REGIONAL CONSULTATION ON MARINE PLASTIC RESEARCH INVENTORY
20 April 2022
CONCEPT NOTEBackground
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Regional Office for Asia and thePacific and the Coordinating Body on the Seas of East Asia (COBSEA), with funding
support from the Government of Sweden, are jointly implementing the project‘Reducing marine litter by addressing the management of the plastic value chain inSouth-East Asia’ (SEA circular).
SEA circular project contributes directly to achieving the COBSEA Regional Action Planon Marine Litter (RAP MALI) and COBSEA Strategic Directions 2018-2022. One of thetargeted outputs of the project is to improve data collection, compilations of researchand scientific work and dissemination to targeted stakeholders and beneficiaries inthe East Asian Seas.
A searchable online catalogue of marine litter frameworks and marine litter research
inventory was developed by National University of Singapore (NUS) and COBSEA withsupport from the Global Partnership on Marine Litter (GPML) and launched in 2020.
This included the publication of a report on marine litter bodies and initiatives in theregion.
Building on this work, the SEA circular project is continuing technical assistance toCOBSEA participating countries toward strengthening the science basis for informed
decision making on marine litter. Under a new partnership agreement with NUS, thecatalogue of marine litter research from the region was expanded and updated toinclude research in languages from the region and across disciplines. The aim is to(i) support robust monitoring and assessment toward identifying marine litter statusand trends and its most critical impacts, and to (ii) support the development, tracking
and evaluation of policy and management interventions.
The research catalogue has been developed into a web database designed for
integration into the East Asian Seas Regional Node of the GPML, for launch in 2022.
Objective of the Regional Consultation
This consultation aims to introduce the web database to participating countries andregional stakeholder to gather comments and feedback on format, content, andaccessibility. The consultation will inform further development of the database,integration into the COBSEA Regional Node, and the establishment of a regional
research network to address research gaps and priorities. The consultation furtheraims to ensure that data management and its application are in line with the COBSEARAP MALI and UN Environment Assembly resolutions on marine litter andmicroplastics.
The following steps are planned to engage COBSEA countries and stakeholders:
Activity 1 – Release of the inventory (beta version);
Activity 2 – Regional consultation to gather feedback and comments;
Activity 3 – Further development and updating of the research database.

Targeted participants
COBSEA marine litter focal points and country representatives responsible for marine
litter and plastic pollution management in all nine COBSEA countries, as well as
technical partners and stakeholders, including from research and academia and nongovernment organizations addressing plastic pollution in the region.
Expected Outputs
1. Public release of the online visualisation platform of the research database forconsultation and feedback;2. Improve understanding about the importance of the online visualization platform
for the research database;3. The research inventory is accessible to/integrated with other data sources anddata platforms;
4. Compile comments and feedback to inform further development of the researchdatabase and its web platform.
AgendaDate: 20 April 2022
Venue: online, MS Teams
Time (ICT)
13:00 – 13:10

TopicIntroduction and welcome remarks

13:10 – 14:00

Regional Research Inventory 2.0 of
marine plastics research in the East
Asian Seas
Inputs from COBSEA countries andstakeholders

14:00 – 14:30
14:30 – 14:50

Discussion

14:50 – 15:00

Summary & closing

Presenter
Ms. Kamala Ernest(UNEP)
Dr. Youna Le Berre
Lemaire-Lyons (NUS)
Representatives of
COBSEA countries andstakeholders
Ms. Natalie Harms(COBSEA, UNEP)
Ms. Natalie Harms(COBSEA, UNEP)