11.1. Regional component
11.1.1. Jeff Tschirley presented initiatives that would take place in Eastern Europe and in the Southern African region and would contribute to the development of regional components for GTOS. The purpose is to develop national and regional data and information that can be useful in developing policies and programmes relating to international conventions such as Biological Diversity, Climate Change and Desertification. Efforts would be made to strengthen national technical capacities for environmental monitoring, participation in international conventions, and providing better coordination of efforts at a regional level.
11.1.2. There was some concern among the participants about the focus on data and information management and lack of user-orientation. It was also noted that the broad objectives may make it difficult to achieve with the time and resources available. The group underlined the need to focus on short-term products that can be of interest to politicians and their senior advisors and bring benefit to countries and to GTOS. The Global Observing Systems have a role to play in developing countries, helping them in capacity building and getting them involved in the G3OS. Training initiatives for these countries should also be considered.
11.1.3. There was discussion on the question of whether GTOS should have regional centres and national committees. The GTSC stressed the need to build interactions with national governments. National GTOS committees could provide a link between national institutions (both governments and NGOs) and the regional level. To obtain active national support - including funding - of regional and global activities, governments should get ownership of national contributions to GTOS in the context of perceived national and regional socio-economic and science priorities related to GTOS. The members of such national committees should be on the level of political decision-makers with access to technical and/or financial resources.
Recommendation 11: GTOS should further develop the concept of regional centres built on existing regional infrastructure. The regional offices of e.g. FAO, UNEP, UNESCO, WMO and collaborating centres of regional importance such as CERN could serve as hosts. GTOS requires a regional representation to raise the profile and visibility of anticipated deliverables and benefits. It was suggested that efforts be made to establish a regional GTOS for Southern Asia.
ACTION: The GTOS Secretariat to send the GTSC and Co-sponsors revised versions of the Eastern Europe and Southern Africa projects, and to keep them informed on the further developments of these initiatives.
11.3. Southern Africa Initiative
11.3.1. The Southern Africa Initiative will serve to develop an integrated approach to agriculture and rural development, with respect to data management on terrestrial ecosystems interactions. The major purpose is to integrate a global dimension within the national and regional context. The Southern Africa Initiative will conduct preparation studies in four countries (presumably South Africa, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Uganda) to assess the availability, quality and institutional capacities to collect and use data and information on terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems. The initiative will establish linkages with existing regional programs and institutions, such as the Southern African Development Community (SADC), and national agencies. A proposal has been submitted to the government of Finland to support the initiative.
11.3.2. The participants pointed out that it is important to analyse information management capacity, existing networks, issue analysis, gaps in data and information before organizing a regional workshop. The ILTER is working in South Africa to develop a programme, and UNEP has been promoting an environmental information network in the region: both of these and other relevant initiatives could be linked to the project. There is also need to inventory sites, identify measurements currently being taken, compare against TOPC variables, check against awareness of global issues among countries.
11.3.3. The Committee noted that GTOS should consider how coherent is the policy process in the region, in particular the extent to which information filters through to policy and the environment in which the scientific community works. The inter-country scientific linkages and the capacity of networking should also be observed. GTOS should address the political implications of environmental issues and should assist in regionalizing or globalizing the perspective of African scientists.
11.2. Eastern Europe Initiative
11.2.1. This component will be developed in collaboration with the NoLimits project (presented in the next paragraph) with the support of the FAO sub-regional office in Budapest, where some funds are available. The Eastern Europe Initiative will develop a user needs assessment and recommendations for information collection and dissemination, and organize a workshop gathering technical and policy partners of the region involved in terrestrial ecosystems.
11.4. NoLimits Project
11.4.1. Terry Parr informed the participants on a project on Networking of Long-term Integrated Monitoring in Terrestrial Systems (NoLimits), developed in January 1997 which was endorsed by GTOS and accepted by the European Union in July 1997. The first board meeting of this project was held in Cumbria, UK, 4-5 March 1998. The mission of NoLimits is to create a European network of sites for long-term integrated monitoring which addresses local, national, European and global scale requirements for policy relevant data and information, and provides a focus on environmental change and its consequences. The two main objectives are to hold a series of workshops and working group meetings in relation to the networking of long-term integrated monitoring sites; and to establish a self-sustaining Information Exchange Network on the Internet to provide a forum for the exchange of information between sites and users of data and information in real-time.
11.4.2. The user communities are represented by GTOS, the European Environment Agency (EEA) and the Centre for Earth Observation (CEO). The data and information from such a network could be used for instance to inform and enhance the interpretation of environmental information and indicators collated by EEA and presented in its routine state of the Environment Reports (e.g. the Dobris and Dobris II reports). It could also provide a European focus for collaboration with GTOS and other global monitoring programmes.
11.4.3. The Dobris reports are examples of how European monitoring information is used in influencing policy. Dobris II is especially emphasizing performance indicators. UNEP pointed out a similar potential relationship between GTOS and its GEO report which operates at regional and global level to identify issues and suggest priorities for action.
11.4.4. European Environment Agency (EEA) recently sponsored a meeting called Bridging the gap, to address the issues of monitoring, not always measuring the right variables, lack of relevant information. There was a need for more coherence in environmental monitoring. This confirms earlier suggestion by GTSC to promote collaboration of networks with similar objectives. How to have a core set of measures plus a "system" set of variables to look at interactions, dynamics. The EU fifth framework (1999) makes specific reference to global observing systems but will require demonstrating benefits and value to human beings.
11.4.5. Mr. Parr noted that the participation of the GTSC in the project task force would be beneficial, in particular to assist in defining user needs and requirements and linking monitoring to off-site effects and outputs. The collaboration with GTOS could take place initially in developing a project in Eastern Europe, although it is important to focus also on Western Europe and to learn from its experience, e.g. how to integrate research into a political, social and economic context.
11.4.6. It was agreed that there is a need to clarify the link between GTOS and the NoLimits project. A small workshop should be organized between GTOS, Nolimits and other partners such as the Man and Biosphere Programme (MAB).
Recommendation 12: a workshop should be organized between GTOS, NoLimits and other partners (e.g. Man and Biosphere Programme) to clarify the links and the ways and means for collaboration in Eastern and Western Europe.
