Belonging to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Northwest Pacific Action Plan (NOWPAP) is a cooperative framework where countries co-sharing Northwest Pacific are grouped for region-suited solutions to deteriorating coastal and marine environment, in the context of an UNEP' global initiative, the Regional Seas Programme (RSP).
Being one of the most densely populated parts of the world, where people are particularly dependent on the sea for their food and livelihood, the region is suffering from enormous pressures and demands on its marine environment.
Industrial effluents, untreated municipal sewage and run-off of agricultural pesticides and nutrients entering the NOWPAP marine environment cause eutrophication and harmful algal blooms (HAB, also known as red tides).
The IGM decisions are executed by the NOWPAP nerve centre, which is called the Regional Coordinating Unit (RCU).
[4] The Pollution Monitoring Regional Activity Centre (POMRAC)]: developing cooperative measures related to atmospheric deposition of contaminants and river and direct inputs of contaminants into the marine and coastal environment, and the activities on integrated coastal and river basin management (ICARM).