Sixty-five (65) participants from national agencies from Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam as well as from UN agencies UNEP and UNOPS and regional organizations SEAFDEC and COBSEA met on 4 December 2020 online to further discuss the elaboration of national and regional activities for the UNEP/GEF South China Sea and Gulf of Thailand project to implement the Strategic Action Programme for the marine and coastal environment.

As part of the inception phase of the project, participating countries have organized their respective internal coordination and consultations with concerned agencies and institutions to discuss the project, identify key national focal points, experts and stakeholders, elaborate the activities for the key mangrove, seagrass, coral reef and wetland habitat sites in each country.

The Inception Phase will be completed with the Inception Phase Workshop and First Steering Committee Meeting in 2021. The Inception Phase Workshop, a broader meeting that aims to launch and present the SCS SAP Project, will be inviting key national, regional and global focal points, partners and organizations. The First Steering Committee meeting, which will be composed of the focal points from each country, UNEP, with UNOPS, SEAFDEC and the project coordination unit in support, will review and adopt the Inception Phase documentation including activities, workplan and budget, among others.

All participating countries and participants expressed and renewed their continued commitment to support and implement the SCS SAP Project which would lead to the achievement of agreed targets of the Strategic Action Programme for the South China Sea and Gulf of Thailand.

For further details of the meeting, see the project website at https://www.scssap.org/events.