IND0NESIA TO HOST ASIA-PACIFIC GEOSS ON CLIMATE CHANGE

Denpasar, Mar 5 (ANTARA) - Spokesperson for the National Aviation and Space Institute (LAPAN) Ratih Dewanti said Indonesia will host the 4th symposium of the Asia-Pacific Group on Earth Observation System and Systems (GEOSS) on global climate change.

She said here Friday that this time the deliberations will be on global climate change involving various countries. The world is now working together in reducing the impact.

She said the meeting of 26 Asia and Pacific countries from March 10 to 12, 2010, at Sanur Paradise Plaza Hotel and Suits, Bali, is expected to strengthen cooperation network among its member countries.

The network will form national, regional and international synergy in building observation network for public welfare. There are four topics on which the symposium will focus.

"The topics are monitoring capacity and Asia-Pacific climatic variability, management of water and hydro-meteorological resources relating to natural disasters, forest carbon monitoring, and Asia-Pacific biodiversity observation networks," he said.

The outcome of the Bali meeting will become a recommendation for the Group on Earth Observation System (GEO) of a Ministerial Summit in Beijing, China, in November this year.

The GEO Meeting is an international collaboration to dig the potential of earth observation to overcome environmental problems facing the world. GEO members are international organizations and governments relating to world observation activities.

The nine areas to be discussed by GEO are natural disasters, health, energy, climate, water, weather, ecosystem, agriculture, and biodiversity.

Dewanti said the climate is closely linked to the life of people and may have serious impacts on various sectors of human welfare.

For this part, many countries in the world are making many efforts of adaptation and mitigation of the impacts of climate change.

GEOSS is an infrastructure in making decisions to respond to environmental problems more effectively. GEOSS also functions as a means of countries in the Asia and Pacific region for exchange of information and understanding in handling climate change.
"State Minister for Research and Technology Suharna Surapranata is slated to open the event," Dewanti said.