Conservation and Sustainable Management of Coastal and Marine Protected Areas (CMPA)” project of the Indo-German Biodiversity Programme of GIZ aims at strengthening capacities of key training and learning organizations relevant to Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). In this context, a “Special Training Expedition on Coastal and Marine Biodiversity and Protected Area Management” for field-level staff of the Maharashtra Forest Department was organized on 4-7 October, 2016 at the Indian Institute of Scuba Diving and Aquatic Sports (IISDA) at Tarkarli, in Malvan Maharashtra, jointly organized by the Wildlife Institute of India and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH and Maharashtra Forest Department. This course was intended to enable the participants to have a sound understanding of the concepts and issues related to managing coastal and marine biodiversity, coastal and marine protected areas, ecological and socio-political context, conservation approaches and legal-policy framework between terrestrial and coastal marine PAs, as well as to acquire necessary skills to conduct assessment and monitoring of coastal and marine habitats and species and prepare field reports, and develop-under supervision-operational plan for MPAs based on management effectiveness guidelines.  A total of 19 participants from the Maharashtra Forest Department and IISDA have participated in this training expedition. The course curriculum and training methodologies that have been developed exclusively for this course. For further details, contact the Course Director Dr. K. Sivakumar at ksivakumar [at] wii [dot] gov [dot] in.