You are cordially invited to participate in the Pacific Islands Climate Services Forum, hosted by the Pacific Centre for Environment and Sustainable Development (PACE-SD) and the Pacific Climate Information System (PaCIS). The Forum will take place in Suva, Fiji, from 21 to 25 January 2013. The week's events include a training day on accessing and using available climate data, products and tools to inform community-based management and climate adaptation strategies, a three day Workshop to share knowledge, successes and identify climate information needs, and a Partners meeting to harmonize the development and delivery of new and/or improved products and services based on the Forum outcomes.
Objectives of the Forum include:
- Raise awareness of the capabilities of meteorological, oceanic and atmospheric knowledge available and used in villages and communities to support climate adaptation planning and disaster risk management.
- Raise awareness of the state of knowledge of climate science, impacts, and adaptation and available climate and weather service products and services.
- Identify what capabilities, including research and models, products and services, and training, are needed to support community-based climate adaptation planning and disaster risk management.
- Investigate organizational structures and functions at the regional level to support climate services, consistent with the WMO Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS) and considering user requirements and user feedback, to minimize gaps and overlaps and to align climate service activities that already exist in the region.
- Establish support for peer-to-peer learning networks.
- Cultivate the growth of a sustained climate assessment process that is grounded in an iterative ‘co-production of knowledge’ through dialogs between local experts, key decision makers, and scientists.
Please RSVP through this link (if you cannot attend there is an option to stay informed via email). See attached announcement for more information. The final agenda and further information will be forthcoming via email. Please feel free to send to other colleagues who may be able to attend.
We look forward to working together with you in Fiji in January.
John Marra
NOAA Regional Climate Services, Pacific Region
Elisabeth Holland
Pacific Centre for Environment and Sustainable Development
Britt Parker
NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program
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