Strong support for Future Earth from MAIRS

The 8th MAIRS SSC met in Guangzhou, China on March 25 and 26, 2013. The meeting was hosted by South China Sea Institute of Oceanology (SCSIO), Chinese Academy of Science.

About 35 participants attend the meeting including MAIRS SSC members and observers from related international organizations. The ICSU Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (ROAP) was represented by its Director, Nordin Hasan. Scientists from the Guangzhou Urban Planning Institute and Sun Yat-Sen University also participated in the meeting.

The Annual Report of MAIRS for 2012 was presented by Dr. Ailikun, Director of the MAIRS International programme Office (IPO). Nordin made two presentations to the meeting, one on the linkages ICSU ROAP has established in Southeast Asia, and the other on the Future Earth regional workshop for Asia and the Pacific that was held in Kuala Lumpur in November 2012.

MAIRS has made good progress in establishing the base for interdisciplinary and integrated research on drylands, mountains, urban and coastal ecosystems in Asia that cuts across natural and social sciences. In addition it has an active programme on modeling and observation of earth systems at the regional scale. The decision was taken at the meeting that MAIRS accept the invitation to participate in the new international programme Future Earth. MAIRS will organise its first Open Science Conference on 7 to 10 April 2014 in Beijing. The conference will have as its overall theme Future Earth in Asia.