1. The 21st Intergovernmental Meeting on the Northwest Pacific Action Plan (NOWPAP), established in 1994, will take place in Seoul from November 23 to 25.

° NOWPAP was created in 1994 as part of the UN Environment Program (UNEP)’s marine conservation project in the region. Its purpose is to preserve and develop the marine environment in the northwestern Pacific region and its coastal areas.

2. The first meeting to come in Seoul in 22 years since the inaugural meeting held in 1994 and the first since the completion of the restructuring of its Secretariat due to financial difficulties, is expected to serve as an opportunity to renew cooperation.

3. At the meeting, the participants will set “a mid-term strategy for the years 2018-2023” as a concrete vision for using, developing and managing coastal and marine environment in the northwestern Pacific region in a way that contributes to the sustainable development and thereby gives long-term benefits to the present and future generations of the region.

4. The member states of NOWPAP will take advantage of the meeting to build momentum of cooperation on marine environment in the northwestern Pacific and adopt a Seoul declaration, which will contain NOWPAP’s future vision to move cooperation in the region further forward.


* unofficial translation