CORIN-Asia

Profile

The Asian Coastal Resources Institute Foundation (CORIN-Asia) is a local institution that works on coastal and aquatic resource management issues around the Mekong region. CORIN-Asia Foundation draws from more than 15 years of experience in working with communities by empowering human resources and adding value to resources at the local level. Our focus is to promote sustainable coastal and aquatic resources management by facilitating community-based activities, public awareness and capacity building programs.

CORIN-Asia believes that reducing poverty could be achieved by improving capacities and local knowledge of communities in their livelihood activities. We also believe that implementation of plans and projects entail strengthening effective collaboration among agencies and institutions at various levels.

CORIN-Asia works with various partners at the regional, national and local levels to effectively develop and strengthen resource management along coastal and wetland areas as well as sustain activities of local communities.

Regional presence

CORIN-Asia, as a regional collaboration of independent country-based local NGOs, has been working in the countries within the Mekong region. As an offshoot of the experiences and lessons learned under the Wetlands Alliance Program, as well as the identified need to provide a more sustainable local backstopping support to local-level institutions and organizations, CORIN-Asia organizations were established in Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam. Each country organization is independent but is working collaboratively to provide technical, management and other forms of support to local partners working in coastal, river basin and wetland areas. The idea of establishing these autonomous offices is to meet the needs of local partners at the provincial and district levels in building the capacity they need to be able to dispose their functions and perform their assigned mandates. Partners at the local level identify the most relevant poverty-related issues with the communities and develop locally appropriate strategies based on the blending of theoretical and local knowledge to address these issues with support from other partners – locally, nationally and even at the regional level. Through this process, the local partners acquire the institutional and management capacities they need to work as effective agents of development.

• CORIN-Asia in Pak Phanang in Nakhon Sri Thammarat, Thailand was established to demonstrate and document processes for wetlands management and develop models for food and social security in the Pak Phanang River Basin. Pak Phanang serves as an open learning laboratory for the region.

• CORIN-Asia in Kampot in Cambodia was established to empower communities on coastal resource management, and strengthen collaboration of local and national institutions on effective coastal governance.

• CORIN-Asia in Nam Dinh in Vietnam focuses on capacity building among local partners for wise use of aquatic resources and develop sustainable livelihood towards food security in Xuan Thuy National Park, consistent with the principles of Ramsar Convention.