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.