Back to MeetingsNEASPEC 19th Senior Officials Meeting
The 19th Senior Officials Meeting (SOM) of NEASPEC (North-East Asian Subregional Programme for Environmental Cooperation) was concluded on 23 September 2014 in Moscow after two full days of discussion.
Organized by ESCAP East and North-East Asia Office serving as the NEASPEC Secretariat and hosted by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of the Russian Federation, the meeting brought together delegates from various ministries and agencies of member States, including Foreign Affairs, Environment, Forestry, Ocean and Fishery and actively negotiated on the future direction of a range of activities.
The most notable progress made at the meeting were formalizing target protected areas and operational modality of the North-East Asia Marine Protected Areas Network (NEAMPAN) established during the last SOM and launching the Low Carbon City Platform which will strengthen cooperation of agencies to collectively support cities and will synergize the works of stakeholders.
The meeting mainly reviewed the progress in project implementation of the following areas:
- Transboundary air pollution project on “Development of the Technical and Policy Frameworks for Transboundary Air Pollution Assessment and Abatement in North-East Asia”,
- Two nature conservation projects: “Study on Transborder Movement of Amur Tigers and Leopards using Camera Trapping and Molecular Genetic Analysis” and “Conservation and Rehabilitation of Habitats for Key Migratory Birds in North-East Asia”
- Dust and sandstorms projects by NEASPEC since 2010 including capacity building activities.
Participants also agreed on the development of mid/long-term strategic plan for NEASPEC for the next SOM for guiding NEASPEC to better serve the subregion in responding to domestic environmental challenges as well as contribute to global sustainable development processes. The development process of the strategic plan would involve consultation with member States.
- Opening Remarks by Mr. Kilaparti RAMAKRISHNA, Head, UNESCAP East and North-East Asia Office
- Welcoming Remarks by Mr. Rinat Gizatulin, Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment
- Election of officers and adoption of agenda
Statements by delegations of the member States, UN and international on policies and initiatives in relation to sustainable development in North-East Asia.
a) Transboundary Air Pollution
b) Nature Conservation in Transboundary Areas
c) Marine Protected Areas
d) Eco-efficiency Partnership
e) Dust and Sandstorms and Desertification
Short presentations to be made by the Secretariat for each programme area, followed by interventions from delegations of member States.
Member States, the Secretariat and international organizations present proposals for new activities to be conducted under the framework of NEASPEC. Each proposal will be introduced with a presentation followed by discussions.
The session will review the state of the core fund and discuss budget plan.
The session will discuss major points of a long-term strategy. The discussion will be based on eight major questions contained in the SOM document, NEASPEC/SOM (19)/7.
