Dr. He Changchui, FAO
Mr. Jeff Tschirley, GTOS
The third meeting of the IGOS Partners was held at the Headquarters building of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Rome, Italy on 8 June 1999. Louise O. Fresco, Director of FAO's Research Extension and Training Division chaired the meeting which was attended by representatives from space agencies, the global observing systems and the global science community.
The participants were welcomed to FAO in an opening address by Henri
Carsalade, Assistant Director-General of FAO's Sustainable Development
Department who called on the partners to emphasize the human dimension
in their work; to give special attention to the needs of developing countries;
to close the gap between terrestrial observations and the atmosphere and
ocean observations; and to undertake direct dialogue with end users.
All partners who were initially invited to joint the IGOS Partnership
have now confirmed their participation. Thus, the IGOS Partners group now
consists of representatives from CEOS, FAO, GCOS, GOOS, GTOS, ICSU, IGBP,
IGFA, IOC of UNESCO, UNEP, UNESCO, WCRP and WMO.
Information and Communication
In this early phase, the partners are developing mechanisms for communicating
the IGOS goals, objectives and activities to different audiences. An IGOS
brochure has been prepared and will be available in mid-July. An "umbrella"
document which describes the Integrated Global Observing Strategy has been
revised and is available on the web at:
http://www.igospartners.org
FAO led the organization of an international Forum on IGOS as a parallel
event to the UNISPACE III Conference in Vienna on July 21 (see related
article on Page 3). A series of keynote address and presentations from
Partners were made by the space agencies, international organizations and
science community currently involved in the IGOS Partnership and addressed
the various elements of IGOS. More information can be obtained at: http://www.igospartners.org
The above web address is the official IGOS Partners home page and is
undergoing further development and refinement. The partners also agreed
to produce an IGOS bulletin twice per year in both paper and web versions.
The first issue will follow the theme of climate change and be ready in
the Autumn.
IGOS Activities
Defining and harmonizing the "in situ" and "space" components is fundamental
to an integrated global observing strategy. Efforts are progressing on
both aspects although the development of the terrestrial component is considerably
more complex due, in part, to the central role of human beings in those
systems.
A major objective of the IGOS partners meeting was to reach agreement
on further development of joint IGOS activities. Along these lines, the
Partners agreed to follow a themes approach within which various projects
could be defined. Criteria for developing the themes were reviewed and
consist of defining the role and responsibilities of key partners, milestones,
evaluation criteria, and resources required.
The partners endorsed the themes framework and criteria and asked that
a consolidated document be produced and available to the Partners as soon
as possible in order to guide the development of additional IGOS themes.
They also agreed that an "Ocean" theme should be further developed in time
for review at the next IGOS-P meeting which would also consider proposals
to develop other themes.
As the IGOS Partnership evolves it will become important to address
data and information issues such as access, ownership, products, and quality.
The Partners decided the matter should be further considered at their next
meeting in November.
Contact with Users
There are a number of global policy fora that are potential users of
observation data, information and products. Until now, they have never
been approached systematically to understand their requirements and priorities.
To start bridging this gap, the IGOS Partners decided to strengthen ties
with the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Framework Convention
on Climate Change (FCCC), and the Convention to Combat Desertification
(CCD).
Contacts with the FCCC are already established on several fronts and
it was decided to explore the possibility of presenting a briefing session
at the next Conference of the Parties. It was also agreed to create an
IGOS poster display based on the brochure and stressing the climate change
aspects of IGOS.
The Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) is another potentially
important forum for IGOS and it was decided that their future sessions
could provide opportunities to increase IGOS visibility among countries.
Conclusions
Given the challenges, progress in establishing the IGOS Partners group
and putting it on an operational basis has been rapid and well focused.
During the coming years there will be a continuing need to develop additional
themes and projects.
Based on present experience there is good reason to be optimistic.
The next meeting of the IGOS Partners will take place at the CEOS plenary
which is scheduled for 10-12 November 1999 in Stockholm.
The report of the IGOS Partners meeting is available at: http://www.igospartners.org
