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GEO BON holds first Steering Committee meeting
Building on the work of its Interim Steering Committee, the Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO BON) has now established a Steering Committee. The new Committee met in Geneva on 22-23 June to chart the way forward over the coming year.
Bob Scholes of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in South Africa is serving as the chair of the Committee, which consists of representatives from many of the world’s leading biodiversity observation organizations.
Key issues on the agenda included the progress being made on the five GEO BON early products (the lens approach, ecosystems, gap analysis, population & drivers, and protected areas), the formation of the eight GEO BON Topical Working Groups on implementation (genetics, terrestrial species monitoring, terrestrial ecosystems monitoring, freshwater ecosystems monitoring, marine ecosystems monitoring, ecosystem services, in-situ/remote-sensing integration, and data integration & interoperability), the various emerging and potential regional Biodiversity Observation Networks, potential sources and strategies for raising more funds for GEO BON, the GEO Data Sharing Principles, and potential links between GEO BON and other Tasks in the GEO Work Plan.
The participants also discussed the 10th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, to be held in Nagoya, Japan in October 2010. GEO BON has already been recognized in a number of CBD documents and decisions. It could clearly make a useful contribution to CBD implementation, notably in the development of baselines and the measurement of future trends in biodiversity. The meeting agreed that GEO Bon should fully engage with the Nagoya conference.
The full meeting summary report can be viewed on the new GEO BON web site.
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