As part of the ongoing cooperation between the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Regional Organization for the Conservation of the Environment of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden (PERSGA), a specialized national training workshop was held for a group of national experts from the National Center for Environmental Compliance (NCEC) on assessing coastal litter.
The two-day training (1–2 October 2025) aimed to strengthen national capacities in conducting field surveys of scattered coastal litter, train participants on how to transfer field data to PERSGA’s Regional Information Management System (RIMS), and introduce the stages of data processing and standardization for digital integration.
The program included a series of technical presentations covering:
- Classification of different types of litter.
- Overview of PERSGA’s Marine Litter Program.
- Various field survey methodologies.
- Review of PERSGA’s developed field guidelines and manuals.
- Introduction to the Regional Information Management System (RIMS).
- Rapid visual survey techniques.
- Review of the national report on the 2016 litter survey conducted by PERSGA.
- Different assessment approaches and litter source identification methods.
At the conclusion of the workshop, participants undertook a practical evaluation exercise to assess their understanding. Each expert filled out a survey form based on displayed field images, followed by a group discussion to review the evaluation methods used.
It is noteworthy that several of the participating experts had previously taken part in PERSGA’s 2016 national coastal litter survey, which now serves as a baseline reference for future national monitoring and assessment efforts related to marine litter in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
