News

Staff members of NOWPAP RCU in Toyama participated in the local beach clean-up held by the Northwest Pacific Region Environmental Cooperation Centre (NPEC) on 9 September 2016. About 50 people in total participated in this event, including school children, NGO officers, local government officers, and local citizens. This was one of the series of beach clean-up campaigns organized by NPEC as a part of its marine litter monitoring programme, which has been conducted for many years in Japan, China, Korea, and Russia.

On 7-8 April 2016, the 14th CEARAC Focal Points Meeting has been held in Toyama, Japan.  CEARAC Focal Points and experts have agreed on the detailed implementation plans of the two projects for the 2016-2017 biennium.  First project will be focused on a feasibility study towards assessment of seagrass distribution in the NOWPAP region.  Second project will aim to assess three major pressures on marine biodiversity in the NOWPAP region: non-indigenous species, habitat alteration and eutrophication.  Meeting participants also agreed that in the long-term assessment of eutr

Mr. Xiaodong Zhong, NOWPAP Deputy Coordinator, has left NOWPAP on 29 February 2016, after 11 years of serving at that position in Busan, then in Toyama, and in Busan again. Xiaodong was responsible for many issues in NOWPAP: legal aspects, partnership building, raising public awareness, and, of course, managing one of two offices of the NOWPAP Regional Coordinating Unit (RCU).

The NOWPAP Coordinator delivered a lecture on 12 February 2016 in Toyama introducing NOWPAP and its activities to the audience attending “Fostering Academy of Global Environmental Leaders”. In the meantime, from 10 February till 3 March, panels promoting NOWPAP, among other environmental initiatives, are being displayed at a serial exhibition in three cities in Toyama Prefecture (which is hosting the G7 environmental ministers meeting in May 2016). Both events were organized by Toyama Prefectural Government.

Joining about 200 participants from academia, industry, government agencies and NGOs, the NOWPAP Coordinator delivered a presentation about UNEP and NOWPAP efforts in dealing with marine litter at the “2016 New Year Symposium on Marine Litter” organized by the Ministry of Environment of Japan on 23 January 2016 in Tokyo. Focusing on the current status and countermeasure against marine litter, including micro-plastics, presenters from the region (four NOWPAP member states) and beyond (Australia, Canada, USA and UK) shared relevant information and experiences.

Representing NOWPAP as an observer, the NOWPAP coordinator participated in the Sixteenth Session of the IOC/WESTPAC Coordinating Committee for the North-East Asian Regional-Global Ocean Observing System (NEAR-GOOS-CC-XVI) held in Tokyo, Japan, 8-9 December 2015. The meeting discussed ways of enhancing communication among its members and advancing NEAR-GOOS activities which should engage more partners and potential users (e.g. through working groups, joint projects, workshops).

Partnerships in Environmental Management of the Seas of East Asia (PEMSEA) organized the 2015 East Asian Seas Congress in Da Nang, Vietnam, on 16-20 November 2015 and NOWPAP participated in the Congress as a non-country partner of PEMSEA. In addition to attending an East Asian Seas Partnership Council meeting, a Ministerial Forum of PEMSEA member states, and several special events and workshops during the Congress, NOWPAP set up an exhibition booth to showcase its activities with posters, publications and promotional items.

On 8 November 2015, NOWPAP set up a booth at Toyama International Festival introducing NOWPAP activities to the visitors. Joining other organizations based in Toyama, NOWPAP participated in the annual event which was aimed at promoting cultural exchange between the local people and foreign expatriates living in Toyama.

The 20th NOWPAP Intergovernmental Meeting (IGM) was held on 28-30 October 2015 in Beijing, China. The meeting was attended by representatives of the NOWPAP Member States (the People’s Republic of China, Japan, the Republic of Korea and the Russian Federation). Directors of the NOWPAP RACs, a representative of UNEP Headquarters and RCU staff members also attended the meeting. A representative of the North Pacific Science Organization (PICES) attended the meeting as a NOWPAP partner.  

Staff members of RCU Busan Office, continuing NOWPAP efforts to address marine litter problem, jointed local people on 18 September 2015 in Busan participating in a beach cleanup campaign. Held at Songdo beach, the campaign started with a ceremony to mark the 2015 International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) in Korea, followed by awarding those who made their great efforts on addressing the issue of marine litter. A statement on marine litter was read at the beginning with the Minister of Oceans and Fisheries of Republic of Korea present.

Contacted and encouraged by NOWPAP RCU, the landmark building of Toyama - Tower 111 - which houses NOWPAP RCU Toyama Office has joined more than two dozen cities around the world for the Turn the World UN Blue Campaign to commemorate the 70th anniversary of United Nations. Situated to the north of Toyama railway station, the highest building in Toyama (Japan) will be lit up in blue at the night and will attract attention of many visitors.

A group of newly recruited civil servants for marine conservation authorities in the Republic of Korea paid a visit to NOWPAP RCU Busan office on 27 July 2015 to learn about NOWPAP as part of their training.  The visitors were briefed on NOWPAP history, structure, major activities and implementation mechanism.

Representing UNEP, the NOWPAP Coordinator made a presentation on 24 July 2015 at a roundtable discussion in the Swiss Embassy in Tokyo to mark the port call of the “Race for Water Odyssey” expedition.  The NOWPAP Coordinator introduced UNEP efforts in dealing with marine litter starting from UNEP initiative on ML in 2003 (with regional and global ML assessments), the 5th International Marine Debris Conference in Honolulu in 2011 (with Honolulu Strategy and Honolulu Commitment adopted), and then GPML establishment at the Rio+20 Conference in 2012 (including online Marine Litter Network)

The 13th Focal Points Meeting of the NOWPAP Data and Information Regional Activity Centre (DINRAC) was held on 9-10 July 2015 in Dalian, China.  DINRAC focal points and experts attended the meeting along with representatives from other three NOWPAP Regional Activity Centres (CEARAC, MERRAC and POMRAC).  Representatives of a local university and environmental NGO also attended as observers.

Since 1 June 2015, new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, called “Umoja”, has been in place for UNEP and other UN agencies. Umoja is an administrative reform initiative designed to help UN operate more effectively by integrating and streamlining business processes that manage financial, human and physical resources within a single global solution for the entire UN system. In order to prepare for the transition to the new system, one RCU staff member went to Nairobi for a 3-week training while other staff members got relevant training courses online.

At the second NOWPAP Extraordinary Intergovernmental Meeting (2nd EO IGM) held on 1-2 April 2015 in Seoul (Korea), member states decided to downgrade two posts in the NOWPAP Regional Coordinating Unit (RCU) following the earlier decision of reducing the number of staff members in RCU from 6 to 4 agreed at the 1st EO IGM in April 2014. The restructured RCU will have a Coordinator at P5 level with a Programme Assistant at G6 level in RCU Toyama office and a Programme Officer at P3 level with a Team Assistant at G4 level in RCU Busan office.

On 14 January 2015, NOWPAP Coordinator provided a lecture to students of Takaoka High School which was designated as one of Super Global High Schools by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan. The students were lectured on marine environment issues in the Northeast Asia and NOWPAP projects addressing these issues. Some students expressed their interest in working for the United Nations in the future.

As a part of partnership building efforts, NOWPAP representative attended the international workshop organized by the Amur-Okhotsk Consortium on 17-18 December 2014 in Sapporo, Japan and introduced NOWPAP activities.  In preparation for the 4th Amur-Okhotsk Consortium Meeting to be held in 2015, this workshop reviewed the recent progress in studies on environment and sustainable development in the Amur-Okhotsk regionand shared information on future projects and activities related to the sustainable development of the region.  

The Regional Overview of PTS in the NOWPAP Region has been published recently by NOWPAP Pollution Monitoring Regional Activity Centre (POMRAC).  Addressing the general characteristics, sources, transport and ecotoxicological effects of PTS in the region, the report synthesized the national inputs on a group of chemicals which are defined as PTS.

The staff members of NOWPAP Regional Coordinating Unit (RCU) and Special Monitoring and Coastal Assessment Regional Activity Centre (CEARAC) participated in a symposium held on 6 December 2014 in Toyama, Japan.  Organized by the Toyama prefectural and municipal governments, the symposium was attended by 500 local participants (mostly high school students) who were given a lecture and panel discussion about the United Nations and international cooperation to mark the 10th anniversary of the establishment of NOWPAP RCU office in Toyama.  The Toyama Prefecture governor

The Science Board of PICES recently approved the proposals submitted by NOWPAP CEARAC and MERRAC to have joint workshop/session during the next PICES Annual Meeting to be organized in October 2015 in Qingdao, China.

The NOWPAP DELTA Joint Oil Spill Response Exercise was conducted on 21 October 2014 near Vladivostok, Russia.  This joint exercise brought together one helicopter and seventeen ships including one from Japan Coast Guard to test rescuing crew members, firefighting and responding to oil spill.  Korea dispatched observers to the exercise which was completed successfully.   Such full-scale exercises have been organized five times in NOWPAP member states since the Regional Oil and HNS Spill Contingency Plan was adopted in 2004.     

The 19th NOWPAP Intergovernmental Meeting (IGM) was convened on 20-22 October 2014 in Moscow, Russian Federation.  Delegates from NOWPAP member states (China, Japan, Korea and Russia) attended the meeting. Directors and representatives of NOWPAP Regional Activity Centres, UNEP Headquarters and United Nations Office at Nairobi also participated in the meeting.  The meeting reviewed the progress of NOWPAP implementation in 2013-2014 and discussed the financial rules and procedures for the NOWPAP funds with an agreement to establish working capital reserve for the

Representatives of NOWPAP RCU and RACs participated in the 2014 PICES annual meeting held in Yeosu, Korea. The joint Study Group was established in 2013 to explore possibilities of enhancing future collaboration between NOWPAP and PICES and members of the Study Group have met in Yeosu on 15-16 October 2014.  At the meeting, several potential areas of interest were discussed in detail and priorities of both organizations were assigned to each area.  After scoring those priorities and considering practical possibilities of joint actions (e.g., organizing joint worksho