14 August 2014: Coral Triangle Initiative (CTI) member countries and their partners developed roadmaps to improve marine protected area management (MPA) at the Fifth CTI on Coral Reefs, Fisheries and Food Security (CTI-CFF) Regional Exchange on MPAs (REX5) workshop. Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, the Solomon Islands and Timor-Leste will implement the roadmaps from 2014 to 2020.

The roadmaps include concrete activities to improve country level MPA management, such as sustaining fish stocks to ensure coastal food security and protecting threatened marine resources. The roadmaps are aligned with the regional Coral Triangle MPA System (CTMPAS) roadmap, which was launched in May 2014, and also aim to align the efforts of organizations working in the CTMPAS.

The workshop also addressed, inter alia: country progress towards the development of the MPA management effectiveness systems; the status of the Coral Triangle Atlas database on MPAs, including future actions to collect and provide supporting information; and experiences with MPA networks and systems.

Participants visited locally managed marine reserves during a field trip to Olango Island, where they learned about management effectiveness and revenue generation through an exercise using the Philippines ‘MPA Management Effectiveness Assessment Tool (MPA-MEAT).

The country roadmaps will be made available in the REX report, which is expected to be available by the end of August 2014.

Over 40 participants attended the workshop, which took place from 14-18 July 2014 on Macatan Island, Cebu, the Philippines. The Philippine Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ Biodiversity Management Bureau, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) Regional Development Mission for Asia, the US Department of Interior (DOI), The Nature Conservancy (TNC), the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the CTI Interim Regional Secretariat collaborated in organizing and hosting the workshop. [CTI Press Release]