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Moot on global

change research

begins

ISLAMABAD: The fifth scientific planning group and inter-governmental moot of the Asia-Pacific Network (APN) for Global Change Research began here on Sunday.

The moot, organised by Ministry of Environment, Local Government and Rural Development was inaugurated by Dr. Khalid Mahmood Khan, Chairman, Pakistan Science Foundation.

The regional scientists including Dr Amir Mohammad of Pakistan made presentations on the current scientific issues of major importance, says a press release.

Besides Pakistan, scientists from Australia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Fiji, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, Philippines, Russia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and the USA are participating in the meeting.

The APN, based in Kobe, Japan, is supported among others by the Environment Agency of Japan.

This will be the first time that the APN has organised any official moot in South Asia which will continue till March 30.

The APN is a network of the governments in the Asia-Pacific region which aims at to foster research into the causes and effects of regional environmental changes such as climate change, urbanisation, deforestation and other long-term changes in the environment.

The APN was formally launched in 1996 with the main object to support global environmental change research projects which cannot be conducted on national basis and require regional cooperation.

To-date the APN has provided over $2.7 million in direct contributions to 40 global change research and capacity building projects, and helped to promote in-kind contributions from a number of countries and organisations for this work.

The APN has also initiated and funded scoping workshops, symposiums, an inventory of global change research and a number of other initiatives.ÑAPP