United Nations
Envionment
Programme

UNEP/NOWPAP/POMRAC/
FPM 1/9
11 April 2003

Original: ENGLISH

Northwest Pacific Action Plan
Pollution Monitoring
Regional Activity Center

REPORT OF THE FIRST NOWPAP POMRAC FOCAL POINTS MEETING
Vladivostok, Russian Federation, 9-12 April 2003

Background leading to this meeting

1. The Action Plan for the Protection, Management and Development of the Marine and Coastal Environment of the Northwest Pacific Region (NOWPAP) and three Resolutions were adopted at the First Intergovernmental Meeting on NOWPAP (Seoul, 14 September 1994). Resolution 1 identified five areas of priority for implementation of the Action Plan, one of which was NOWPAP/3: Establishment of a collaborative, regional monitoring programme.

2. Initially, following the decision of the 3rd Intergovernmental Meeting (Vladivostok, 9 April 1998), the responsibility for NOWPAP/3 was shared by the Special Monitoring and Coastal Environmental Assessment Regional Activity Center (CEARAC) and the Pollution Monitoring Regional Activity Center (POMRAC). The two RACs were supposed to share the responsibility for overall regional monitoring programme.

3. Following the discussions at the First NOWPAP/3 Coordinating Committee Meeting (Beijing, 21-22 May 2001), the 7^th Intergovernmental Meeting (Vladivostok, 20-22 March 2002) approved the demarcation of the responsibilities and activities between CEARAC and POMRAC, as presented by the secretariat in document UNEP/NOWPAP IG.7/8. POMRAC was assigned the responsibility for two working groups: WG 1 - Atmospheric Deposition of Contaminants into the Marine and Coastal Environment; and WG 2 - River and Direct Inputs of Contaminants into the Marine and Coastal Environment.

4. The 7^th Intergovernmental Meeting also approved in Resolution 1 a budget of $ 125,000 USD for 2002/2003 for POMRAC workplan and activities (UNEP(DEC)/NOWPAP/IG.7/10).

5. Following the request of POMRAC and the Regional Seas Programme of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), acting as the Interim Secretariat for NOWPAP, the four NOWPAP Members nominated their respective national Focal Points for POMRAC in January 2003.

6. In accordance with the approved Workplan and Budget, POMRAC, in coordination with UNEP's Regional Seas Programme, organized the First Focal Points Meeting (FPM) of POMRAC in Vladivostok, the Russian Federation, 9-11 April 2003.

7. In order to provide initial information to the participants of the First Focal Points Meeting, NOWPAP Members were requested to submit to POMRAC national reports on activities related to WG1 (Atmospheric Deposition) and WG2 (River and Direct Inputs).

8. The major objectives of the First Focal Points Meeting were to agree on the Terms of Reference for the FPM, to provide guidance for the work of both Working Groups (WG1 on Atmospheric Deposition and WG2 on River and Direct Inputs) and to recommend to the next NOWPAP Intergovernmental Meeting, the budget and workplan of POMRAC for 2004/5.

9. The participants to the first FPM were the nominated Focal Points of four NOWPAP Members, namely: the People's Republic of China, Japan, the Republic of Korea and the Russian Federation. In addition, invited experts from NOWPAP members; representatives of UNEP; the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO/IOC); UNEP's Global International Water Assessment (GIWA); the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Science; the Ministry of Nature Resources the Russian Federationand the directors of DINRAC, CEARAC and Senior Consultant of MERRAC also participated in the meeting. The full list of participants is attached to the present report as Annex I.

Agenda Item 1. Opening of the Meeting

10. Dr. Anatoly Kachur, Director of NOWPAP Pollution Monitoring Regional Activity Centre opened the 1^st NOWPAP POMRAC FPM at 10:00 am at the Conference Room of Hyundai Hotel, Vladivostok, Russian Federation on the 9^th of April 2003. In his statement, he welcomed the FPM participants to Vladivostok and wished to have a fruitful meeting which will pave the way for POMRAC future activities.

11. Dr. Ellik Adler, Regional Seas Programme Coordinator, UNEP, greeted the meeting on behalf of the Executive Director of UNEP, Mr. Klaus Topfer. He expressed his thanks to the host country, the Russian Federation for hosting the First POMRAC FPM. He, then, explained that the main objectives of the meeting were to institutionalize the activities of POMRAC and discuss the work priorities for 2003, and for 2004/5 biennium as well.

12. Speaking on behalf of the Minister of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation, Mr. Vladimir Ponomarev, Vice-Chairman of the Department for Natural Resources of Primorskii Krai, welcomed the participants and called for regional cooperation in fields of monitoring of the marine and coastal environment. He said that Russian Federation attached great importance to the implementation of the North West Pacific Action Plan as a major tool for providing protection and improvement of the state of the environment in the region

13. Dr. Peter Baklanov, Director of the Pacific Geographical Institute, on behalf of the Presidium of Far Eastern Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences made a welcoming statement, in which he noted that it was an honour and a pleasure for him to extend a sincere welcome to all the participants. He wished success to all participants in their common goal, protection and wise management of the marine and coastal environment in the region.

Agenda Item 2. Organization of the Meeting

14. The meeting unanimously elected Dr. Alexander Tkalin, the Focal Point for Russia, as its Chairman and Mr. Ruibin Wang, the Focal Point for China, as the Rapporteur.

15. The meeting was conducted in English

Agenda Item 3. Adoption of the Agenda

16. The Provisional agenda, provisional list of documents and the annotated Provisional agenda were introduced by the director of POMRAC. Dr. Kachur proposed to add to the planned agenda a presentation on GIWA's activities by Dr. Elina Rautalahti-Miettinen, Coordinator of Northern Hemisphere, UNEP/GIWA.

17. The representatives adopted the agenda and the timetable provided by the secretariat. The final list of documents is attached to the present report as Annex 2.

Agenda Item 4. Overview of relevant existing activities

18. Dr. Ellik Adler presented the Regional Seas Programme and briefed the meeting on the latest developments in NOWPAP.

19. Dr. Elina Rautalahti-Miettinen, made her presentation on GIWA methodology and its results and noted the possibility of cooperation between NOWPAP and GIWA's work in the region.

20. Each NOWPAP Member presented individual national reports on Atmospheric Deposition and River and Direct Inputs, featuring the activities and present/future concerns:

• Mr. Wang Ruibin, the Focal Point for China, presented the reports "Ambient Air Quality Monitoring in P.R. China" and "The General Situation of the Surface Water in the National Environmental Quality Monitoring Network and Water Quality Automatic Monitoring System in China".
  
  
• Dr. Kim Seong Soo of Korea presented the "National Report on Atmospheric Deposition and River and Direct Inputs in Korea".
  
  
• Dr. Akira Harashima of Japan, made a presentation on "Status Report on Monitoring Programs Related to NOWPAP in Japan".
  
  
• Dr. Alexander Tkalin, the Focal Point for Russia, made the presentation "National Report of the Russian Federation: Atmospheric Deposition of Contaminants; River and Direct Inputs of Contaminants".

21. Dr. Vyacheslav Lobanov, Acting Chairman of NEAR-GOOS project, presented GOOS and NEAR-GOOS activities in the region. He emphasized the need for cooperation and coordination between NEAR-GOOS and NOWPAP activities.

22. The summaries of the above mentioned presentations are attached to this report as Annex…

Agenda Item 5. Review and approval of the Terms of Reference for the NOWPAP POMRAC Focal Points Meeting.

23. The Draft Terms of Reference (TOR) for the Focal Points Meeting of the Pollution Monitoring Regional Activity Center was presented by the director of POMRAC.

24. The Chairman, Dr. Tkalin and Dr. Adler provided comments and clarifications to the meeting. After a lengthy and productive discussion, the comments made by the participants had been taken into consideration, and the original draft text amended accordingly. Subsequently, the Chair called for the approval of the text of revised TOR of POMRAC FPM. The meeting agreed on the text of the TOR as reflected in document UNEP/NOWPAP/POMRAC/… (Annex …)

25. Dr. Adler explained that the approved text of the TOR would be forwarded by the POMRAC Secretariat to the 8th Intergovernmental Meeting for final adoption.

Agenda Item 6. Review, discussion and guidance to Working Group 1 - "Atmospheric Deposition".

Agenda Item 7. Review, discussion and guidance to Working Group 2 - "Rivers and Direct Inputs".

26. The Director of POMRAC proposed that the discussion of agenda items 6 and 7 could be conducted in parallel groups during the morning of 10 April 2003. The meeting agreed with his proposal.

27. Dr. Ellik Adler explained the meeting what was expected from the two subgroups. He said that the FPM should provide guidance to the two WGs which will be established, and that the FPM should provide the WGs with subjects to be discussed as a base for the planning for POMRAC activities related to Atmospheric Input and River and Direct Input of Contaminants into the Marine and Coastal Environment.

28. The participants of the FPM were then divided into two subgroups: one subgroup on Atmospheric Deposition which was headed by Mr. Ruibin Wang, and the second subgroup on River and Direct Input which was headed by Dr. Daeseok Kang. The two subgroups conducted their discussions separately.

29. The subgroups then reconvened on the afternoon of 10 April 2003 and after a discussion the FPM agreed with the outcomes of deliberations of two subgroups and concluded that they will serve as a base and guidelines to the first meetings of WG1 and WG2 as reflected in the following paragraphs 30 and 31 respectively.

30. The subgroup on Atmospheric Deposition proposed that the main task of POMRAC related to Atmospheric Deposition should be "to establish a regional assessment program to evaluate the atmospheric deposition of contaminants into the marine and coastal environment in NOWPAP region".

In order to assist POMRAC in the planning and the implementation of this objective, possible tasks of Atmospheric Deposition WG would be:

• Review and assess existing programs and systems, which may be used for the evaluation the atmospheric deposition of contaminants into the marine and coastal environment
  
• Review of the scientific data and models for the evaluation of the atmospheric deposition of contaminants into the marine and coastal environment
  
• Discuss strategies and priorities for the implementation of this program
  
• Identify the models, monitoring parameters and data to be used in order to link terrestrial data to atmospheric deposition into the marine and coastal environment
  
• Discuss the need and possibility of developing the monitoring systems for atmospheric deposition in marine environment (at sea)
  
• Discuss and recommend the improvement of the existing monitoring systems (including the capacity building and training activities)
  
• Identify and cooperate with potential partners, organizations and/or programs, which may operate in the related fields
  
• Discuss the development of data and information sharing and exchange mechanisms within NOWPAP members and the related partners
  
• Discuss the development of public outreach, programmes

31. The subgroup on River and Direct Inputs proposed that "the main goal of this WG should be the Assessment of River Inputs (without Direct Inputs for the time being) to the Seas in NOWPAP Region". Its activities may be grouped as follows:

Assessment:

• Exchange of detailed national reports with the description of parameters measured, methods used, data formats, quality criteria, national policies, etc. (format for submission to be prepared by POMRAC)
  
• Review and evaluation of existing monitoring programs related to river inputs of contaminants into coastal and marine environment
  
• Identification of needs for improvement of existing programs and possible needs for new techniques
  
• Preparation of the regional overview using data submitted by countries.
  
• Final products: regional assessment of river inputs to the seas and recommendations regarding future works (to be published by POMRAC).
  

  Prioritization:
  

• Identification and prioritization of required activities under this working group
  
• Regional prioritization of parameters to be measured.

  Capacity Building:
  

• Inter-calibration exercise (using external funds as well)
  
• Training courses (using existing training centers/courses)
  
• Exchange of experts (back-to-back with WG meetings).

  Public Outreach:
  

  Preparation of public awareness materials (e.g. website, newsletter, booklet).

  WG2 would meet once or twice a year (in rotation among NOWPAP members), however, most communications and work should be done mainly by correspondence (via internet)".

32. The FPM further agreed that the meetings of WG1 and WG2 should be organized by POMRAC, following the nominations by NOWPAP members of appropriate experts, and should be held in September or October 2003.

33. The meeting also agreed that POMRAC Secretariat would have to prepare a concluding document of the outcome of work of WGs, possibly with the assistance of a consultant, for the review of second FPM. This document, which should include the compilation and intefration of the national reports to a regional report, may eventually serve the FPM to advise POMRAC on the prioritization of future activities.

Agenda Item 8. Review and Agreement of POMRAC 2003 Budget and Workplan for 2003 and for 2004/5.

34. After reviewing the suggested Workplan and Budget for POMRAC in 2003 and referring to several comments from the Director of POMRAC and Focal Points, the FPM approved the Workplan and Budget for 2003, as reflected in Annex

35. The draft plan of work and budget for POMRAC for 2004/5 was presented by the Director of POMRAC. After discussion, the meeting recommended that the draft budget and workplan for 2004/5 would be adopted by the next Intergovernmental Meeting (Annex).

Agenda Item 9. Arrangement for inter-sessional work and venues of second POMRAC FPM

36. The meeting discussed the inter-sessional work of POMRAC and WG1 and WG2, as reflected in the Workplan and Budget for 2003 and 2004/5 (Annex… and Annex … respectively).

37. The meeting agreed to hold its second FPM in April 2004 in POMRAC, Vladivostok.

Agenda Item 10. Other Matters

38. The secretariat mentioned that two presentations prepared by Dr. Irina Skirina, on "Bioindication of Atmosphere Pollution in Russian Far East" and by Dr. Svetlana Kozhenkova on "Biological Monitoring of Surface Water in the Russian Far East" will be distributed to the participants in electronic version.

Agenda Item 11. Adoption of the report of the meeting

39. After review, the meeting approved the report, based on the understanding that the secretariat would finalize it and distribute it to the Focal Points of POMRAC and to the other participants of the meeting.

Agenda Item 12. Closure of the Meeting

40. The Chair declared the meeting closed at 19.20 p.m. on Friday, 11 April 2003.