MFF held its third Regional Steering Committee (RSC-3) meeting 9-10 June, 2008 at the Evason Resort, Hua Hin, Thailand. The MFF Secretariat chose the Six Senses Spa hotel group because of its commitment and dedication to corporate social responsibility (CSR).

Ms. Kabraji, IUCN co-chair opened the meeting by welcoming and introducing new participants; Prof Sanit Aksornkoae, President of Thailand Environment Institute, Dr. Nisakorn and Dr. Sonjai, one of Thailands leading mangrove experts; Mr. Perera, Director Department of Coast Conservation, Sri Lanka; Ms. Nanette Port-Louis, Coastal Zone Management Coordinator Environmental Engineering section, Department of Environment, Seychelles; and Dr. B.P. Nilaratna, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Environment and Forest, GOI.

Pakistan has now joined the MFF initiative as an observer country. Mr. Abid Ali, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Government of Pakistan gave a speech on the current situation of coastal areas in Pakistan and why they wished to join the MFF.

Mr. Charles Davies, UN ESCAP representative was invited to speak about the Tsunami Regional Trust Fund (administered by ESCAP), which aims to enhance tsunami early warning capabilities in Indian Ocean and Southeast Asian countries. The Tsunami Trust funds has a capacity-building focus with a multi-hazard scope.

Key topics for discussion included MFF Communications Strategy and the consideration for integrating climate change adaptation, as well as guidelines for designing large projects.

Increasing private sector engagement and membership was also discussed at the RSC-3. The participants heard from the Six Senses Spa group on how to get the private sector involved in conservation and sustainable development initiatives.

The recent cyclone, Nargis in Myanmar was a sobering event that tragically emphasized the vulnerability of coastal communities to natural disasters, as well as the value of partnerships and the need for a coordinated response. MFF, through its partners will be able to offer a wealth of expertise and lessons learned from the Dec 2004 Tsunami rehabilitation process. In light of the above, MFF invited the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) to the RSC-3 to investigate synergies for potential collaboration.

Both co-chairs noted that significant progress had been made since the last steering committee meeting in December, 2007, and that MFF hopes to move from what has been an excellent and learning rich inception phase to an efficient implementation phase. All focal countries have now presented their National Strategy and Action Plans (NSAPs) and have set up Small Grant Facilities (SGF). Dr. Don Macintosh, MFF Coordinator, presented an overall update on progress, opportunities and constraints faced by the Secretariat.

Ms. Kran, UNDP co-chair, said that she would like to see UNDP and IUCN taking a supporting and facilitating role with participating countries taking on leadership and ownership of MFF.