From 26-30 August 2024, representatives of the CopernicusLAC Panama Centre participated in the AmeriGEO Week in Quito, Ecuador. This annual event promotes inter-American cooperation in the use of geospatial technologies by bringing together experts, leaders, and representatives of various organisations to discuss the role of Earth Observation (EO) in sustainable development and security.
Throughout the week, representatives of the Centre held bilateral meetings with key actors. Our Stakeholder Liaison Officer, Claudia Herrera, leveraged these meetings to identify opportunities for collaboration and strengthened strategic relationships with regional and national organisations. The discussions highlighted the role of the Centre in supporting the resilience of Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries to challenges, such as climate change-induced weather events, by promoting the use of Copernicus EO data in the region.
In the plenary session of the event, Ms. Herrera presented the activities of the CopernicusLAC Panama Centre, highlighting applications of EO data for disaster risk reduction (DRR), including examples of use cases such as employing Copernicus data for managing the risk of wildfires, floods, landslides, and hurricanes.
In addition to highlighting the role of the CopernicusLAC Panama Centre, the event featured a remote presentation by Stéphane Ourevitch, from the EU Space Support Office, who gave an overview of the Copernicus Security Service (CSS), illustrating how its geospatial products contribute to the monitoring of drug trafficking, illegal fishing, transport safety, peacekeeping operations, humanitarian aid, international trade, and climate and health security.
Background Information
The Copernicus LAC Panama Centre’s activities take place within the overall context of the EU-LAC Digital Alliance, which is a strategic framework for promoting cooperation between the EU and the LAC region on digital and space issues under the EU Global Gateway umbrella. Within this context, the European Space Agency (ESA) is coordinating the Centre’s implementation on the basis of a Contribution Agreement with the Directorate-General for International Partnerships (DG INTPA) of the European Commission, and in close collaboration with Panama’s government, MIRE (Ministry of Foreign Affairs), Government Innovation Authority (AIG), and SENACYT (National Secretariat for Science, Technology and Innovation).