Representatives of the developing International LTER (ILTER) Network met in Budapest, Hungary August 26, 1995 to assess progress toward initial goals of identification, promotion and linkage of LTER efforts around the world, and toward developing a program and infrastructure to facilitate communication and distributed database management among LTER sites internationally. Among the countries or regions represented were Australia, Canada, China, Hungary, United Kingdom, United States, Russia, South Africa and Taiwan. in discussions of network mission and structure, participants decided to keep the coordinating body small and relatively unstructured, and to change its name from the ILTER Steering Committee to the “ILTER Network Committee.”
Jim Gosz was elected chair, replacing past chair Jerry Franklin, and Hen-biau King (Taiwan) was elected vice-chair, The remainder of the meeting was devoted to country reports on the status of long-term ecological research, discussion of funding sources, and the development of a future meetings schedule. A report of the meeting is in preparation.
Future ILTER Network Committee Meetings:
- Latin America-1996
- Taiwan-1997
- China-1998
- Africa-1999
- United States-2000