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 Handbook is part of a modular training on monitoring methods including a series of video modules in line with the COBSEA Regional Guidance on Harmonized National Marine Litter Monitoring Programmes and global guidelines on monitoring.
COBSEA in partnership with CSIRO have conducted a regional training of trainers on monitoring in July 2022 in Phuket, Thailand, and a series of national trainings in 2022 to address country-specific needs in the region, including in Cambodia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam. National surveys of marine litter in the environment have been conducted in five countries applying Regional Guidance and training to establish national baselines. COBSEA and CSIRO will continue capacity building and technical assistance to strengthen and harmonize national marine litter monitoring programmes and conduct a regional assessment of marine litter status and trends in 2023 and 2024.
The Handbook includes two parts:
- Part I (in English) provides an overview of marine litter monitoring methods and global best practices
- Part II provides in-depth guidance on application of monitoring methods for surveys in different habitats incl. inland, rivers, coastlines, and sea surface. Part II is available in English, Khmer, Malay, Tagalog, Thai, and Vietnamese
Translations of Part I and training videos will be available in 2023.
Video training modules to accompany handbooks and support hybrid learning are available on the COBSEA Youtube channel.
A complete training course will be accessible through the learning centre of the East Asian Seas Regional Node of the GPML shortly.
For any questions and interest in capacity building on marine litter monitoring, please contact the COBSEA Secretariat: unep-cobsea@un.org
