August 18 to 22, ILTER (International Long-term Ecological Research Network) held its annual meeting in the Congress Centre of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in the town of Stara Lesna.

Sixty six delegates from 28 countries and regions attended the meeting. Dr. Terry Parr, president of ILTER chaired the meeting. Dr. Xiubo Yu, the Secretary-General of Scientific Committee of Chinese Ecosystem Research Network (CERN) participated in the meeting. On behalf of Dr. Shidong Zhao, Chairman of East Asia - Pacific region (EAP-East Asian and Pacific), Dr. Yu convened the ILTER-EAP regional meeting and presented the progress to all delegates.

During the past year, ILTER has made a significant progress. First, the ILTER Science Agenda Committee launched ILTER Ecosystem Services Assessment project. The initiative research of this project was conducted in Colorado of the United States, Mexico, and Taiwan etc, and will extend to all member networks worldwide in the end of this year. Second, ILTER has actively promoted the cooperation with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) regarding the network construction of Global Change Adaptation, ILTER Chairman Terry Parr and Dr. Jian Liu, Director of UNEP climate change adaptation projects, had outlined a memorandum of understanding. ILTER will send representatives to attend the strategic planning meeting sponsored by UNEP, held in South Korea at the end of October 2008. Third, regarding the cooperative project in Taihu Lake Station, ILTER Information Management Committee and CERN held a symposium to establish ILTER database standards and data-sharing policies. Fourth, policy and advocacy Committee of ILTER revised the official web site, and launched a new logo design work.

During the meeting, long-term ecosystem research networks of Spain and Portugal were accepted as new members of ILTER, bringing the total number of ILTER members to 40. In addition, the Conference decided to establish a permanent ILTER secretariat in the first half of 2009.

In the regional progress report, Dr. Xiubo Yu presented the 973 project of CERN, "China's major terrestrial ecosystem function and ecological security" (Dr. Bojie Fu is the leading principle investigator of the project), strategic planning of CERN development (2008 - 2020), and the overview of 20th anniversary of CERN. Participants showed a great interest. Chair of ILTER, chairs of the regional networks of ILTER and the professional committee members all hope the CERN continuously play an active role in future.

In addition, ILTER East Asia and Pacific region meeting will be held in November 21 to 23, 2008 in Bangkok, and field excursion on Chiang Mai, Thailand. ILTER 2009 annual meeting will be held in mid-August 2009 in Brisbane, Australia (after INTECOL 2009 annul meeting), and the field excursion will be organized on the Tasmania island in south of Australia.

For more information about the meeting, please contact CERN Scientific Committee Secretariat (cef@cern.ac.cn)

Sources: CERN Scientific Committee Secretariat