The centre was established primarily to facilitate co-ordination and co-operation among AMS on the sustainable use and conservation of biological diversity.

The Agreement on the establishment of the centre was signed by the Environment Ministers of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore and Vietnam on behalf of their respective governments.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo recommended to the senate the ratification of the Host Country Agreement (HCA) between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and the ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity.

Ahmed Djoghlaf, executive secretary of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), calls ACB "a unique mechanism that uses the bottom-top approach to deal with the biodiversity loss problem."

"As part of the ASEAN action to save the region’s biodiversity, the countries declared 27 areas as ASEAN Heritage Parks and designated 1,523 protected areas based on the World Conservation Union (IUCN) category," Executive Director Rodrigo Fuentes said.