His Excellency Sharief C. Sutardjo, Minister of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, has appointed Prof. Dr. Ir. Sjarief Widjaja, Ph.D., FRINA, Secretary General of the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries of Indonesia, as the new Chairman of the CTI-CFF Interim Regional Secretariat (IRS), effective January 17, 2014. After more than three years serving as IRS Chairman, his predecessor, Dr. Sudirman Saad, is moving on to assume new responsibilities.

Place: Mactan, Cebu, Philippines

1st CTI-CFF Seascapes Working Group Regional Exchange Workshop, April 8-10, 2014, Manila, Philippines

For more information, please contact Nicole Esters (n.esters@conservation.org)

From October 21–27, 2013, the 3rd International Marine Protected Areas Congress (IMPAC3) was held in Marseille, France. For the third time in twelve years, Marine Protected Area (MPA) managers, scientists, policymakers, and representatives of local communities—totaling 1,500 participants from 87 nations—gathered to discuss issues, challenges, and opportunities related to MPA establishment and management in various contexts. The Congress achieved several key outcomes, including:

It happens every day all across the country. People swing by the local grocery store to pick up some tuna fillets or frozen scallops for a quick and tasty seafood dinner. Chances are that tuna and scallops came from a vast expanse of marine and coral ecosystem in the Asia-Pacific called the Coral Triangle.

Closer collaboration among development partners is essential to ensure the sustainability, scalability, and replicability of coastal and marine conservation programs, according to representatives of multilateral financial institutions (MFIs) who recently visited the Philippines.

“I think it’s about lessons of success. Success breeds success, and so what we need are models that can be upscaled and replicated in the Philippines, in the region, and in other parts of the world,” said Nessim Ahmad, Environment and Social Safeguards Division Director of the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

Animal Planet’s “Wild Deep” series has begun featuring a three-part documentary highlighting the unique marine and coastal resources of the Coral Triangle.

Simply called “The Coral Triangle,” the landmark series aims to reveal the hidden wonders of the “Ocean’s Amazon”—a six million square kilometer area spanning Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste, and the Solomon Islands, considered the global epicenter of marine biodiversity.

1st CTI-CFF Appointments Committee Meeting, February 19, 2014, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

For more details about this activity, please contact Dr. Hendra Siry,  Secretary for Coordination and External Affairs, CTI-CFF Interim Regional Secretariat. Email: hendrasiry@gmail.com

Distinguished Friends and Colleagues,

As 2013 draws to a close, I sit in my office and take a moment to salute you—members and partners of the Coral Triangle Initiative for Coral Reefs, Fisheries, and Food Security (CTI-CFF)—for your continued commitment to our mission and for the trust you have placed in the CTI-CFF Interim Regional Secretariat (IRS) to provide coordination and support for the implementation of regional activities.