Ministerial Summit of the Group on Earth Observations (GEO): agreed a Data Sharing Action Plan and adopted the Beijing Declaration
11 November The VII Plenary and the Beijing Ministerial Summit of the Group on Earth Observations held in Beijing from 3-5 November 2010. GEO is a global intergovernmental initiative involving 81 Countries including Italy, the European Commission and 58 intergovernmental Organisations at national international and regional level with mandate on Earth Observations or related themes. A voluntary partnership that operates on a voluntary basis. The main objective is to coordinate efforts to build a Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), a system for global coordination of Earth Observations on the basis of a Ten Year Implementation Plan (2005-2015). The plan defines a vision statement for GEOSS, its purpose and scope, expected benefits, and the nine "Societal Benefit Areas" of Disasters, Health, Energy, Climate, Water, Weather, Ecosystems, Agriculture and Biodiversity. During the GEO Plenary and the GEO Ministerial Summit GEO's progress over the past five years has been assessed on the basis of a deep evaluation to which Italy also contributed. The Data Sharing Action Plan has been also approved in GEOSS context, it promotes a satellite and in-situ data sharing "full and open" keeping in consideration the national and international legislations in force. According to GEO Ten-Year Implementation Plan societal benefits cannot be reached without Data Sharing. The achievement of "full and open" exchange will require actions by GEO collectively and by Members and Participating Organisations individually. Some pilot activities have already started with the Italian contribution of ISPRA and CNR, in line with the European System for Environmental Data Sharing and INSPIRE Directive. All contributions in terms of data are welcome in GEOSS including those with restrictions based on legitimate reasons, related data providers will identify these restrictions when registering data in GEOSS. Among the most important initiatives presented in Beijing there is also the "Forest Carbon Tracking" and the adoption of the proposal for the development of a "Global Forest Initiative". At the conclusion of the events the Beijing Declaration with its Key message to "Observe, Share and Inform" for the benefit of humankind has been adopted.