Welcome to the Greater Mekong Subregion
Environment Operations Center (EOC) website!

This is the online home of the Environment Operations Center (EOC) for the Greater Mekong Subregion Core Environment Program (GMS CEP). Please find more information About EOC.
The information on this program are also available at the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Greater Mekong Subregion Core Environment Program (CEP) project webpage.
For general inquiries, please contact us.
For any comments, suggestions regarding our website, please contact webmaster.

SEA E-Forum

The first issue of the Strategic Environmental Assessment E-Forum was released on 15 February 2007. [PDF: 538KB | 2 pages]

First WGE Semi-Annual Meeting (WGE SAM-1) held last December

Representatives of the GMS Working Group on Environment as well as development and implementing partners of the Core Environment Program met last 12-13 December 2006 to review implementation progress and planned activities for 2007. [PDF: 92KB | 2 pages]

EOC and DNP staff visit Tenasserim-Western Forest Complex

A group led by BCI Unit Leader Hasan Moinuddin and Department of National Parks (DNP) Research Division Director, Dr. Songtam Suksawang, went on a two-day field visit to the Tenasserim-Western Foreign Complex on 2-3 December 2006. The area is one of the six locations of biodiversity conservation corridor pilot sites in the GMS. The objectives of the trip were to (i) assess target villages identified and on-site activities proposed; (ii) survey check dams in use, discuss restoration techniques used by DNP, and visit restored sites, and (iii) identify joint outreach activities that may be undertaken by EOC and DNP at the national level. The group composed of 9 staff from various DNP units and four from EOC were joined by Dr. Stephen Elliott, co-founder of the Forest Restoration Research Unit, Chiang Mai University.

First EOC-facilitated beginner's course on remote sensing and GIS conducted

A one-week basic training on remote sensing (RS) and geographic information system (GIS) was held at the ADB Thailand Resident Mission in Bangkok on 13-17 November 2006. Eight representatives from five GMS countries attended the training led by EOC GIS Specialist Lothar Linde. The introductory course addressed three major topics split into three separate modules: (i) identification of problems/targets using RS data and methods, (ii) verification in the field (surveying/global positioning system mapping), and analysis of custom and secondary source data in a vector-based GIS.

BCI Team visits Guangxi

A small team from the EOC led by BCI Unit Leader Hasan Moinuddin visited Guangxi between 10-17 October 2006 to explore the potential of establishing a biodiversity conservation corridor pilot site in the area. The field visits were organized by the Guangxi Environmental Protection Bureau.

ADB signed letters of agreement on biodiversity conservation in Thailand

On 10 October 2006, agreements with the Department of National Parks and the Wildlife Conservation Society on the biodiversity conservation in the Tenasserim Range in Thailand were signed. The projects, under the BCI component of the CEP, will be completed in December 2008. [More Details]

Technical Advisory Panel convened

Six members of the CEP Technical Advisory Panel (TAP) met with staff from the Environment Operations Center (EOC) and the World Conservation Union (IUCN) Asia Regional Office last 7-8 October in Bangkok and received a full briefing on the program. On 9 October 2006, the TAP members also had an opportunity to meet with senior officials from Thailand's Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment as well as other development partners of the CEP.

Winners of "My World, My Home" children's art competition awarded

Winners in a competition organized by the EOC and the ADB Thailand Resident Mission were awarded on 4 October 2006 in a simple ceremony held in Bangkok. Nine-year-old Supakorn Kultantivanich won first prize in the handicapped student category. [PDF: 104KB | 2 pages]

Workshop on biodiversity and socioeconomic assessment concluded

The EOC, in cooperation with the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, recently organized a workshop on harmonization of biodiversity and socioeconomic assessments in the GMS. Workshop participants reviewed models and good practices of biodiversity and socioeconomic assessments, identified data gaps, and defined information management standards for implementation of the CEP. About 70 participants representing GMS governments and development partners attended the workshop.

Planning workshop for SEAs in the GMS held

The EOC and the ADB Thailand Resident Mission hosted the first planning workshop on strategic environmental assessments (SEAs) in the GMS on 9-10 August 2006. More than 30 participants from partner GMS governments and development partners gathered at the workshop to scope out the terms of reference and activity plan for SEAs in the subregion.

EOC conducts first CEP orientation in the PRC

An orientation workshop was held in Kunming, PRC 1-3 June 2006 to provide information to government agencies about the CEP (specifically, on strategic environmental assessments, biodiversity conservation corridors, and environmental performance assessments) and to acquaint the provincial implementing agency, Yunnan Environmental Protection Bureau (YEPB), with the program's financial and accounting procedures and outreach plans. This orientation in Yunnan will be followed up with another one in Beijing in August as well as in other GMS countries in the next months.

ADB, Netherlands formalize $14m grant to CEP-BCI

On 31^st May 2006, the Asian Development Bank and the Government of Netherlands formalized the $14 million Dutch financial support to the GMS Core Environment Program, and its flagship component, the Biodiversity Conservation Corridors Initiative.
[More Details]

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