Marine Protected Area Management and Networking: Experiences and Opportunities for Collaboration in East Asia

The workshop promoted the sharing and exchange of experiences and practices in marine protected area (MPA) management and networking, inviting speakers from the United States and Northeast and Southeast Asia. In particular, the workshop delved on common concerns in MPA management such as improving management capabilities, application of spatial planning tools, monitoring and enforcement, enhancing stakeholder’s participation, measuring the management effectiveness, and establishing partnerships and cooperation between MPAs. The experiences in MPA networking in Northeast Asia under the framework of the North-East Asian Subregional Programme for Environmental Cooperation (NEASPEC) were highlighted. The workshop also delved on the experiences and practices in MPA management and networking under the framework of integrated coastal management (ICM) and scaling up in the EAS.