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 in September 1994 at the First Intergovernmental Meeting (IGM) by the NOWPAP members, namely People’s Republic of China, Japan, Republic of Korea, and Russian Federation (hereinafter referred to as China, Japan, Korea and Russia). In order to implement NOWPAP activities related to development of effective measures for regional cooperation in marine pollution preparedness and response, it was recommended that a regional Forum be created under the NOWPAP framework.

In March 2000, the Marine Environmental Emergency Preparedness and Response Region Activity Centre (MERRAC) was established in Daejeon, Korea. Based on the decision of the Fourth Forum Meeting, the name of the Forum has been changed to “NOWPAP MERRAC Focal Points Meeting (FPM)” and MERRAC serving as a secretariat for the meeting.

The Seventh NOWPAP MERRAC FPM (2004) decided to organize “Competent National Authorities (CNA) Meeting” once a year for the NOWPAP Regional Oil Spill Contingency Plan which had previously been adopted at the Eighth NOWPAP IGM (2003), in conjunction with the NOWPAP MERRAC FPM, in order to discuss the issues related to the Plan. Since then, MERRAC FPM and CNA Meetings were organized by MERRAC every year.

You can download the Meeting documents and Meeting Reports, please click here.