The 16th meeting of the Governing Board of the ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) took place in Vientiane, Laos on August 25, gathering 150 delegates from ASEAN member nations and the bloc’s dialogue partners.

As part of the 25th meeting of the ASEAN senior officials on the Environment (ASOEN 25), the meeting reviewed the ACB’s recent effective contributions to preserving biodiversity in the member states.

The centre has organised many seminars and training courses as well as awards on biodiversity, including the ASEAN Heritage Park Award.

ACB’s efforts in biodiversity conservation and management were lauded by the international community. The European Union and other dialogue partners of ASEAN expressed their hope to cooperate with the centre in the future.

Participants focused their discussions on biodiversity-related issues to quickly reach the Aichi biodiversity targets, so as to successfully implement strategic plans in the field, thus benefiting regional people.

The targets, which were agreed by the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in Japan in October 2010, aim to reduce and eventually halt the loss of biodiversity at a global level by the middle of the 21st century.

Along with the meeting, a series of other events will be held in the framework of ASOEN 25, including the East Asia Summit Officials Meeting (EAS-OM) on the environment, the ASEAN-India Senior Officials Meeting on environment, the 11th meeting of ASEAN plus three (Japan, China and the Republic of Korea) environment ministers and the East Asia Summit Environment Ministers’ Meeting (EAS EMM).-VNA