ASEANET - The ASEAN Network on Taxonomy
ASEANET - The ASEAN Network on Taxonomy
Introduction

The ASEAN region has some of the richest and yet most threatened biodiversity on this Earth. The 500 million inhabitants within the nations of ASEAN continue to rely on this biodiversity for their livelihoods.

Central to the conservation and sustainable use of this biodiversity is the availability of adequate skilled human resource and relevant supporting technological tools.

Taxonomy provides the basic tools to inventorize this biodiversity, thereby providing the necessary access to existing biological information and enabling the generation of new information crucial to the conservation and sustainable use of these resources for national and societal development.

Status

ASEANET (The Southeast Asian LOOP of BioNET International - and currently known as the ASEAN Network on Taxonomy) is the ASEAN Regional Network for Taxonomy owned by all 10 ASEAN member countries.

ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) endorsed the formation of ASEANET through the Asean Senior Officials for the Environment (ASOEN) at its meeting in Singapore in September 1998.

In 2003, Department of Agriculture Malaysia proposed the establishment of ASEAN Plant Health Cooperation Network (APHCN) as a “virtual ASEAN PLANTI” at the 5th Meeting of ASEAN EWG-HPM.

The establishment of APHCN was later endorsed at the 25th Meeting of AMAF (ASEAN Ministers on Agriculture & Forestry).

ASEANET was designated the Technical Secretariat of the APHCN and has been tasked to take a leadership role to implement the ASEAN Regional Diagnostics Network (ARDN) as a key activity of the APHCN.

Member countries

All ten ASEAN member countries: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam

 
Coordinating / Steering committee (as of February 2023)

Chairperson:
Ms. Rosmawati Selamat

Members:
Ms. Siti Amaniah Besar
Mr. Heng Chhun Hy
Mr. Maman Suparman
Mr. Bounsu Soudmaly
Mr. Zaw Lin
Dr. Gerald Glenn Panganiban
Ms. Yap Mei Lai
Dr. Chanintorn Doungsa-ard
Dr. Hoang Trung
Funding sources (2000 - 2020)
BioNET Technical Secretariat (2000-2003)

SPS Capacity Building Program of DAFF, Australia (2005-2010)

ICMPFF (2005) – Training Workshops on Fruit-fly Diagnostics

US-Department of States – Training Workshop on IAS (2007)

AADCP (2006-2007) and AANZFTA Program (2011-2015)

More...

Goals and priorities
  • Assist member nations to implement and fulfil national obligations under the Convention on Biological Diversity
  • Play a leading role in regional activities in support of the Global Taxonomy Initiative
  • Assist member economies to comply with requirements of the SPS Agreement under the WTO
  • Focus work on four core areas of capacity-building: i) information and communication technology; ii) human resource development iii) rehabilitation of collections; and iv) new technologies in identification and taxonomy
Current activities
  • Extensive taxonomic capacity building for SPS and trade related issues in collaboration with donor agencies and other National/Regional Institutions
  • Sponsoring and organisation of training and workshops related to SPS/Plant Health and trade related issues, invasive species and database development
  • Acting as Technical Secretariat to the ASEAN Plant Health Network, which reports to the ASEAN Sectoral Working Group on Crops
  • Implementing projects on taxonomic capacity building to support market access for agricultural trade in the ASEAN region funded by AusAid, NZAid and JAIF through ASEAN Secretariat (Phase 1 and 2)
Recent achievements
  • In collaboration with the Australian Department of Agriculture, Fisheries & Forestry, ASEANET has organised more than 25 training workshops on SPS and trade for its member countries funded by AusAID
  • In 2007, ASEANET organised the ASEAN-NIS Workshop on Invasive Species and Database Development in collaboration with the Global Invasive Species Information Network (GISIN) at MARDI, Serdang-Selangor, Malaysia
 
ASEANET - The ASEAN Network on Taxonomy
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ASEANET - The ASEAN Network on Taxonomy
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