Note:  The first Ministerial Regional Forum on Environment and Health previously scheduled from 7 to 8 December 2006, will now be held from 8 to 9 August 2007 in Bangkok, Thailand.

The WHO/UNEP/ADB High-Level Meeting on Health and Environment in ASEAN and East Asian Countries was held in Manila from 24 to 26 November 2004. This meeting was attended by 32 high-level health and environment officials of national government agencies from 14 countries (10 ASEAN countries, China, Japan, Mongolia and the Republic of Korea).

At the regional level, one of the recommendations of the meeting was that a regional forum on environment and health, at the ministerial level, be convened in 2006. To prepare for, and progress towards, the proposed regional forum, the meeting also recommended to form a Task Force, comprising of relevant officials from selected countries.

At the fifty-sixth session of the WHO Regional Committee for the Western Pacific held from 19 to 23 September 2005 in Noumea, New Caledonia, a resolution on environmental health was passed and supported this regional initiative.

The Second High-Level Meeting on Health and Environment in ASEAN and East Asian Countries was held in Bangkok, Thailand from 12 to 13 December 2005.  The meeting reviewed and adopted the draft Regional Charter on Environment and Health.