SEOUL, KOREA — Korean and Japanese experts collaborated and shared ideas to strengthen the professionalism for climate change adaptation of Asian organisms.
The National Institute of Biological Resources (NIBR, President Ahn, Yeon-soon) under the Ministry of Environment, announced on the 13th that the NIBR and the Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute (FFPRI, President Kazuo Suzuki), Japan, signed a MOU on 8 at Ibaraki Tsukuba-shi FFPRI. The MOU is a mutual supporter and international cooperator on research of climate change, adaptation, etc.
The main agenda of the MOU is mutual cooperation between the countries. Information sharing and analysis technology support for analysis on distribution of species and climate factors, collaboration research on prediction of distribution, analysis and research on index species of climate change, etc.
First of all, a relationship for sharing information and research collaboration will be established focusing on the species which are of high interest and are in need of policy for climate change adaptation. Also, each institute is planning to form a “Team” for research on Species Distribution Models (SDMs) for the species against climate change adaptation at each institute and continuously perform periodical evaluation on research result and pursue development of collaboration research project. Through the MOU, the NIBR is expecting active international cooperation and collaboration research on climate change adaptation and will make efforts on preparing a policy to protect East Asian biodiversity.
Especially the accuracy of distribution prediction and monitoring system are expected to be improved by using SDMs which are makes more scientific analyses and evaluation on the influence of climate change on biodiversity possible. When analysis on species distribution is performed in a certain area, the hypothesized result may be over/under estimated in case the species live within a limited climate range. Therefore, sharing distribution information with neighboring countries is essential.