News

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 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 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 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 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.

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.  

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.

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.

NOWPAP Coordinator participated in the UNEP DEPI (Division of Environmental Policy Implementation) Meeting of the Chiefs of Branches and Heads of Units organized by new DEPI Director, Mr. Ibrahim Thiaw, on 28-30 March 2007 in Naivasha, Kenya. During several brainstorming sessions, suggestions on a new DEPI vision and structure were developed. An action plan to address the urgent issues raised by DEPI managers and staff members was also elaborated. New DEPI structure will be considered by UNEP Executive Director in the nearest future

As one of the NOWPAP partners in the region, NEAR-GOOS (Northeast Asian Regional - Global Ocean Observing System) was approached at the 11th Session of IOC/WESTPAC Co-ordinating Committee (CC) for NEAR-GOOS for developing cooperative relationship with NOWPAP.  During the meeting held in Bangkok, Thailand on 18-19 January 2007, a representative from NOWPAP RCU presented an overview of NOWPAP activities and introduced possible areas for cooperation with NEAR-GOOS.

The Eleventh NOWPAP Intergovernmental Meeting was held successfully in Moscow, the Russian Federation, on 20-21 December 2006.

The East Asian Seas Congress 2006 was held in Haikou, China on 12-16 December 2006.  This Congress, featuring “one ocean, one people and one vision”,   brought together over 700 participants from the region and the whole world as well, to share experiences, knowledge and lessons on building partnerships to implement the Sustainable Development Strategy of the Seas of East Asia.

At the expert meeting held on 7-9 November 2006 in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, the Russian Federation, participants from the NOWPAP member states discussed a draft Regional Oil and Hazardous and Noxious Substances (HNS) Spill Contingency Plan in order to address the increasing regional concern of HNS spills in the marine environment.   The decision on the development of such contingency plan was made in June 2006 by the 9th Focal Points Meeting of the NOWPAP Marine Environmental Emergency Preparedness and Response Regional Activity Center (MERRAC).

Joining hundreds of delegates from governments, international and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), academic institutions and others, NOWPAP participated in the 2nd Intergovernmental Review Meeting (IGR-2) of the Global Programme of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-Based Activities (GPA) which was held on 16-20 October 2006 in Beijing.  During the meeting, presentations on NOWPAP marine litter initiative and on NOWPAP contribution to GPA were delivered at the Workshop on Global Partnership for Marine Litter and the China Forum respectively.

As a part of new NOWPAP project – Marine Litter Activity (MALITA) – international beach cleanup was organized on 30 September 2006 in Sakata city (Yamagata Prefecture, Japan). More than 100 people from China, Japan, Korea and Russia participated in the beach cleanup and a workshop held on the previous day.

NOWPAP member states – China, Japan, Korea and Russia – adopted the Regional Oil Spill Contingency Plan (RCP) and signed the MOU for this Plan in 2005. According to the decision of the 10th NOWPAP Intergovernmental Meeting (held in Toyama, Japan, in November 2005), the geographical coverage of the RCP has been expanded in order to cover the areas of production and transportation of oil and gas along the Sakhalin Island.

A new NOWPAP project – Marine Litter Activity (MALITA) - is being implemented after its approval by the 10th NOWPAP Intergovernmental Meeting.  One of MALITA objectives is to encourage and assist NOWPAP member states to participate in the International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) which is being held worldwide for about 20 years. While Japan and Korea have joined the ICC since 1990 and 2001 respectivley, Russia and China are encouraged to join too.