On August 14-16, 2009, Third Pole Environment (TPE) Workshop was held in Beijing, attracting about seventy scientific and technical staff from 15 countries interested in the subject. Twenty participating scientists reported on their latest research achievement during the workshop. All participants were deeply involved in the discussion and shared generously with each other their insights on the scientific significance of the TPE workshop, key scientific issues, and organization and future planning for a sustainable progress of the TPE and related subjects. 

Concerning key scientific issues, five subjects had been proposed and agreed upon as efforts of endeavor in the TPE study, i.e., 1) What and how have environmental and ecological changes occurred on different time scales in the past? 2) What are the characteristics of water and energy cycles as well as their components? What are their relationships to the Indian monsoon? 3) How will its ecosystems change under global warming, especially at high elevation? 4) How will glacial retreat and mass balance change affect water and energy cycle and their components? What are their environmental impacts? 5) What are the consequences of anthropogenic activity in the region and how to deal with them?

With regard to deepening human understanding of the TPE as the final goal of the workshop, participants suggested on involving more organizations, academic and interest groups to conduct the multidisciplinary study of water-ice-air-ecology-human interactions. A long-term perspective was planned for the project, though in the near future, collaborative focuses would be laid on joint expeditions to transects on the Third Pole region, establishment of observation stations and data sharing platform, host of summer schools for young scientists of nations involved, and organization of science committee including scientists from a broad range of nations and academic interests. A TPE general office was also called upon, to see to the operation and coordination of programs, helping host annual workshops and summer schools for youngsters, regular maintenance of TPE website, correspondences and newsletter release. At the initiating stage, all agreed to set the general office in ITP’s Beijing campus.

In the end of the workshop, professors Yao Tandong, Lonnie Thompson and Volker Mosbrugger were nominated by the workshop attendees to be responsible for organizing the TPE science committee. The following workshops were also discussed, arriving at Kathmandu, Nepal as the venue for 2010 TPE Workshop and New Delhi, India as that for 2011 Workshop.