March 2010: The Fourth Asia-Pacific Symposium of the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) was held in Bali, Indonesia, from 10-12 March 2010. Organized by the GEO Secretariat with the support of the Governments of Indonesia and Japan, the Symposium welcomed approximately 220 participants from 26 countries, and was organized around the theme “Towards a Global Earth Observation System of Systems that supports the societal benefit areas of climate and biodiversity.”

The event aimed to strengthen international networking among member countries in the region, and promote national, regional and international synergies for building and maintaining Earth observation networks that contribute to GEOSS. More specifically, participants: developed common views and recommendations from the Asia-Pacific region that will be forwarded to the GEO Ministerial Summit to be held in Beijing, China, in November 2010; advanced regional collaboration on biodiversity observations as a contribution to the tenth Conference of the Parties (COP 10) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) scheduled to take place in Nagoya, Japan, in October 2010; and furthered forest carbon tracking and water resource management activities in the region.
To focus the discussions, parallel sessions were organized on the following topics: Asia-Pacific Climate Variability and Monitoring Capacity; Hydrometeorological-Related Disasters and Water Resources Management; Forest Carbon Tracking; and Asia-Pacific Biodiversity Observation Network. [GEO Press Release] [Symposium Report]