The Seventh Meeting of the Regional Working Group on Seagrass was convened from 24th-27th July 2006 in Beihai, China. The meeting was attended by all seagrass focal points from the participating countries, two regional seagrass experts, and a number of observers and representatives from news agencies, the Beihai Environmental Protection Office and China’s National Dugong Reserve. Click here to access the report of the meeting.

The outputs of the meeting include inter alia:

• a timeline for the publication of National Reports in local languages,
• a timeline for the finalisation and adoption of National Action Plans,
• a timeline for the provision of data on economic values of goods and services of coastal habitats in the areas of the demonstration sites,
• a timeline for the revision and updating of the seagrass meta-data entries in the online South China Sea Meta-Database,
• agreement on how the RWG-F framework for assessing the effects of fishing and aquaculture in the context of the habitat demonstration sites could be developed to better reflect the impacts of such activities on seagrass, and
• a template for reporting information about the dependence of fished species on seagrass areas and a timeline for reporting on such information to the PCU, and
• agreement to establish an e-forum discussion on UNEPSCS.org to facilitate the development of seagrass sub-component inputs to the regional Strategic Action Programme.

Please contact Mr. Kim Sour, the PCU's Natural Science Expert, for further information regarding this meeting and the on-going work of the Regional Working Group on Seagrass.

The Eight Meeting of the Regional Working Group on Seagrass will be convened in Sihanoukville, Cambodia in conjunction with the Kampot Seagrass Demonstration Site from 21st-24th May 2007.