News

In May-June 2008, three NOWPAP Regional Activity Centres (DINRAC, MERRAC and POMRAC) held their Focal Points Meetings (CEARAC Meeting has been held in March 2008).  All four NOWPAP Regional Activity Centres (RACs) have reviewed their progress and agreed on new projects for 2008-2009 biennium.

On 31 May 2008, Ms. Angela Cropper, Deputy Executive Director of UNEP, visited NOWPAP RCU office in Toyama where she exchanged opinions and ideas with RCU staff members after being briefed on NOWPAP activities. While in Toyama, she paid a courtesy visit to Governor of Toyama Prefecture and Mayor of Toyama City to express appreciation for their support for the operation of NOWPAP RCU Toyama Office.

NOWPAP has recently increased exchange with partners through participation in a number of international meetings and workshops.   On 7-10 April 2008, NOWPAP activities were presented at the 4th Global Conference on Oceans, Coasts and Islands (attended by over 400 patricians from 70 countries).  NOWPAP is trying to bring interested partners, such as PEMSEA, to share their experience in Integrated Coastal and River Basin Management (ICARM), and have received positive response.

Since NOWPAP launched the marine litter activity in 2005, its efforts on dealing with this global problem have been continuously strengthened and started to attract attention outside the region.  In the 2007 International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) report, recently published by the Ocean Conservancy, in addition to reflecting data from Korea and Japan, China and Russia (who jointed the ICC campaign recently) have been also praised for their participation in this international effort in Shanghai and Vladivostok.

The book “Securing the Oceans: Essays on Ocean Governance – Global and Regional Perspectives” was launched by PEMSEA (one of the NOWPAP partners) during the 4th Global Conference on Oceans, Coasts and Islands held on 7-11 April 2007 Hanoi.  The book is envisaged to further stimulate and strengthen the pursuit of sustainable ocean development so as to secure the ocean and its resources for our future generations.

To share data and information, NOWPAP is working with COBSEA (Coordinating Body on the Seas of East Asia) to build a website linkage between the East Asian Seas Knowledgebase established by COBSEA and NOWPAP databases.  Initial NOWPAP input has been already reflected in the Knowledgebase.  In the nearest future, the databases developed by the NOWPAP Data and Information Network Regional Activity Centre(DINRAC) will be further linked which will allow wider audience to access  the data and information. 

On 6-8 March 2008, the 6th Focal Points Meeting of CEARAC (Coastal Environmental Assessment Regional Activity Center of NOWPAP) has been held in Toyama, Japan. In conjunction with the Focal Points Meeting (FPM), the First Coastal Environmental Assessment Workshop was organized on 7 March.   During the FPM, the future CEARAC activities in 2008-2009 biennium were discussed.

The “UNDP/GEF Yellow Sea Large Marine Ecosystem (YSLME) Project” aims to facilitate protection and sustainable use of marine and coastal resources in the Yellow Sea. To achieve this objective, the Project has identified management actions in its preparation of the Strategic Action Plan (SAP). It is expected that implementing the management actions will mitigate environmental problems in the Yellow Sea and improve its diverse ecosystems.

China, Japan and Russia joined hands in fighting the worst ever oil spill incident in the Korean history after activating the NOWPAP Regional Oil Spill Contingency Plan on 10 December 2007. With the assistance from the NOWPAP Marine Environmental Emergency Preparedness and Response Regional Activity Centre (MERRAC) and NOWPAP Regional Coordinating Unit, China has sent a ship with experts and sorbents on board and Japan dispatched a team of experts to join the international efforts to help clean-up the oil spilled off the coast of Taean, Republic of Korea.

In response to the worst oil spill disaster in the Republic Korea occurred in the morning of 7 December 2007, the NOWPAP Regional Oil Spill Contingency Plan has been activated following a request of the Korean government.

The 9th Tripartite Environment Ministers Meeting (TEMM) was convened on 5-6 December 2007 in Toyama, Japan.  TEMM is a regional mechanism among the three environment ministers of the People’s Republic of China, Japan and the Republic of Korea.  In the Joint Communique released after the meeting, the three countries expressed their appreciation for the joint efforts made within the framework of NOWPAP and its Marine Litter Activity while recognizing the importance of further collaboration on marine litter and other areas related to marine and coastal environmental protection.

The UNDP/GEF Yellow Sea Large Marine Ecosystem project has just recently published the Analysis of Environmental Status and Trends for the Yellow Sea.  The three-volume publication contains the National Reports of China and Korea and the Regional Synthesis.  The reports provide a comprehensive outlook on biodiversity, pollution, fishery and ecosystem in the Yellow Sea.

After more than two years since its inception, NOWPAP Marine Litter Activity (MALITA) is progressing to the end with success.  At a meeting held on 20-21 November in Toyama, Japan, the NOWPAP Regional Action Plan on Marine Litter (RAP MALI) was finalized.  The finalization of RAP MALI is one of the import outcomes of the NOWPAP MALITA.  NOWPAP will continue to deal with marine litter issues once the member states approved the RAP MALI in the near future.

The 12th Intergovernmental Meeting of the Northwest Pacific Action Plan (NOWPAP) was held on 23-25 October 2007 in Xiamen, the People’s Republic of China.  Representatives of the NOWPAP member states (China, Japan, Republic of Korea and Russian Federation), UNEP Regional Seas Programme and NOWPAP partners (COBSEA, IOC/WESTPAC, PEMSEA and YSLME) participated in the meeting.  The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea attended the meeting as an observer.

As part of the NOWPAP Marine Litter Activity, an International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) campaign was organized on 29 September 2007 in Busan with kind sponsorship of Korean Ministry of Maritime and Fisheries (MOMAF).  It was the second time that NOWPAP has organized such event in 2007 to promote ICC in the region.  Participants in the campaign and an associated workshop were from NOWPAP member states, from several countries participating in the Coordinating Body for the Seas of East Asia (COBSEA), from COBSEA secretariat, and from YSLME project.

NOWPAP RCU hosted and organized the second Workshop of the Yellow Sea Partnership (YSP) on 1 October 2007 in Busan, Republic of Korea.  The workshop was attended by representatives of YSP members including UNEP Northwest Pacific Action Plan (NOWPAP), UNDP/GEF Yellow Sea Large Ecosystem (YSLME) Project, Birds Korea, European Union-China Biodiversity Project, the Nature Conservancy (China) and the Yellow Sea Eco-region Support Project.  The meeting reviewed the activities carried out by the YSP members and discussed joint activities for the future.

An activity on ICARM has been recently launched by NOWPAP at a workshop in Toyama, Japan.  Working with other NOWPAP Regional Activity Centres (RACs), the NOWPAP Pollution Monitoring RAC (POMRAC) is leading this activity and will invite PEMSEA to share their rich experiences in this field.

NOWPAP Special Monitoring and Coastal Environmental Assessment Regional Activity Centre organized the first NEAR-GOOS - NOWPAP Joint Training Course on Remote Sensing Data Analysis at Nagasaki University (Japan) on 3-7 September 2007, jointly with IOC/WESTPAC.  23 trainees - postgraduate students and professional researchers from 8 different countries - learned the status of ocean remote sensing techniques and applications of remote sensing data for monitoring and assessment of marine and coastal environment.  The course consisted of lectures by specialists and hands-on practical sessions on t

An International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) was successfully organized on 28 June 2007 in Rizhao city, China, with kind sponsorship of the State Environmental Protection Administration of China and Rizhao municipal government.  It was the first time the ICC was formally introduced to the newly emerging city as NOWPAP is advancing the implementation of its Marine Litter Activity launched two years ago.

According to the decision of the 11th NOWPAP Intergovernmental Meeting (IGM), evaluation of the performance of the four NOWPAP Regional Activity Centres (RACs) is being carried out.  An independent international consultant interviewed all RAC directors in Beijing on 23 May 2007.  An evaluation report will be prepared by the consultant based on the interviews and responses to the questionnaires distributed earlier.  The results of the evaluation will be presented to the next IGM in October 2007 in China.

NOWPAP Regional Coordinating Unit signed the Letter of Cooperation (LOC) with the Project Management Office of the UNDP/GEF Yellow Sea Large Marine Ecosystem (YSLME) project on 24 May 2007 in Beijing.  The LOC will serve as the basis for the two sides to conduct cooperative activities.  As one of the follow-up activities, YSLME will join an International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) campaign organized by NOWPAP in Rizhao, China on 27-28 June 2007. 

NOWPAP Coordinator participated in the 34th Session of the Joint Group of Experts on the Scientific Aspects of Marine Environmental Protection (GESAMP) held in Paris, France on 8-11 May 2007.

At the First COBSEA (Coordinating Body on the Seas of East Asia) Marine Litter Workshop held in Jakarta, Indonesia on 8-9 May 2007, representatives of NOWPAP introduced the overall progress on the implementation of its Marine Litter Activity (MALITA) which was launched one and half years ago. As sister programmes of UNEP Regional Seas, both NOWPAP and COBSEA are carrying out activities addressing marine litter issue in line with global UNEP marine litter initiative.  The two bodies keep close contact to exchange information and to share their experiences in dealing with marine litter problem.

In order to review the progress on implementation of NOWPAP activities and prepare workplan and budget for 2008-2009, both MERRAC (Marine Environmental Emergency Preparedness and Response Regional Activity Centre) and DINRAC (Data and Information Network Regional Activity Centre) organized their focal points meetings on 14-18 May 2007 in Daejeon, Republic of Korea and on 24-25 May 2007 in Beijing, People’s Republic of China, respectively.  

The Second NOWPAP Workshop on Marine Litter was held in Toyama, Japan on 28-29 March 2007 where 90 participants including representatives of the NOWPAP member states, East Asian Seas Regional Coordinating Unit and a UNEP/FAO consultant attended.