Countries agree to redouble efforts to consolidate the Amazon Regional Observatory

Iquitos (Peru), 28/11/2017. Considering that the exchange of information between countries and the generation of knowledge about the Amazon are strategic components for the development of the region in its different areas, representatives of the Member Countries of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO), participated in the Regional Meeting of the Amazon Regional Observatory (ORA) and the Network of Amazon Research Centers (RedCIA), at the Research Institute of the Peruvian Amazon (IIAP), in the department of Loreto, heart of the Peruvian Amazon.

At the event, management mechanisms for the ORA and RedCIA were defined, a Research Agenda was drawn up and actions were identified to strengthen human talent for the Amazon Region, as well as guidelines and orientations for the development of the computer platform that will house the ORA.
These agreements allow having precise guidelines, with defined deadlines and responsible parties, so that in the first half of 2018 the Observatory will be operational in its first phase. It is also expected to consolidate the actions of the Network of Researchers, to provide solutions or generate knowledge on common problems in the Amazon, in the areas of CITES and Biodiversity, Forests and Water Resources, as the first prioritized topics.

Likewise, the formation of the Steering Committee was made official, which will lead the actions of the Observatory and the Network. Its rules of operation were also approved, which is represented by a delegate from each of the 8 Member Countries, and which also has technical working groups that will support and advise the Steering Committee.
The meeting ended with a visit by the delegates to the facilities of the Fernando Alcántara Research Center, which depends on the IIAP, and its bromatology, biotechnology and genetics and fish reproduction laboratories. Later, they learned about the potential of the Amazon Supercomputer, a technological infrastructure that stores and processes data from a network of sensors and complements them with information from other sources, processing data packages related to the geospatial analysis of the Amazonian territory and developing models or numerical simulations.

The Amazon Regional Observatory (ORA) is constituted as a permanent virtual forum, through the ACTO web page, which promotes the flow of information between institutions and intergovernmental authorities of the Member Countries, linked to the study of the Amazon, becoming a reference center for regional scientific-technological information and socio-cultural diversity of the Amazon.

The Network of Amazonian Research Centers (RedCIA) will be integrated by institutions, universities or other forms of organization dedicated to the generation and management of knowledge, to promote cooperation in scientific research among the Member Countries.

Source: OTCA