The Taiwan EPA, with the collaboration from the US EPA and the Indonesia’s Ministry of Environment and Forestry, held the 8th Asia-Pacific Mercury Monitoring Network (APMMN) Workshop in Jakarta, Indonesia from Aug. 14 to 16. The Taiwan EPA delegation was led by Mr. Yeuh-bin Wang, Deputy Director-General of the Department of Environmental Monitoring and Information Management. During the opening ceremony, Mr. Wang thanked the US EPA for their past support on mercury monitoring and looked forward to future collaboration. Furthermore, Mr. Wang also encouraged other partner countries to join the network and create a wider scope of mercury monitoring in the Asia-Pacific region.

The three-day annual event included status update on mercury monitoring in the partner countries and strategic planning of the APMMN’s future goal. The meeting concluded with a site visit to one of Indonesian’s artisanal and small-scale gold mining, which releases a tremendous amount of mercury into the atmosphere, as well as a mercury monitoring laboratory.

This year, the event also included a workshop held by the Ministry of Environment of Japan on atmospheric mercury monitoring. It is the second time MOEJ has held the workshop in conjunction with the APMMN meeting.