The Coral Reef MPAs of East Asia and Micronesia project aims to establish a concise, useful and up to date inventory of MPAs and MPA networks with coral reefs and related ecosystems together with associated information in East Asia and Micronesia Regions, and to extract summary information by analyzing them. This is a collaboration project between the Japan Wildlife Research Center (JWRC) and The WorldFish Center (ReefBase Project), funded by the Ministry of the Environment, Japan (MoE), and achieved by extensive inputs from and collaboration with government agencies, institutions and NGOs working on MPAs.

The initial phase of the project was conducted during 2005-2007 as part of the ICRI Secretariat’s Plan of Action under Japan and Palau’s co-Secretariat term, and by updating the information on the MPA Global database (currently part of the World Database on Protected Areas, WDPA ) and ReefGIS (ReefBase Project). The second phase of the project was conducted during 2008-2010 to further update the data as well as to upgrade the usability and functions.

The Japan Wildlife Research Center (JWRC) and The WorldFish Center (ReefBase Project) are both non-profit organizations, and we are undertaking this project for non-commercial purposes and making the information accessible across a wide range of stakeholders and users through this online database.