In March 2023, a regional workshop was held in Bali, Indonesia to explore the development of a marine conservation and protected areas (MCPA) capacity development programme for the Coral Triangle region, Asia Pacific, based on the IUCN Green List Framework.

The workshop was co-hosted by the Coral Triangle Center (CTC), a regional training hub for the six nations that form the coral triangle countries — Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Solomon Islands and Timor-Leste — which together host the most marine biodiverse ecosystems on the planet. The workshop was attended by 30 participants from a range of MPCA related government agencies, organizations, institutions and sites, and was facilitated by Sustainable Solutions International Consulting.

The aim of the workshop was to build knowledge and understanding for capacity providers in the region on the ‘IUCN Green List’ (GL), its associated diagnostics/ gap analysis tool (the ‘Improvement Benchmarking and Evaluation Index’ -IBEX); and its application as a framework for developing and delivering targeted skills building for improving MPCA management effectiveness. This comes in response Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) target of 30×30 (30 per cent of land and sea areas globally protected by 2030) which will require a rapid escalation of the establishment, and most importantly in the effective management, of marine refuges in this vital region.

Across four days, participants learned about the GL criteria and its use in the field to assess the effectiveness of a site (including conducting a ‘live case study’ in Nusa Penida ‘MPA in Bali). Participants also unpacked the GL framework to identify the key competencies needed at a site to achieve GL standards, and cross-referenced those competencies with existing capacities within the coral triangle, identifying the gaps and opportunities moving forward.

Participants reflected on the work done to date developing a Coral Triangle RoadMap for Capacity Building, that is being led by the Regional Secretariat for the Coral Triangle Initiative for Coral Reefs, Fisheries and Food Security (CTI-CFF) to which all six nations are a signatory. This RoadMap (being supported by CTC and the World Wildlife Fund Coral Triangle Programme [WWF-CTP]) is currently in development, and opportunity was provided to input and augment the plans in the RoadMap to reflect GL competency needs.

The workshop also provided an important opportunity for capacity providers in the region to come together, with the aim to form a network of resource persons, trainers, coaches with diverse language skills and cultural backgrounds, to work together towards the scaling of efforts for building capacity in the region. Moving forward, this network will be engaged in the further development of the RoadMap, and the incorporation of GL criteria to support vital skills-building for MPCA practitioners (with the first iteration of the plan anticipated towards the end of 2023).

As a part of this workshop, the Nusa Penida MPA was also approved as a candidate site for GL certification, with certification awarded to the Head of the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Service of Bali Province and Head of the Bali MPA Management Unit.