Rationale
The Regional Organization for the Conservation of Environment of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden “PERSGA” is joining efforts with the World Bank to develop a Regional Project on Strategic Management of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. This is based on the Project Identification Document “PIF” cleared by PERSGA Focal Points in a workshop organized by PERSGA in August 2008 and approved by GEF in March 2010. In its approval of the PIF GEF has emphasized that the real weight of the project should be in actual on ground activities rather than capacity building.
To this effect the Project Development Objective “PDO” has been set as supporting transition from Traditional Management to Ecosystem Based Management by demonstrating added value through administrative reforms and on-ground activities in the in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
Optimizing and integrating monitoring activities in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden will be one of the basic components of the project. Activities that will be conducted under the monitoring component include:

• Collection of available data for enriching a regional database of environmental variables;
• Strengthen monitoring and assessment concerning land-based activities and their impacts on coastal ecosystems.
• Set up special environmental monitoring programs for the sites that will be developed as demonstration activities in the project.
• Enhance monitoring concerning global phenomena such as climate change impacts and studying the water column thermohaline structure at selected areas, such as the Gulf of Aqaba, as an indicator of climate change.
• Link with impact assessment studies of mega projects such as the Red Sea – Dead Sea conduit.
• Enhance online monitoring and data acquisition at strategic investment sites in partnerships with relevant stakeholders.
  

The workshop will focus on optimizing and integration of monitoring of basic seawater characteristics, serving the purpose of preparation for the Strategic Management Project 

Main objectives of the workshop will be:
1.discussing institutional arrangements for implementing of national monitoring programs of the coastal and marine environment
2.discussing ongoing monitoring activities focusing on:
    i.institutes carrying out monitoring activities
    ii.variables recorded and temporal resolution
    iii.geographic coverage and special resolution
    iv.financial resources and sustainability of monitoring activities
    v.beneficiaries of the monitoring and usage of the monitoring results
    vi.limitations, weaknesses and areas need intervention for improvement
3.discussing effective manners of collecting and tabulating data of regular and scattered monitoring activities
Participants
The most suitable participants in the workshop are national officers responsible for national monitoring programs and practicing technicians who are doing the actual seawater quality monitoring in the countries
Date and Duration
The duration of the meeting is three working days; September 19th – 21st 2011
Location
Centre for Emergency Mutual Aid in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden “EMARSGA” Hurghada Egypt
Organizers
The Regional Organization for the Conservation of the Environment of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden (PERSGA) in collaboration with the World Bank
Language
The language is mix of English and Arabic