Resources

The Third Meeting of the COBSEA Working Group on Marine Litter (WGML) was held on 29-30 June 2021 as a virtual meeting, with participation of Working Group focal points and representatives of COBSEA countries, as well as observers.

On 20 May 2021, COBSEA Secretariat hosted a virtual workshop to discuss the draft marine and coastal spatial planning (MCSP) policy review and invite input to support its finalization as well as exchange views on possible future efforts to address MCSP through COBSEA. The workshop was organized in collaboration with United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and Blue Solutions Initiative1.

More than 8,000 million metric tons of plastic have been made since the beginning of large-scale plastic production in the 1950s. As a consequence, plastic debris is present in all ecosystems, including remote locations such as mountain lakes and polar sea ice.

COBSEA Secretariat hosted a virtual workshop on nutrient pollution in collaboration with the Global Partnership on Nutrient Management (GPNM) to share draft findings of a desk review on nutrient pollution, invite input to support its finalization, and exchange views on possible future efforts to address nutrient pollution through COBSEA.

COBSEA past work has generated MCSP-relevant tools and capacity, including a Regional Resource Document on Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning, national training manuals addressing country-specific needs, as well as a network of practitioners who participated in regional MCSP training through the project ‘Spatial Planning in the Coastal Zone – Disaster Prevention and Sustainable Development’ (2

Coral Reef Restoration - as a Strategy to Improve Ecosystem Services - A Guide to Coral Restoration Methods.

Summary of COBSEA's Second Webinar on the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, held on 3 December 2020

“Water pollution by plastics and microplastics: A review of technical solutions from source to sea,” composed of a toolkit and catalogue, has been jointly developed by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the International Water Management Institute (IWMI).

Plastic products designed to be used only once before they are disposed of, termed “single-use plastic products”, are increasingly regulated by Governments concerned about the environmental, social, health, or other impacts of plastic waste and pollution.

Since the beginning of 2019, Regional Capacity Center for Clean Seas (RC3S) has been putting together programmes and activities to accomplish its function
of becoming a hub for strengthening capacity building in the field of protection of the marine environment from land-based activities, particularly nutrients,
wastewater and marine litter/microplastics.