News

The Northwest Pacific Action Plan (NOWPAP) and the Partnerships in the Environmental Management for the Seas of East Asia (PEMSEA) discussed the renewal of a long-standing cooperation agreement between the two organizations regarding sustainable development and management of marine and coastal environment. Representatives from both organizations explored cooperation in various fields in a bilateral teleconference on 15 September 2020.

The project on developing a Near Real-Time Monitoring System for Marine Coastal Eutrophication Using Google Earth Engine (GEE) was kicked off on July 30,  2020.  The meeting reviewed the project proposal, analyzed the main challenges, agreed on the activity timeline, and specified roles of project members.

The Northwest Pacific Action Plan (NOWPAP) further explored possibilities of the cooperation with the East Asian countries in the field of marine environmental protection at the 12th East Asian Seas (EAS) Partnership Council virtual Meeting on July 22, 2020. 

The Group on Earth Observations (GEO) and Google Earth Engine (GEE) have awarded the "Development of a Near Real-Time Monitoring System for Marine Coastal Eutrophication Using Google Earth Engine" as a winning project in July 2020. The project is among 32 projects from 22 countries to address some of the biggest global challenges using open Earth Data. The project aims to use a 250 m resolution satellite dataset on Chlorophyll-a to assess potential eutrophication areas at the global scale. Eutrophication is one of the biggest challenges of the marine environment worldwide.

The 24th Intergovernmental Meeting of the Northwest Pacific Action Plan (NOWPAP) was postponed in early February due to the outbreak of COVID-19. However, to ensure the implementation of planned activities, the NOWPAP Member States, coordinated by the NOWPAP Regional Coordinating Unit, started an online discussion on the Programme of Work 2020-2021. After three rounds of consultations, the NOWPAP Member States approved the biennial Work Plan and Budget to strengthen marine and coastal environmental protection in the region.

The 2019 Expert Meeting of the Northwest Pacific Action Plan’s the Marine Environmental Emergency Preparedness and Response Regional Activity Centre took place in December 2019, in Tokyo, Japan. The Japan Coast Guard hosted the meeting.

In August 2019, the Korea Association for UN Environment initiated the two-day 2019 Beat Plastic Pollution: Save the Sea—Clean-up Marine Litter Camp. The intention of the camp was to give 30 university students the opportunity to participate in marine litter cleanup activities and learn about marine litter. The students came from 17 different Korean universities: Pusan National University, Pukyuong National University, the Catholic University of Korea, Korea Maritime & Ocean University and Yonsei University.

Cloud computing technology can speed up the assessment of Northwest Pacific seagrass beds which nurture biodiversity, purify seawater and mitigate climate change but are threatened by human activities and natural disasters, says a study by the UN Environment Regional Seas Programme in the region.

Fast growing aquaculture production is threatening the rich biodiversity in the seas bordering Japan, People’s Republic of China, Republic of Korea and the Russian Federation, according to an assessment by a United Nations marine environmental health monitoring centre in Toyama, Japan.

Incheon, Republic of Korea, August 2018 – The world’s biggest oil spill at sea in decades, early this year off the coast of China, was met with a speedy response thanks to timely information exchange, according to the maritime authorities of the countries exposed to the environmental disaster, who spoke at a United Nations meeting on marine pollution response preparedness.