Workshop on the World Ocean Assessment

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Background

Following the recommendations made at the work- shop for Eastern and South-Eastern Asian Seas con- vened from 21 to 23 February 2012 in Sanya, China, held under the auspices of the United Nations, in support of the Regular Process for Global Report- ing and Assessment of the State of the Marine En- vironment, including Socio-economic Aspects (now referred to as the World Ocean Assessment, WOA) (Annex 15 of the final report), a technical capacity- building workshop (“the Workshop”) was conduct- ed in Bangkok on 17-19 September 2012. This work- shop was focused on building capacity to prepare integrated assessments, using the South China Sea (SCS) region as an example. The Workshop was organized by GRID-Arendal (GA), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP COBSEA and NOWPAP), UNESCO/IOC Sub-Commis- sion for the Western Pacific (IOC/WESTPAC) with funding support from the Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change (APN), IOC/WESTPAC and UNEP.

Dr Trevor Ward acted as the moderator. The partici- pants included marine scientific experts from Cambo- dia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Ma- laysia, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Also attending the workshop were mem- bers of the United Nations World Ocean Assessment Group of Experts from Australia (Dr. Peter Harris), China (Dr. Juying Wang), Korea (Dr. Chul Park) and the United Kingdom (Mr. Alan Simcock). Representa- tives of the following United Nations agencies, of- fices and programmes also participated in the Work- shop: UNESCO/IOC Sub-Commission for the Western Pacific (IOC/WESTPAC); the Coordinating Body on the Seas of East Asia (COBSEA) of UNEP; GRID-Aren- dal, the Northwest Pacific Action Plan (NOWPAP) of UNEP, and FAO. The list of participants, observers and support staff is attached (Annex 1).The Provisional Workshop Agen- da that guided the technical workshop through the deliberations is also attached (Annex 2).