This paper outlines the progress of the East Asian region towards the goals adopted in the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) Programme of Work on Protected Areas (PoWPA) and in the implementation of the Regional Action Plan for the Protected Areas of East Asia (RAP); findings of which arose from the East Asia workshop on implementation of the CBD Programme of Work on Protected Areas (CBD PoWPA), the ‘East Asia workshop’. The publication includes a brief summary of the East Asian region, the CBD PoWPA and the East Asia RAP and a report of the progress of the East Asia region in implementing the CBD PoWPA and the East Asia RAP targets and compares their progress against global progress. The paper also presents a short description of progress in each country.