NOWPAP Partners Promote International Coastal Cleanup

Busan, RO Korea — An International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) campaign was organized on 29 September in Busan, RO Korea, with kind sponsorship of the Korean Ministry of Maritime and Fisheries (MOMAF).Participants in the campaign and an associated workshop were from the Northwest Pacific Action Plan (NOWPAP) and Coordinating Body on the Seas of East Asia (COBSEA) countries (namely, China, Japan, Korea, Russia, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia and Malaysia), the COBSEA secretariat and the United Nations Development Programme/Global Environment Facility (UNDP/GEF) Yellow Sea Large Marine Ecosystem (YSLME) Project. Several nongovernmental organizations and research institutions also participated, including the Ocean Conservancy (the founder of the ICC), Korea Ocean Research and Development Institute, Japan Environmental Action Network, Korean Marine Rescue Centre, and the Korean National Fisheries Research and Development Institute. During the Workshop, focused on sharing information on marine litter, participants also witnessed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Environment, MOMAF and four local authorities in RO Korea for the Nakdong River Basin Marine Litter Management, which contributes to the reduction of marine litter input from the river.