The 9th CEARAC Focal Points Meeting was held on the 6th and 7th of September 2011 in Toyama, Japan. About 15 experts and authorities including the members of FPM, representatives of NOWPAP RCU and RACs, and others participated in the meeting.
At first, the Director of CEARAC reported the implementation and expenditure of CEARAC activities for the 2010-2011 biennium. As 5 years have passed since the publication of the Integrated Report on HABs and Remote Sensing, CEARAC has been working on the revision of these reports. CEARAC has also been preparing a new integrated report on eutrophication assessment in the NOWPAP region. The drafts of the 3 reports were presented to the meeting for review. After provided comments and suggestion are reflected and some modifications are added, the 3 integrated reports will be published by the end of 2011.
Next, draft workplan with two budget options for CEARAC activities for the 2012-2013 biennium were explained. The workplan included proposals of new activities: (1) refinement of the Common Procedures for eutrophication assessment towards assessment of the whole NOWPAP region; (2) organization of the fourth training course on remote sensing data analysis, and (3) two activities on marine biodiversity, as well as organization of meetings and maintenance of CEARAC websites. The meeting discussed how to construct more practical workplan of the activities and suggested to develop a new activity plan on marine biodiversity by combining 2 presented drafts, and the meeting adopted CEARAC’s workplan and two budget plans for 2012-2013.
Besides the discussion on the workplan, the meeting expected more collaboration among NOWPAP RACs and RCU and relevant regional and international organizations for implementing future activities. CEARAC will take every opportunity to facilitate more information sharing and to explore possibilities of collaborative work with other RACs and other organizations for more effective outcomes.
