The 8th Marine Protected Area Working Group Meeting and 8th MPA Regional Exchange (REX) were held in Le Meridien Hotel, Kota Kinabalu and Kudat Golf and Marina Resort, Kudat, Malaysia respectively on October 16-19, 2019. The meeting was attended by 30 participants from across the Coral Triangle countries.

The meeting discussed strengthening the Coral Triangle MPA Strategy (CTMPAS), preparation for the Senior Officer Meeting (SOM), and strengthening MPA professionals and institutions to manage CTMPAS. During the 8th MPA Technical Working Group Meeting, the forum also discussed and gave recommendations for certain topics, such as sustainable marine tourism.

As a development partner of CTI-CFF, and as the Indonesian country coordinator for Green Fins, CTC attended the meeting and presented Green Fins, a public private initiative of the United Nations Environment Programme and Reef World. All participants acknowledged and appreciated the presentation on Green Fins as best practice for supporting sustainable marine tourism.