century, about 60 littoral, reef and freshwater sites were spot sampled in the Anambas and Natuna island groups. Immediately, half a dozen new species were revealed including marine gobies, blue-ringed octopus and freshwater crabs and prawns.