“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 Certificate Course on Coastal and Marine Biodiversity and Protected Area Management” for field-level staff of the Forest Departments from January 12 to February 6, 2015 at the Indian Institute of Scuba Diving and Aquatic Sports (IISDA) at Tarkarli, in Malvan Maharashtra is being jointly organized by the Wildlife Institute of India and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH. This course is 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.