The Inception Workshop was held on the 1 July 2021 in order to present and launch the project and discuss key partnerships. In the opening statements it was noted that this is a “monumental event” to launch the project and coordinate with partners and stakeholders, with over 200 participants, including participating country national teams, and other relevant national stakeholders, and key regional and global partners and projects.
The SCS SAP overall vision, objectives, outputs as well as planned activities for 2021 were presented by the Senior Project Manager, as well as the projects executing arrangements and national and regional level working groups and committees to ensure full engagement of all stakeholders in project execution. This was followed by national presentations from National Technical Working Group chairs from Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam.
Key to the success of the SCS SAP project will be to ensure strong partnerships. Presentations were provided in this regard on synergies by the Co-ordinating Body on the Seas of East Asia (COBSEA), Partnership for Environmental Management in the Seas of East Asia (PEMSEA), UNEP Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, GEF Small Grants Programme (GEF-SGP), GEF International Waters Learning, Exchange and Resource Network Project (IW:LEARN), the UNEP/GEF Fisheries Refugia Project and the EU Ocean Governance Project. In the final discussions and question and answer sessions several specific areas to further collaborate were identified, including management and monitoring at key mangrove, coral reef, seagrass and wetland sites identified, nutrient and pollution from land-based sources assessments, economic evaluations and blue economy, as well as ensuring regular coordination through national and regional teams during project execution.
The meeting was closed by the Vice Chair of the Steering Committee, Mr Srey Sunleang of the Ministry of Environment, Cambodia, who stressed that “This meeting and the number of participants has shown the huge commitment in cooperating together to tackle the marine and coastal environment in the South China Sea and Gulf of Thailand, and we will keep up the momentum”.
