25 Jun 2020 Story Oceans & seas

Sharing experience on NOWPAP in information management on marine litter with ASEAN countries

The Northwest Action Plan (NOWPAP) was invited to introduce the experience in hosting the Regional Node of Global Partnership on Marine Litter in technical consultation of the Working Group in East Asia.

The virtual technical consultation was organised by the Coordinating Body on the Seas of East Asia (COBSEA) on 23-25 June 2020. The main objective of this meeting was to discuss the development of a biennial work plan on marine litter in the COBSEA region, monitoring and assessing marine litter, and developing the East Asian Seas Regional Node of the Global Partnership on Marine Litter. It was critically important that NOWPAP, as a neighbouring region to COBSEA, was invited to this meeting. NOWPAP participants directly contributed to the proceedings of the meeting.

The Director of NOWPAP Data and Information Networking Regional Activity Centre (DINRAC), Dr Feng Yan, shared the NOWPAP experience in hosting the Northwest Regional Node on Marine Litter. The Northwest Pacific Regional Node was set up in 2014. Dr Yan presented the structure and functions of the Node and its specificities in the Northwest Pacific region with particular attention on the marine litter databases and a Web GIS. 

It was emphasised that the Node facilitated awareness of marine litter prevention actions at the national, local, and grassroot levels. It promoted information exchange on the best practices and measures to prevent marine litter pollution among NOWPAP Member Stats.