National Disaster Centre accredited Sentinel Asia JPT Membership
Sentinel Asia is a voluntary initiative led by the Asia-Pacific Regional Space Agency Forum (APRSAF) and was established in 2005 as collaboration among space agencies and disaster management agencies under the APRSAF initiative. It supports disaster management efforts in the Asia-Pacific region through the provision of space-based information and imagery derived from earth observation satellites. The aim is to mitigate and prevent damage caused by natural disasters such as typhoons, floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, volcano eruptions and wildfires.
Sentinel Asia, first advocated in 2005, now counts 8 international organizations and 51 participating organizations from 20 countries as members, and utilization of its systems is steadily expanding. The National Disaster Centre is now a member of Sentinel Asia.
The Director of National Disaster Centre, Mr. Martin Mose thanked the Board Members of Sentinel Asia for recognizing Papua New Guinea by accrediting JPT membership to the National Disaster Centre. The Director said, such high level membership is very important for a country to promoting international cooperation in terms disaster risk reduction and disaster management.
Director Mose further said that due to the geographical position of the country, we are vulnerable to earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunamis. Apart from these hazards, the country is also prone to drought, floods, tropical cyclones, landslides, the impact of climatic change and climate variability and sea level rise. The Government of Papua New Guinea recognizes the country’s vulnerability to various kinds of disasters and is committed to disaster risk reduction programs and disaster management on an ‘all hazards’ basis in support of sustainable development with a vision ‘to ensure safer and resilient communities in Papua New Guinea. Mr Mose added that, the Centre’s membership to Sentinel Asia is very important and timely to support the work of the Government in tackling disaster risk management and disaster management in the country.
