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Major Steps Achieved Toward Establishment of Permanent CTI-CFF Regional Secretariat
 | | Philippine environment officials, officers of the CTI Interim Regional Secretariat and Partners at the signing of the CTI Secretariat Agreement in Manila, Philippines (Credit: DENR-Philippines) |
Three CTI-CFF countries took significant steps this month toward ratification of the Agreement for the establishment of the permanent CTI-CFF Regional Secretariat.
Most recently, on March 25, Dr. Sudirman Saad, Executive Director of Indonesia's CTI-CFF National Coordination Committee (NCC-Indonesia), issued an official announcement of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's signing of a decree that constitutes Indonesia's instrument of ratification of the Agreement. The March 11 signing cemented the Indonesian President's legacy as the earliest champion of the CTI-CFF. In a letter to other leaders in 2007, President Yudhoyono proposed a new multilateral initiative to focus on addressing the alarming decline of marine resources in the Coral Triangle. This proposal opened the multilateral talks that led to the formation of the CTI-CFF.
The month began on a high note as the Philippines signified formal support for the establishment of the Regional Secretariat, with Philippine Environment Secretary Ramon J.P. Paje affixing his signature to the Agreement document on March 4. The document was personally presented to Secretary Paje by a delegation from the CTI-CFF Interim Regional Secretariat (IRS) led by its Chair, Prof. Sjarief Widjaja, Ph.D. FRINA, who traveled to Manila especially for the signing. MORE |
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Countdown Begins to Coral Triangle Day 2014
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Preparations are underway for this year's celebration of CT Day on June 9 |
CTI-CFF Partners are rolling out plans for a region-wide campaign to celebrate Coral Triangle Day (CT Day) in just over two months' time.
First held on June 9, 2012, CT Day was officially recognized by CTI-CFF at their 4th Ministerial Meeting held in Putrajaya, Malaysia in November 2012. MORE |
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Study on CTI-CFF Cites Important Gains
 | Shared activities, like this meeting of the CTI-CFF Monitoring and Evaluation Working Group in April 2013, help foster a regional identity for Coral Triangle countries that may improve chances for sustainability of the Coral Triangle multilateral partnership
(Credit: A. Sia/US CTI) |
Bolstered by an emerging regional identity, the CTI-CFF member-countries are making tangible progress toward addressing long-term coastal and marine management goals and the policy and management practices needed to halt and reverse destructive trends that have led to and threaten further fisheries and marine habitat collapse in the Coral Triangle. This is the overall finding of a study conducted last year by researchers from the University of Washington. Focusing primarily on US Government support to CTI-CFF under the US CTI Support Program (US CTI), the study assessed stakeholder perceptions of the effectiveness of CTI-CFF as a multilateral organization and the impacts of ongoing national and local efforts to address coral reef, fisheries and climate issues affecting the region. MORE |
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Coral Triangle Reefs Designated for Protection
Approaches CTI-CFF Target in Size but Management
Still Lagging Behind -- report
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MPA planning, implementation and management must consider the human communities and institutions that are usually the default decision-makers for resource utilization and protection (Credit: USAID FISH Project) |
The total area of coral reef habitats in the Coral Triangle that are legally protected has reached nearly 8,000 square kilometers, just shy of the CTI-CFF target for 2020, but only a small fraction of these reef areas is truly effectively managed, the journal
Coastal Management reports in a recent special edition.
These findings are based on what the report's authors say was the most current set of marine protected area (MPA) data in the CT Atlas at the time of writing of the report. MORE |
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Guidelines Proposed for Designing Integrated Multi-Objective Marine Reserve Networks
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Long-term protection allows all species the opportunity to grow to maturity, increase in biomass and contribute more, and more robust, eggs and larvae for population replenishment. (Credit: James Morgan) |
Noting a largely unmet need for integrated guidelines for practitioners who wish to design marine reserves that all at once address objectives on fisheries, biodiversity and climate change, a paper published in a recent issue of the journal
Coastal Management has put forward a set of ecological considerations and guidelines for a multi-objective marine reserve network design.
"Previous studies provided advice regarding ecological guidelines for designing marine reserves to achieve one or two of these objectives. While there are many similarities in these guidelines, there are key differences that provide conflicting advice. Thus, there is a need to provide integrated guidelines for practitioners who wish to design marine reserves to achieve all three objectives simultaneously," the authors point out. MORE |
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Timor Leste Establishes Two MPAs
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Timor Leste aims to strengthen the capacities of local communities to manage marine and coastal resources more effectively (Credit: M. Abbott) |
The Government of Timor Leste has established two marine protected areas (MPAs) as part of ongoing efforts to protect the country's marine resources.
Letters of agreement for two MPAs in Atauro and Batugade, respectively, have been finalized and the Atauro MPA has been formally established, a visiting team from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) reported. MORE |
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Solomon Islands Community Responds to CTI-CFF's Climate Priorities
 | | The Arnavon Islands community takes action to protect sea turtles from loss of habitats caused by rising sea levels (Credit: James Morgan) |
In response to priorities identified in their National Plan of Action (NPOA) for CTI-CFF, the Arnavon Islands community in Solomon Islands has taken the lead in collecting data on sea level rise to monitor changes in beach movement that affect nesting sea turtles, Henry Kaniki, Project Coordinator for the Arnavon Community Marine Conservation Area (ACMCA), reported in the
Solomon Star News. MORE |
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University of Queensland Researchers to Survey Tubbataha, Other Coral Triangle Reefs
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SVII camera system surveying
coral reefs |
A team from the University of Queensland (UQ) Catlin Seaview Survey will visit the Philippines this month to assess the state of coral reefs over large stretches of reefs within the Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park.
The Catlin Seaview Survey, a major project of UQ's Global Change Institute, is a pioneering scientific expedition revealing the impact of environmental change on the world's coral reefs. The researchers will use a specialised high-resolution panoramic camera system mounted on an underwater scooter to survey large stretches of reefs within the Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park. The team will also take the innovative camera system to other key reef sites in the Philippines, Solomon Islands and Indonesia to create a region-wide survey. MORE |
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UPCOMING EVENTS
World Coral Reef Conference Side Events Manado, Indonesia
May 13-16, 2014
May 13, 16:00-18:00
May 14-15
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CTI-CFF Stalwart Takes on New Role
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Prof. Dato' Dr. Nor Aieni Haji Mokhtar: "We must ensure that [CTI-CFF] continues to grow and move forward." |
Malaysia's Prof. Dato' Dr. Nor Aieni Haji Mokhtar completed on February 10 her six-year term as Undersecretary of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI) and Director of MOSTI's National Oceanography Directorate, in which position she anchored the National Secretariat of her country's CTI-CFF National Coordination Committee (NCC-Malaysia). But she remains a strong and steadfast supporter of CTI-CFF in an advisory capacity, as she continues to be involved in the implementation of programs in support of the CTI-CFF expert working group, CTI Women Leaders Forum, and various national and regional projects.
Prof. Nor Aieni, as she is fondly called by friends and colleagues in the CTI-CFF circle, has been a champion for CTI-CFF from the first. A professor at the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) with some 30 years of academic experience, she was seconded to MOSTI in February 2008, when CTI-CFF had yet to be formalized and discussions to join the regional initiative were still underway in Malaysia. In no time, she was taking a lead role in advocating to the Malaysian government the value of being a part of CTI-CFF.
In an interview in August last year, Prof. Nor Aieni, a true academician at heart, explained her motivation for championing CTI-CFF. "I thought it was an opportunity to capitalize on this regional initiative to create a platform for promoting the scientific capability of the region," she said, adding that as an academician serving a limited term in executive government, she wanted to make the best use of her time in MOSTI "to leave a footprint."
Her legacy is clear and continues to grow: The establishment and subsequent work of the NCC-Malaysia National Secretariat and other CTI-CFF governing bodies has led to overall improved coastal and marine governance in Malaysia, with the implementation of the CTI-CFF National Plan of Action now included as a key performance indicator for the national government. In 2012, when Malaysia assumed the chairmanship of the CTI-CFF Council of Ministers (COM), the National Secretariat played a key role in facilitating the endorsement by four countries of the agreement to establish a permanent Regional Secretariat for CTI-CFF. Malaysia was the first country to ratify the agreement, and momentum has picked up for the establishment of the Secretariat this May, with three more countries (Indonesia, the Philippines and Timor Leste) taking significant steps toward entry into force of the agreement.
These days, Prof. Nor Aieni may be less directly involved in NCC-Malaysia's work, but she remains very much a part of building this legacy. MORE |
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