SocMon South Asia Regional Coordinator Vineeta Hoon reports that the SocMon South Asia (SA) project supported by NOAA is now well under way at all five sites in South Asia. A SocMon orientation and training workshop was held in the Maldives from 21-26 February. The workshop was organised by the local partner SEAMARC and training was conducted by Marie Saleem (Maldives Country Coordinator) and Vineeta Hoon. The workshop was attended by 16 participants with representation from Government departments and youth groups. During the workshop the participants were introduced to SocMon and presentations were made on the different data collection methods and MPA management. They also learnt about the applicability of PRA and visualization techniques.