The 1st Workshop on Major Pressures on Marine Biodiversity in the NOWPAP Region was held on 24 October 2017 in Tokyo, Japan.
1.Objective:
To review the first draft of a report “Assessment of Major Pressures on Marine Biodiversity in the NOWPAP Region” prepared by CEARAC Secretariat and to discuss the detailed contents of the report.
2. Participants:
Four experts in the NOWPAP member states: Dr. Bei HUANG (China), Dr. Yasuwo FUKUYO (Japan), Dr. Young Nam KIM (Korea) and Dr. Tatiana ORLOVA (Russia)
3.Contents:
The Secretariat of CEARAC, Dr. Takafumi YOSHIDA, introduced the contents of the first draft of the report. This report was prepared by CEARAC based on the pilot assessments implemented in all NOWPAP member states in the 2014-2015 biennium, and it aims to show the current status of three major pressures, namely eutrophication, non-indigenous species and habitat alteration in the NOWPAP region. In order to explain the current status of major pressures, CEARAC used the DPSIR framework. DPSIR framework is one of the assessment methodologies to understand the relationships between DRIVERS, PRESSURES, STATES, IMPACTS and RESPONSES on environmental issues. Agreeing to apply the DPSIR framework to this report, the experts reviewed the first draft and gave comments to CEARAC.
4. Results:
Through the discussion during the workshop, the participants agreed on the following points;
– Secretariat of CEARAC will contract the experts who participated in this workshop to check the availability of additional data for DPSIR assessment and support preparing the second draft for review by CEARAC FPs
– This report focuses on only sea areas where the pilot assessments were conducted. If there is any additional information found from the past NOWPAP activities, they will be added to this report.
– In the chapter of “Conclusion and recommendation”, differences of important pressures among the member states and limitation of available data will be explained. In addition to this, what kind of data is necessary for deeper understanding of the status in the NOWPAP region will be mentioned.
This workshop is the first time which aims to prepare the report. This was the first occasion for the experts and Secretariat of CEARAC to get together to develop a report. As it was very successful, Secretariat of CEARAC will organize the same type of workshop in the process of future publication of CEARAC reports.
*The development of the report “Assessment of Major Pressures on Marine Biodiversity in the NOWPAP Region” (English) was completed in 2018.
