TEHRAN (Iran News) –The Asia-Pacific Parliamentarians Conference on Environment and Development (APPCED) should expand its support services to the region, Somayyeh Rafiei, an Iranian MP and the vice president of the APPCED executive committee, has said.

The environmental support of APPCED should include more countries in the region and the world because trying to have a favorable environment is the duty of all of us, she added.

Rafiei made the remarks at the 20th Executive Committee Meeting of APPCED which is being held on June 14-15 in Seoul, South Korea, IRNA reported on Wednesday.

“In order to be more efficient, APPCED should formulate programs based on climate diversity as well as features, characteristics, and ecosystem of the region,” she stressed.

As a regional forum, APPCED has focused its activities on environmental protection and development and can be a role model for other organizations that are willing to take action against climate change, Rafiei highlighted.

“The Asia-Pacific region represents a diversified climatic, as well as rare animal and plant species.

In this regard, paying attention to endemics and sharing knowledge about them should be focused and prioritized.”

Therefore, the highest level of support should be given to measures that involve a larger number of countries, she suggested.

Such an approach can be adopted through signing memorandums of understanding, holding bilateral or multilateral meetings, and funding projects which can lead to regional solidarity, Rafiei concluded.

APPCED was founded in June 1993 by the Korean Parliamentary League on Children, Population, and Environment (CEP) following the Rio Earth Summit in 1992.

The purpose of the inception was to organize meetings among member countries to seek joint measures against environmental concerns in the regions. Currently, it has a membership of 46 countries.

One of the measures taken by the Iranian government toward the development of environmental diplomacy was the holding of a regional summit on combating sand and dust storms last year.

The meeting was attended by ministers and representatives of regional countries and six international agencies, and its final statement was approved as the Tehran Declaration.

Hossein Mousavifar, an official with the Department of Environment, told IRNA that the participating countries were obliged to create an environmental fund and organization in cooperation with each other.

“In this regard, technical groups between countries have been formed. This was one of the initiatives of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

Over the past year, the work on creating the environmental fund and regional organization has made good progress, and is almost at the final stage, the official noted.

Moreover, the Department of Environment will hold five international meetings in the current Iranian calendar year that started on March 21, DOE chief Ali Salajeqeh said in April.

“At least five international meetings will be held this year, one of which is the conference on combating sand and dust storms,” he added, IRNA reported.

“Environmental diplomacy is the main priority for the country’s political diplomacy. So, holding the conference on combating sand and dust storms is important for us.”