Asia-Pacific BON’s (APBON) new Strategic Plan toward 2030

The Asia-Pacific Biodiversity Observation Network (APBON) was launched in 2009 as a network of institutions and research groups in the Asia-Pacific region. The network contributes to and utilizes a knowledge resource base for decision-making and policy-making for the conservation of biodiversity and ecosystems. Based on the achievements in the first decade and recent needs of the regional network, APBON has published an open-access paper on the new strategies toward 2030 (Takeuchi et al. 2021, Ecological Research 36: 232-257). While the COVID-19 pandemic limits our research and workshop activities, APBON is organizing web seminars to keep the collaborations and information exchange on activities and challenges in biodiversity issues in the region. On January 22, 2021, we had the 12th APBON Workshop to learn the global needs and opportunities of biodiversity observations, and to discuss the collaborative activities of national BONs, APBON and GEO BON. AP-MBON (Asia-Pacific Marine BON), which is a sub-program of APBON and MBON, also held a workshop in February to discuss the strategy to gather information on seagrass and mangrove areas in Southeast Asia in relation to this strategy. The up-to-date information on APBON activities can be found on our website.