2005-IGM-SPG 10.pdf - Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change ...

Welcome Address – Mr. Sombo Yamamura
Director, APN Secretariat
12 April 2005
Thank you Mr. Matsumoto for your warm opening address and impressive
remarks.
Honourable Mr. Seizou Matsumoto, Deputy Minister for Global Environmental
Affairs, Japan, distinguished participants, ladies and gentlemen. My name is
Sombo Yamamura, Director of the APN Secretariat. I am very pleased to meet
you here today in Kobe for the APN’s tenth anniversary and IGM/SPG.
First of all, on behalf of the APN Secretariat, I would like to express my special
thanks to all the participants, who are attending the meetings far from their
home land. This is a considerable commitment, one which we are extremely
grateful of. At the same time, I would like to thank our stakeholders, in particular
the Japanese Ministry of the Environment and Hyogo Prefectural
Government. I also thank Mr. Kazuhiko Takemoto, the APN national Focal
Point of Japan, and Dr. Nobuo Mimura, SPG Member of Japan, and also the
staff of the MOEJ and Hyogo Prefectural Government, for all their help in
hosting and organising the 10th IGM/ SPG meetings in Kobe; as well as
yesterday’s public forum and tomorrow’s science symposium, which I hope you
will attend.
We are pleased to have you all in Kobe particularly during one of the most
beautiful times of the year; the well-known "cherry blossoms" have been in full
bloom.
Ladies and Gentlemen, dear Colleagues: It was March and August 1996 when the
First APN Inter-Governmental Meeting was held in Chiang Mai, Thailand and the
Scientific Planning Group (SPG) meeting was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia,
respectively. Today, we have in attendance some of the national Focal Points and
SPG members, who attended those meetings, while there are many new
members here as well. Since then, the APN’s activities have developed and been
promoted through the tremendous and sustained efforts of member countries,
stakeholders, our global change partners (many of whom are here today), and
the Secretariat. As ten years is a major milestone, the tenth anniversary meeting
was considered to be an appropriate time to review activities so as to learn from
the past and plan for the future.
Moreover, the five years, after the First Strategic Plan was launched in 1999,
coincides with the establishment of a full time Secretariat in Kobe with a full time
Secretariat Director in that same year, 1999. Over the past twelve months, the
Secretariat has worked with Randy Helten, a consultant to the APN, on the
Evaluation Report and preparation of the Second Strategic Plan. I am very
pleased to have been able to submit the report of Institutional and Scientific
Evaluation to this meeting for endorsement and the draft Second Strategic Plan
for approval. Taking this opportunity, I would like to emphasize the importance
of the sessions on days 1 and 2 in this regard.
As you are aware, all the functions of the APN Secretariat were transferred to the
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