Advancing Marine Conservation: IUCN Green List for Coral Triangle Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) at the CTI-CFF MPA Regional Exchange REX & Technical Working Group (TWG) Meeting

The IUCN team actively participated in the event, representing the IUCN Green List programme throughout the three-day Regional Exchange and during Days 4 and 5, which included the field visit to Tun Mustapha Park and the high-level MPA TWG Meeting.

Setting the Scene: Why the IUCN Green List Matters for the Coral Triangle

The 12^th MPA REX, themed "Road Towards 2030: Resilient & Effective MPAs in the Coral Triangle Region," provided a timely platform to examine how the Coral Triangle Marine Protected Area System (CTMPAS), now over a decade old, can be strengthened and modernised to meet current global conservation commitments, including the 30×30 target under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

Md Anjum opened by presenting the IUCN Green List programme on Day 1, introducing participants to its mission, elements, indicators, and key milestones. He highlighted progress under the IUCN SOMACORE programme, which has been supporting Green List candidacy across the CT6 member states, Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Solomon Islands, and Timor-Leste.

A central message was that the IUCN Green List is not intended to replace existing frameworks such as CTMPAS, but to complement and strengthen them, providing globally credentialed recognition for MPAs that demonstrate sound governance, effective management, and successful conservation outcomes.

IUCN Green List for Coral Triangle Marine Protected Areas (MPAs)

Twelve nominated Sites: Progress Across the Coral Triangle

On Day 2, IUCN/Md Anjum Islam presented the Green List Self-Assessment Report for the 12 pilot MPA sites nominated across the CT6 countries. To date, nine sites have been assessed and endorsed, with their roadmaps agreed upon by site teams:

1. Nusa Penida (Indonesia)

2. Laut Banda (Indonesia)

3. Atauro (Timor-Leste)

4. Nino Konis Santana (Timor-Leste)

5. Munda (Solomon Islands)

6. Arnavon (Solomon Islands)

7. Lovongai (Papua New Guinea)

8. Murat (Papua New Guinea)

9. Apo Reef (Philippines)

Sites including Tubbataha Reef (Philippines), Turtle Islands (Malaysia), and Tun Mustapha (Malaysia) remain under consideration or in ongoing assessment phases. IUCN confirmed that self-assessments in Malaysia and the Philippines would be conducted in the coming weeks.

The self-assessments conducted so far, revealed shared challenges across sites, including financial constraints, enforcement gaps, and limited management capacity, while also highlighting the strong ecological and cultural conservation values that make these sites globally significant.

IUCN Green List for Coral Triangle Marine Protected Areas (MPAs)

Introducing the GLSAT: A Tool for Continuous Improvement

IUCN/Muneeswaran Mariappan presented the IUCN Green List Self-Assessment Tool (GLSAT) an online platform designed to help MPA teams assess their readiness and track progress toward IUCN Green Listing. The tool evaluates sites against four components: Good Governance, Sound Design and Planning, Effective Management, and Successful Conservation Outcomes. As a voluntary tool, GLSAT provides an early baseline snapshot of a site’s strengths and improvement needs, while supporting learning, benchmarking and guided progress through the Green List process.

A key strength of the GLSAT is its flexibility and accessibility: it can be updated at any time as conditions and data evolve, is designed to accommodate staff transitions, and generates user-friendly reports that help focal points and managers identify management priorities at a glance. By drawing existing records from Protected Planet database, GLSAT can pre-populate key site profile information, reducing duplication and easing the data-entry burden for site managers. The tool also helps identify management gaps and supports the development of practical improvement roadmaps for sites pursuing the Green List pathway.

The GLSAT report for the Munda site, for example, illustrated how component-level scoring (with an overall alignment of 76%) translates into actionable improvement priorities,  particularly in areas of effective management and conservation outcomes.

IUCN Green List for Coral Triangle Marine Protected Areas (MPAs)

Facilitating the Framework: Group Discussions on CTMPAS

Beyond presentations, the IUCN team played an active facilitation role in the Day 1 breakout sessions focused on updating the CTMPAS framework. Drawing on the IUCN Green List Standard, GLSAT and other key spatial data platforms experience, IUCN provided recommendations on the existing CTMPAS nomination and data structure, including how the nomination form could better support eligibility screening, spatial validation and management effectiveness review and evidence traceability for category 3 and 4 nominations. As part of two working groups examining Category 3 (Priority Development Sites) and Category 4 (Flagship Regional Sites), IUCN co-facilitated discussions to review approximately 30 attributes within the CTMPAS nomination form and identify how Green List indicators could inform a strengthened set of criteria.

Key recommendations from the groups included:

• Incorporating conservation target indicators (coral reef, mangrove, and seagrass conditions) into CTMPAS

• Adding attributes to identify management authority and resource availability at each site, including governance type, management planning status and implementation capacity

• Differentiating data requirements between Category 3 (baseline data) and Category 4 sites: Category 3 would require baseline data, while Category 4 sites would require more comprehensive and verified supporting data,with polygon boundaries as a minimum requirement for Category 3 and 4 nominations.

• Strengthening the depth and quality of data submitted for Category 3 and Category 4 nominations, including better alignment with assessment frameworks to help sites compare progress over time and evaluate improvements in management effectiveness.

• Involving EAGL (Expert Assessment for Green List) members in CTMPAS assessment reviews to support consistency, technical credibility and alignment with Green List Process.

• Addressing the lack of awareness among some MPA managers about their site's CTMPAS nomination status

A detailed comparison table presented by the CTI-CFF Regional Secretariat highlighted the synergies and divergences between the Green List, CTMPAS, METT, and Indonesia's EVIKA, affirming that while methodologies differ, all tools share aligned objectives around governance, management effectiveness, and conservation outcomes.

IUCN Green List for Coral Triangle Marine Protected Areas (MPAs)

A Regional Vision: From Assessment to Recognition to Impact

A recurring theme throughout the REX was the importance of moving from assessment to action, ensuring that evaluation tools serve as catalysts for real improvement, not just compliance exercises.

Md Anjum noted that the Green List process is fully credentialed and provides a strong platform for teamwork and continuous improvement. CTI-CFF Executive Director Dr. Frank Griffin echoed this, emphasising that repeated engagement in assessment exercises allows MPA managers to better understand the significance of each management level, and that practitioners who build this expertise become valuable assets, able to support neighbouring countries through peer mentoring.

Dr. Griffin also highlighted that Malaysia is currently the only CT6 country with an established EAGL, while the remaining five are still in final establishment processes, a gap the IUCN and partners are actively working to close.

Looking Ahead

The 12^th MPA REX concluded with clear momentum. Upcoming priorities include:

• Completion of Green List self-assessments results for Tun Mustapha Park, Tubbataha Reef, and Turtle Islands

• Revision of the CTMPAS framework, drawing on Green List Standard, EVIKA, and METT

• Third round of CTMPAS nominations, with revised criteria expected to be finalised

• Strengthening data quality and evidence requirements for Category 3 and Category 4 nominations, including clearer baseline data, verified supporting information and spatial boundary requirements.

• Expansion of the EAGL network across CT6 countries, with IUCN providing continued technical support

• Launch of the CTI-CFF Capacity Building Repository on Coral Triangle Day 2026, where Green List resources and MPA 101 materials will be made available regionally.

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For more information on the IUCN Green List programme and progress in the Coral Triangle region, please contact 

• Mohammad Khalid Sayeed Pasha, IUCN Asia Regional Coordinator, Protected, Conserved and Heritage Areas: [email protected] 

• Maeve Nightingale, Regional Coordinator, Coastal and Marine: [email protected]

• Olivier Chassot, Senior Programme Officer, Protected, Conserved and Heritage Areas: [email protected]

• Md Anjum Islam, Programme Officer, Protected, Conserved and Heritage Areas: [email protected]

• Siska Sihombing, Senior Programme Development Officer: [email protected] 

• Muneeswaran Mariappan, Senior Programme Officer: [email protected] 

• Samisoni Rakabu, Technical Officer for Protected and Conserved Areas: [email protected] 

SOMACORE:

The Solutions for Marine and Coastal Resilience in the Coral Triangle (SOMACORE) programme, funded by Germany’s International Climate Initiative (IKI) and led by GIZ and its Implementing Partners, strengthens ecosystem and community resilience across the Coral Triangle’s transboundary seascapes. This initiative supports CTI-CFF’s goals through three key outputs: (1) advancing regional/national policy frameworks for effective the MPA governance, (2) scaling up community-led conservation and climate-adaptive livelihoods, and (3) elevating CTI-CFF’s transboundary conservation solutions globally. 

 The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is a key partner in the SOMACORE program, bringing its global leadership in protected and conserved areas’ standards, (including Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), Other Effective Conservation Measures (OECMs) and other Conserved Areas (CAs). Through the IUCN Green List Standard, the program will enhance MPA and OECM effectiveness across the Coral Triangle, supporting the 30x30 target under the Global Biodiversity Framework. The PANORAMA, Solutions for a Healthy Planet methodology and case study database will support knowledge exchange towards MPA and OECM effectiveness.