Coconut is being planted at an increasing rate in Hainan under the instigation of local government. This trend is motivated by the development of tourism as well as by the need to satisfy the needs of the fresh coconut transformation industry. The Wenchang Coconut Research Institute (a CATAS member) is presently in a transition situation: It is to move soon and the breeder (M. Li Wenbin) left the Institute for ever. It is planed to recruit a new breeder after the moving. These circumstances and some linguistic difficulties made the collect of information somewhat difficult. However, it was possible to collect a significant amount of information on the 17 accessions of the local genetic material collection made under the ADB project. The map of the collection was also entered under the CDM software. The training needs of Cri-Catas concern primarily the basic coconut breeding techniques and could be satisfied with a training session in a producing country. Later on, Cirad could intervene, notably for data management. Beyond plant breeding, collaboration between Cirad and Cri-Catas could take place in the following domains: coconut product transformation, plant physiology and intercropping.