The 17th NOWPAP CEARAC Focal Points Meeting (FPM) was held on 9-10 September 2019 in Toyama, Japan, and 21 people participated in the meeting: Focal Points and alternates from the NOWPAP member states, representatives of Regional Coordinating Unit (RCU) and other Regional Activity Centres (RACs) of NOWPAP and a representative of IOC Sub-commission for the Western Pacific (IOC/WESTPAC) and one Japanese researcher. The meeting participants reviewed the implementation of CEARAC activities for the current 2018-2019 biennium and discussed a draft workplan for the 2020-2021 biennium which was prepared by the Secretariat of CEARAC.
At first, the Secretariat reported the progress of the on-going activities focusing on 3 specific projects: development of the CEARAC Medium-term Strategy on Marine Biodiversity Conservation; development of a roadmap for the NOWPAP Regional Action Plan for Marine and Coastal Biodiversity; and development of a tool for mapping seagrass distribution in the NOWPAP region. There are still some tasks to be implemented and the meeting encouraged the Secretariat to conduct them in cooperation with national experts from the member states and RCU.
Next, the Secretariat presented a draft workplan and budget for the next biennium. CEARAC plans to implement several activities on marine biodiversity conservation, mapping seagrass distribution and eutrophication assessment. After discussion of the direction and volume of work in each activity as well as interests of each member state, regional concerns and global attention to the marine and coastal environment, the meeting participants agreed a presented draft workplan and budget for CEARAC activities for the 2020-2021 biennium including six specific projects: assessment of distribution of tidal flats and salt marshes in the NOWPAP region; organization of a training course on environmental DNA (e-DNA) analysis; update of HAB database and HAB reference database; implementation of case studies on estimating seagrass blue carbon in selected sea areas in the NOWPAP region; improvement of the NOWPAP Eutrophication Assessment Tool (NEAT) and monitoring of eutrophication using satellite chlorophyll-a; and organization of the 5th NOWPAP training course on remote sensing data analysis.
The agreed workplan and budget of CEARAC activities for the next biennium will be submitted as part of NOWPAP Programme of Work for the 2020-2021 biennium for adoption by the NOWPAP member states.
