I　Projects to Promote Environmental Interaction

1) Promotion of the Environmental Sub-committee of the Association of Northeast Asia Regional Governments

（1） Hosting the Meeting of the Environmental Sub-committee
NPEC will function as its secretariat and host the Fourth Meeting of Environmental Sub-committee on behalf of the Toyama Prefectural Government which was elected a coordinating entity in 2001 at the Meeting of the Environmental Sub-committee of the Association of Northwest Asia Regional Governments. The meeting will be held as follows;　

（2） Organizing the Symposium on Environmental Protection in Northwest Pacific Region 　
NPEC will organize the symposium on Environmental Protection in Northwest Pacific Region , as shown below, under the theme of environmental protection, as a joint event of the Meeting of the Association of Northwest Asia Regional Governments.

2) Hosting the Northeast Asian Conference on Environmental Cooperation

With the aim of promoting environmental cooperation in Northeast Asian Region
and exchanging information on environmental protection for participating countries, NPEC will organize the Northeast Asian Conference on Environmental Cooperation accompanied by a symposium as follows;

3) Strengthening Partnerships for Marine Environmental Protection

NPEC will aim at raising its status as a nucleus point by strengthening partnerships with industrial, governmental and academic circles through the following activities.

4) Exchanging Environmental Cooperation Conference Groups

An environmental cooperation conference group from Gangwon-do Province of the Republic of Korea will be invited to Toyama Prefecture in order to deepen mutual understanding and cooperation in the field of environment by consulting on cooperation projects and observing environmental situations of each country.

5) Building the Information Exchange System for NEAR Environmental Sub- committee

With the aim of activating the function of the Environmental Sub-committee of NEAR, NPEC will build a home page through which the members may disseminate information on individual projects and have access to the web site of each member country.

II Projects to Promote Researches relevant to Environmental Protection

1) Survey on Washed-up Driftage along Coasts in Northwest Pacific Region

NPEC has conducted since 1996 the survey on the state of washed-up driftage along the coasts of the Japan Sea in cooperation with local governments and NGOs of Japan, the Russian Federation and the Republic of Korea.
With the participation of local governments of the People’s Republic of China, the survey area was expanded to coasts along the Yellow Sea in 2002 as a result of which the geographical scope of NOWPAP was covered.

2) Joint Survey on Migratory Birds with Primorsky Kray

NPEC will have carried out the Joint Survey on Migratory Birds with Primorsky Kray as a continued project (including training of a band binding method for Russian staff) which was started in 1998 in order to clarify the flying routes between Japan and Russia of winter and migratory birds.

3) Joint Research on Water Quality and its Related Environment with Liaoning Province, China

This fundamental research has been conducted since 1998 in cooperation with the Liaoning Provincial government with the aim of clarifying the causes and characteristics of water pollution of the Liao He river in order for the Chinese counterpart to design improvement measures for the water quality of the Liao He river. The research is in the second phase (from 2002 through 2004) in which water quality monitoring was and will be conducted at the lower reach and the mouth following the first phase which had been focusing on the upper reaches for the past 4 years.

III Projects to Support Measures for Environmental Preservation

1) Collection & Management of Environmental Information on Northwest Pacific　Region

（1） Collection, Management and Dissemination of Information and Data on the Environment of Northwest Pacific Region
NPEC will systematically collect, manage and disseminate, on a continual basis, information and data on the environment of Northwest Pacific Region to promote an effective environmental cooperation among the region and contribute to designing of protection measures for the regional environment.

（2） Publication of the English Version of the “White Paper on the Environment of Northwest Pacific Region”
NPEC will issue, as a triennial publication, the English version of the white paper in which grasps the environment of Northwest Region objectively and comprehensively with the aim of providing relevant local governments in the region with it as a reference for their designing environmental protection measures. Also it will work on a preparatory work for the second edition to be published in 2005, including studying its editorial policy and collecting materials.

2) Publicity Work

（1） Publication of a Newsletter and Annual Report
NPEC will issue periodically a newsletter and annual report to publicize the organization and its activities and publish pamphlets and project reports to raise public awareness to the environment.

（2） Opening a Homepage and Maintenance of the Internet
NPEC will conduct maintenance and improvement of the Internet, as occasion arises, so as to disseminate the activities and information and data obtained through its activities and exchange information and data efficiently.

（3） Improvement and Expansion of the “Northwest Asian Region Dictionary of Environmental Terminology”
NPEC will continue to improve and expand the contents of the Northwest Asian Region Dictionary of Environmental Terminology written in 5 languages (Japanese, English, Chinese, Korean and Russian) which system was built in 2002 so as to make the region to share and exchange information and data on the environment through the Internet.

4) Training for Environmental Technicians in Northwest Pacific Region

（1） Acceptance environmental technicians
NPEC will invite and provide two environmental technicians of the Liaoning Province of the People’s Republic of China with the training program for the improvement of measuring accuracy and other techniques through the JICA Technical Training Course of Overseas Participants. It will also accept an environmental technician from Guangwo-do Province, the Republic of Korea and through the CLAIR ( Council of Local Authorities for International Relations) exchange program for staff of local entities to give her a training on environmental administration and international environmental cooperation.

（2）Dispatch of Technical Cooperation Experts
Under the program of JAICA Technical Cooperation Experts, NPEC will dispatch two experts to the Lianing Province to transfer the skills of analyzing organism-related parameters like chlorophyll and organic mercury, which are prerequisite for the joint research on the water quality of the Liao river with the Lianing Province.

5) Organizing the International Environmental Symposium of Northeast Asian Region

In cooperation with members of the NEAR environmental sub-committee, NPEC will organize the International Environmental Symposium of Northeast Asian Region as part of the model project for international environmental cooperation implemented by the Ministry of the Environment in collaboration with related Japanese local governments.

IV Projects to Promote NOWPAP Activities

1) CEARAC-related Projects

NPEC was designated in 1999 as the Special Monitoring and Coastal Environmental Assessment Regional Activity Center (CEARAC) of the Northwest Pacific Action. It was started in 1994 with the aim of preserving the marine environment of the Sea of Japan and Yellow Sea as part of the regional seas program implemented by the United Nations Environment Program. NPEC will carry out the following projects to help CEARAC with its responsibilities including the development of new monitoring techniques and coastal environmental assessment, etc.

（1） Research on Environmental Effects of Toyama Bay
《Development of Algorithm for Remote-sensing Water Quality in Toyama Bay》
NPEC will start the three-year research to develop the algorithm for measuring the concentrations of chlorophyll a, suspended solid (SS) and colored dissolved organic matters in Toyama Bay by making use of ocean color data obtained mainly by the Watch System for the Marine Environment of Northwest Pacific Region.

《 Building a Velocity Field Analysis Program》
NPEC will build a velocity field analysis program of the water body in Toyama Bay using data on sea surface temperature (SST) to use it as reference for analyzing the water pollution in Toyama Bay.

（2） Development of HAB (red tide) Monitoring Techniques
With regard to development of monitoring techniques of HAB/red tide, NPEC will collate information and data and organize the following meetings to seek advice on how to proceed with the research and how to deal with the issue as CEARAC.

（3） Development of Monitoring Techniques by Remote Sensing
NPEC will collate information on and development of monitoring techniques by remote sensing and organize the following meetings to seek advice on how to make an effective use of the Watch System for the Marine Environment of Northwest Pacific Region and how to deal, as CEARAC, with the issue of development of monitoring techniques by remote sensing.

（4） Development of Monitoring Techniques through Bio-assay
NPEC will hold annually the meeting of the Research and Study Commission on Bio-assay, to collate information and exchange opinions on application examples and the recent trend of research and development of bio-assay including bio-monitoring and seek its advice on how to proceed with the issue fundamentally.

（5） Marine Environment Watch of Northwest Pacific Region
NPEC will operate and manage the facilities of the Watch System of the Marine Environment of Northwest Pacific Region installed by the Ministry of the Environment in 2002 and constantly receive, process and analyze, record and disseminate satellite data and/or regular and irregular products.

2) Operations of CEARAC

（1） Organizing Meeting
CEARAC will organize the following meetings to plan, coordinate and evaluate its related activities.

（2） Surveys and Investigations　
CEARAC will collate related information and materials and prepare the documents for the above-mentioned meetings.

（3） Publicity Work
CEARAC will set up a web site to disseminate its activities to a wide spectrum of people.　 　

* For further details of CEARAC, be advised to see the CEARAC home page.