KUCHING: Sarawak tasted success in its bid to host next year’s AsiaFlux Conference at this year’s event in Takayama City, Japan.
AsiaFlux 2020, set to be held in Kuching between Sep 22 and 24, is a highly specialised conference organised by the Malaysian Peat Society (MPS), Sarawak Tropical Peat Research Institute (Tropi), AsiaFlux Scientific Steering Committee and co-organised by the National Institute for Environmental Studies (Nies) and Hokkaido University.
Themed ‘Understanding Tropical and Subtropical Ecosystem Processes’, the conference will highlight a special session on tropical peatland and features renowned scientific leaders, including Nasa.
According to the organising chair, Dr Lulie Melling, the main aim of the conference would be to act as a platform to create awareness to the government, the industries and the people especially potential young scientists from Southeast Asia such as Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, on the importance of GHG Cycling in guiding sustainable land use policies in the region.
Supported by the Ministry of Tourism Arts and Culture Sarawak through Business Events Sarawak (BESarawak), this conference is an inevitable progression subsequent to the global phenomenon – the 15th International Peat Congress 2016 (Kuching).
AsiaFlux 2020 is expected to bring progressive and cutting-edge solutions and breakthroughs to existing peatland development problems that Sarawak and the world is currently facing.
BESarawak chief operating officer Amelia Roziman commended AsiaFlux 2020.
“Having the likes of Nasa as a featured speaker is of high significance and Sarawak is going to immensely benefit from having such experts on our turf to share knowledge and expertise in the state, to the world.
“As priority is given to Sarawak’s 7 Key Focus Areas (7KFAs) within Sarawak, AsiaFlux 2020 is expected to be a game changer in the industry,” she pointed out.
The 7 KFAs are namely urban development/redevelopment, social, agricultural, environmental and industrial development with Score as the locus, service industry and digital economy.
AsiaFlux is a regional research network bringing together scientists from universities and institutions in Asia to study the exchanges of carbon dioxide, water vapour, and energy between terrestrial ecosystems and the atmosphere across daily to inter-annual time scales.
