News

BANGKOK, May 7 – 8, 2026 – The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, through the Pollution Control Department (PCD), in collaboration the Coordinating Body on the Seas of East Asia (COBSEA), convened an Inception Workshop to officially launch the Global Environment Facility (GEF) funded United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) “Clean and Healthy Ocean Thailand (Thai NuRA)” project. 

During 11-16 August 2025, COBSEA co-organized three back-to-back meetings namely:

The Third United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC3) was co-organized by France and Costa Rica from 9 to 13 June 2025 in Nice, France. Ten years after COP21 and the Paris Agreement, UNOC3 brought together 175 UN Member States, 64 Heads of State and Government, 28 Heads of UN, intergovernmental and international organizations, 115 ministers, and 12,000 Delegates. UNOC3 focused on “Accelerating action and mobilizing all actors to conserve and sustainably use the ocean” and support implementation for SDG Goal 14, with three main priorities.

The Republic of Korea demonstrated exceptional leadership in hosting the 10th Our Ocean Conference (OOC10) in Busan, 28-30 April 2025, with over 3,000 participants, 80 side events, and 7 plenary sessions. Under the theme ‘Our Ocean, Our Action’, the conference aimed to promote global actions for a sustainable ocean.

COBSEA Newsletter: July - December 2024

      COBSEA Newsletter: January - June 2024 

In its implementation of the East Asian Seas Action Plan, COBSEA is guided by 5-year Strategic Directions. Following the completion and valuation of the Strategic Directions 2018-2022, new COBSEA Strategic Directions for 2023-2027 were developed in consultation with COBSEA participating countries, including interviews, a survey, a webinar, an in-person workshop, and written inputs. New Strategic Directions 2023-2027 were adopted by silence procedure in the intersessional period in December 2023.

COBSEA has developed an interactive toolbox that addresses abandoned, lost, and otherwise discarded fishing gear (also known as ‘ghost gear’) in the region. The aim of the toolbox is to provide tools and guidance on environmentally sound and inclusive ghost gear prevention, mitigation, and management for the East Asian Seas region and share good practices for replication.

Koh Tao, Thailand, 8 June – The “Marine Litter Prevention through Reduction, Sustainable Design and Recycling of Plastic Packaging (MA-RE-DESIGN)” project officially launched on

Paris, France -The COBSEA Working Group on Marine Litter, represented by Malaysia, emphasized the importance of leveraging existing mechanisms to foster cooperation in managing plastic waste disposal, during the second meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-2) for the development of an international legally binding instrument (ILBI) on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment.

The Coordinating Body on the Seas of East Asia (COBSEA) participated and presented updates during the Partners Coordination Meeting on Coastal and Marine Environment of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) held last 23 May 2023.

The UNEP COBSEA Secretariat has released a new science-policy brief titled 'Bridging Science and Policy for Evidence-Based Action on Plastic Pollution in the East Asian Seas and Beyond'.The brief is now available on the STI Forum website and aims to strengthen the science-policy

The Coordinating Body on the Seas of East Asia (COBSEA) and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) have developed an updated Handbook on Marine Litter Monitoring Methods, with support from the Government of Sweden under the SEA circular project.

The resumed session (part 2) of the Twenty-fifth Intergovernmental Meeting (IGM 25) of COBSEA concluded with key decisions. Notably, the Meeting formally established the East Asian Seas Regional Node of the Global Partnership on Marine Litter (GPML) and established the Regional Capacity Center for Clean Seas (RC3S) in Bali, Indonesia, as the first Regional Activity Centre of COBSEA.

Following the formal establishment of the East Asian Seas Regional Node of the Global Partnership on Marine Litter (GPML) by the resumed session of the Twenty-fifth Intergovernmental Meeting (IGM 25), COBSEA has launched the web platform of the Regional Node linked to the Global Digital Platform on Marine Litter.

COBSEA Announces its New Coordinator

UNEP’s Executive Director announces the appointment of Mr. Mahesh Pradhan as the Coordinator of the Coordinating Body on the Seas of East Asia (COBSEA). He assumed this position on 1 June 2022 and will be based in Bangkok, Thailand. Over the past year, Mr. Pradhan has been serving as interim COBSEA coordinator, while concurrently leading UNEP’s work on nutrients through the Global Partnership on Nutrient Management based in Nairobi, Kenya.

The Twenty-fifth Intergovernmental Meeting (IGM 25) of the Coordinating Body on the Seas of East Asia (COBSEA) adopted Regional Guidance on Harmonized National Marine Litter Monitoring Programmes to strengthen monitoring in the region and promote data comparability for collective action.

The Coordinating Body on the Seas of East Asia (COBSEA) and Blue Solutions initiated a collaboration in 2020 in advance marine and coastal spatial planning (MCSP) in the East Asian Seas Region by building capacity and supporting development of a conducive policy environment.

On World Ocean Day 2021, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and Coordinating Body on the Seas of East Asia (COBSEA) are partnering with the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) to launch an e-learning course on marine litter. 

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Law Division is providing guidance to EAS countries to strengthen national legislation and/ or regulations based on National Action Plans on Marine Litter (or similar). The aim is to strengthen national legislative action on marine litter in EAS countries by identifying priority options to improve governance frameworks and recommend steps for further implementation.