Investigating the Scientific Advances and Areas of Disaster Risk Reduction at the 4th ECO Experts Group Meeting

Presenting the reports and statements of member states, international institutions and ECO secretariat as to the status of implementation of the ECO Regional Action Plan on Disaster Risk Reduction and the latest developments in ECO Member States on this issue have been the most important mandate of this international meeting

During this meeting the participants had several discussions about the ongoing projects and presentation of new programs including the preparation of Landslide Hazard Zoning Map (LHZ) of ECO Member States (ongoing project), Assessment of the science of late Quaternary climate change in the ECO region, the preparation of Flood and inundation Map in ECO Member States, Geo-Environmental Risk Assessment Map of Mining Areas in the ECO-Member States (ECO-GERAM) as new programs by the Geological Survey of Iran.

The scientific secretary of the 4th ECO experts group meeting:

3 Suggestions by Iran in the Field of Natural Disaster Risk Management

At the beginning of the meeting, the scientific secretary of the fourth meeting of the ECO experts group and the director general of the Office of Geological and Environmental Hazards Investigation and Engineering of the Geological  Survey of Iran, pointed out the details of the ECO summit's plans, saying, "At this meeting, 3 proposals will be presented by Iran." Dr. Reza Shahbazi said: The third meeting of experts on disaster risk reduction and natural disaster management was held by Turkey and the Geological Survey of Iran in cooperation with ECO in which a proposal was presented regarding zoning and especially zoning of landslides.

Referring to the details of the meeting, he said: "At this meeting, three proposals will be presented from Iran, and usually ECO secretariat as a design committee prepares reports from these meetings and sends them to countries and approves them after 15 days if there are no other proposals."

Deputy Secretary General of the  Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO):

Increasing resilience to natural hazards depends on updating the approaches

The Deputy Secretary-General of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) continued: "To deal with natural hazards, it is necessary to update our approach so that we can have an appropriate response to various natural hazards and by improving disaster management, reach a society with a higher capability in the field of resilience." Seyyed Mohsen Sperry noted that in March 2021, in order to deal with natural disasters, the Ankara Declaration was issued within the framework of the ECO Regional Organization, while a road map has been presented to deal with it.

Referring to the actions taken by the ECO for Adaptation to Disaster Reduction, he  said: "In the framework of reducing natural disaster risks, we held training programs in cooperation with the United Nations Earthquake Institute, while the Statute on Disaster Risk Management was finalized at the 26th COM meeting in Tashkent, and in this regard, I request all countries to join the CWM Protocol."

Sperry also announced the holding of the first program of senior experts in the region to get prepared for natural disasters next year, noting that to increase the visibility of ECO and its activities, ECO Secretariat has also participated in many programs in the field of disaster reduction, including the first disaster management event in Iran, and the 13th session of the governors of the Regional Center for Urban Water Management.

The Deputy Secretary-General of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) described holding a conference on the fight against sandstorms, international dialogue on disaster resilience and a procurement meeting for Asia-Pacific to reduce disaster risks as other events attended by ECO Secretariat and continued: In addition, using the financial resources of several international organizations an educational animation for children of the region regarding their exposure to natural disasters was made.

He said that at the 8th Ministerial Meeting of Disaster Reduction, we could reach a codified plan on reducing natural disasters and emphasized that it is necessary to update our approach to confront natural hazards so that we can have an appropriate response to various natural hazards and reach a society with a higher capability in the field of resilience by promoting disaster management.

Sperry said that we are required to have more coherent cooperation at the national and regional levels and noted that our main goal is to prepare a document on disaster harm reduction for the 9th Ministerial Meeting of Disaster Risk Reduction in 2024.

Expressing hope that the achievements of this meeting will help to be more prepared to reduce natural hazards and be an effective step forward in the field of natural disasters and said, "I am confident that today in this meeting we will achieve this goal by exchanging experiences and capabilities."

Not to mention that the directors of the Asian-Pacific Centre for Disaster Information Management Development (APDIM), the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IRFC), Regional Center for Earthquake Risk Management and Resilience for West and Central Asia (RCECWA), the ECO Regional Center for Natural Disaster Risk Management (ECO-RCRM) and the International Institute of Seismology and Earthquake Engineering (IIEES)  also provided the views and achievements of their relative collections  about natural hazards in the Eco region.