ADB’s CTI Southeast Asia Project Kicks off with Scoping Workshop

The Coastal and Marine Resources Management in the Coral Triangle:  Southeast Asia (CTI Southeast Asia) project held its Project Scoping, Visioning, and Team building (PSVT) Workshop at Astoria Hotel in Manila, Philippines on  August 16, 2012. The activity was designed to help the consultant team, support staff, and associates understand the project’s objectives, strategies, and interventions.

ADB’s CTI Southeast Asia Project aims to improve the management of coastal and marine resources in the Sulu Sulawesi Marine Ecoregion (SSME) priority seascape within the Coral Triangle. This technical assistance will support the introduction of more effective management of coastal and marine resources, especially those associated with coral reef ecosystems. The project will build their resilience in a period of increased threats arising from human-induced and climate change impacts, thereby maintaining ecosystem integrity and productivity and ensuring the improved socioeconomic status of coastal communities.

ADB Project Officer, Mr. Pavit Ramachandran, said the CTI Southeast Asia Project is one of the biggest projects in the CTI space with funding of US$15.22 million which includes in-kind government contribution. “There is a lot of opportunity to show some substantive work and provide input to the countries particularly to the Senior Officials Meeting,” he said.

Overall, the technical assistance is geared to support Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippine governments in establishing an enabling environment for sustainable coastal and marine resource management. It will also address the constraints to sustainable fisheries management and economic development in the coastal zone, such as illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing, overfishing, and natural habitat destruction and ensure effective project implementation through a project management system.

Mr. Ramachandran also expressed his confidence in the Consultant Team’s capacity to deliver and challenged them to raise the bar in executing the technical assistance project. “Our partners from Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines have been anxiously waiting for this technical assistance to push through since it was expected to support the implementation of their National Plans of Action (NPOA),” he said.

He also shared that he was keen to engage the National Coordinating Committees to the fullest extent for this project starting at the inception workshops scheduled next month. The program will be holding national inception workshops throughout the September and October 2012 in Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines to validate country priorities and identify project sites.

Mr. Guillermo L. Morales is serving as the Team Leader for CTI Southeast Asia . He was previously the Team Leader of the Coral Reef Rehabilitation and Management Project (COREMAP)II in Indonesia for seven years.