Four Regions, One GEO: another big year for Regional GEOs in 2025
2025 was a standout year for GEO’s four Regional GEOs, each bringing together its community to turn Earth observation into real-world impact, and showing just how powerful regional collaboration can be when it’s connected to a global vision.
The GEO Secretariat’s support helped ensure coherence with the GEO Work Programme, alignment with GEO governance and visibility beyond the regions.
The AmeriGEO Week 2025 hosted in Colombia from 11-15 August, brought together participants from across the Americas to explore shared challenges, from droughts and floods to ecosystems and food security, engaging nearly 2,000 participants in a dynamic hybrid format.
The week highlighted practical applications and cross-border collaboration. Governance was strengthened through the election of new co-chairs – Colombia and Costa Rica, with Paraguay and the United States reconfirmed – alongside the endorsement of updated Terms of Reference, a new Stakeholder Engagement Plan, and the launch of task teams on regional priorities. Looking ahead, AmeriGEO Week 2026 will be held in Guatemala.
The AfriGEO Symposium 2025, held in Senegal from 6–9 October, brought together more than 300 participants, 22 African and 9 non-African countries. The event highlighted Earth observation as core digital infrastructure for Africa’s development, with strong emphasis on open data, knowledge-sharing and capacity building as enablers for scaling innovation.
A major milestone was the launch of the AfriGEO Youth Community of Practice, strengthening youth engagement across the region. AfriGEO governance was strengthened with Kenya elected as a new co-chair, joining South Africa, Senegal and Nigeria. Nigeria was also announced as host of the AfriGEO Symposium 2026.
The EuroGEO Workshop 2025 held in the Netherlands from 13–15 October, featured a rich programme and number of key outcomes. This included the development of a strategic vision for AI and Earth Intelligence in Europe, progress on research and innovation for the downstream Earth observation sector in close coordination with Copernicus, and the mobilisation of nine EuroGEO Action Groups, alongside strong engagement with the start-up community.
The meeting also marked the launch of the Netherlands National GEO, strengthening national coordination, while the updated EuroGEO Implementation Plan will help inform the European Commission’s strategic research and innovation agenda.
The AOGEO Symposium 2025, held in Thailand from 15–17 October, featured 300 participants from across Asia and Oceania. 12 countries reported on progress in Earth observation applications, including land cover, disaster risk reduction and agriculture. Special sessions highlighted sustainable rice ecosystems and advances in predicting climate-related threats.
Task groups identified shared challenges around data accuracy, interoperability and limited in-situ observations. The Symposium concluded with the adoption of the 2025 AOGEO Statement, reaffirming the central role of Earth intelligence in supporting evidence-based decision-making across the region. Looking ahead, China will host the 2026 AOGEO Workshop, followed by the 2026 AOGEO Symposium in Japan.
Four regions, diverse contexts – but one shared goal: delivering Earth Intelligence for All.