TumenNET is an initiative under the Tumen River Area Development Program (TRADP). Five Northeast Asian countries participate in it at present - the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Mongolia, the People’s Republic of China, the Republic of Korea and the Russian Federation. The Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) contribute US$5 million to this 2 year intervention that aims to establish a regional capacity for: "Preparation of a Strategic Action Program (SAP) and Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis (TDA) for the Tumen River Area, its Coastal Regions and Related Northeast Asian Environs".

The United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) is managing overall coordination of the Strategic Action Program that is implemented by the participating countries through a network of regional Lead Agents and national Partner Institutions. This network gave the project its nickname: TumenNET.

TumenNET is foremost a regional partnership program that involves local, provincial and national Governments, the business sector, grassroots communities, academic and research institutions and, environmental Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO). The project comprises 5 major components: EIS (Environmental Information System); TDA (Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis); AWARE (Awareness Raising and Small Grants Program); SAP (Strategic Action Program); and SURVEY (Regional Water Monitoring). Each country is responsible for one component that it manages in cooperation with national Partner Institutions in the other four countries (project management). A small Project Coordination Unit (PCU) has been established in Beijing to coordinate, to provide resources to countries and, to guarantee overall quality control.

The overall goal is to produce a Strategic Action Program that will address key threats to biodiversity and international waters resources in the region, that is consistent with national policy priorities, and, most importantly, that can be financed and implemented by countries. The implementation of the Strategic Action Program will be the ultimate indicator of the success of the TumenNET. It will require diverse sources of funding, including national budgets, private sector investment, loans from multilateral development banks, grant aid, combined grant aid/loan packages that might involve the GEF and, last but not least, resources transfer from national and international NGOs.

A Schematic project outline is given below: