The Asian Development Bank (ADB) Knowledge Management for the Coral Triangle Initiative (CTI) Project organized a workshop from March 26 to April 2, 2012, in Dili, Timor-Leste, to build the capacity of government, non-government, and academic representatives in developing a financial strategy to implement activities under the country's CTI National Plan of Action (NPOA).

The financial strategy will include a status report on the level of funding available for NPOA implementation, as well as priority actions and the costs required to implement these on the ground.

The CTI-CFF Interim Regional Secretariat met with representatives from the Australian Government on March 7, 2012, in Jakarta to strengthen cooperation in promoting CTI-CFF goals. The Australian Government was represented by Travis Bover, Director for Marine Policy Development, Marine Division, Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities, while the CTI-CFF Interim Regional Secretariat was represented by its Executive Chairman Suseno Sukoyono.

On February 2, 2012, leading Hawaii-based seafood processing and distribution company Norpac Fisheries Export announced a partnership with Indonesian tuna fishing company PT Sari Segara Utama to explore the use of sustainable fishing methods. The partnership will expand both companies’ efforts to use circle hooks in tuna fishing to reduce unintended bycatch, specifically threatened species such as sea turtles.

USAID’s Coral Triangle Support Partnership completed a scoping study on March 15, 2012, that identified major scientific gaps that need to be addressed to establish and manage an effective Coral Triangle Initiative on Coral Reefs, Fisheries and Food Security (CTI-CFF) marine protected area (MPA) system.

A new set of guidelines released on January 19, 2012, has for the first time combined and integrated the principles of fisheries, biodiversity, and climate change to establish effective marine protected area (MPA) networks in the Coral Triangle. Previously, many MPA networks were unsuccessful because they focused solely on one principle or objective.