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The GEO reports are produced using a regional and participatory approach.
Input is solicited from a wide range of sources throughout the world,
including the collaborating centre network, United Nations organizations
and independent experts.
Working together with the GEO Coordinating Team in Nairobi and the regions,
the CCs research, write and review major parts of the report. During the
preparation of the report, UNEP organizes consultations inviting policy
makers and other stakeholders to review and comment on draft materials.
Drafts also undergo extensive peer review. This iterative process is designed
to ensure that the contents are scientifically accurate and policy relevant
to users in different parts of the world and with different environmental
information needs.
Previous reports published are GEO-1 in 1997 and GEO-2000 in
1999. The third in the series, GEO-3, places major emphasis on
providing an integrated assessment of environmental trends over the 30
years since the 1972 Stockholm Conference.
The analysis of environmental trends takes into consideration the widest
possible range of social, economic, political and cultural drivers and
root causes - demographics, production and consumption, poverty, urbanization,
industrialization, governance, conflict, globalization of trade, finance,
information and others. It also investigates the relationships between
policy and environment, showing how policy can impact the environment
and how the environment can drive policy.
For structural and presentational clarity, sectoral areas are used as
the entry points for assessment. However, the cross-cutting nature of
environmental issues is also emphasized, with integrated analysis of themes
and policy impacts where appropriate, and emphasis on geographical and
sectoral interlinkages.
Description and analysis are primarily targeted at global and regional
levels but include sub-regional differentiation where appropriate. The
analysis focuses on priority issues, with assessment of vulnerability,
hot spots and emerging issues.
The report analyses the increasing human vulnerability to environmental
change to determine extent and impacts on people. The report breaks with
the tradition of most environmental assessments which are organized around
environmental resources rather than around human concerns.
Using a 2002-32 time frame, GEO-3 also contains a forward-looking
and integrated analysis, which is based on four scenarios and linked to
the major issues of current concern. The global-level analysis is extended
to regions and sub-regions, identifying potential areas of vulnerability
and hot spots of the future, and drawing attention to policy implications.
Contrasting visions of the future are developed for the next 30 years
using narrative and quantitative approaches.
The final chapter of GEO-3 presents positive policy and action
items, linked to the overall conclusions of the assessment and targeted
at different categories and levels of decision makers and actors. It elaborates
the conditions and capacities required for successful application of policies
and actions.
| GEO supports the principle of access to environmental
information for decision making |
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The GEO report series addresses one of the important objectives
of Agenda 21 which emphasizes the role of information in
sustainable development. One of the Agenda 21 activities
involves the strengthening or establishment of mechanisms to transform
scientific and socio-economic assessments into information suitable
for both planning and public information. It also calls for the
use of both electronic and non-electronic formats.
This objective has been further reaffirmed by the MalmöMinisterial
Declaration of May 2000, which among other issues states that:
- To confront the underlying causes of environmental degradation
and poverty, we must integrate environmental considerations in
the mainstream of decisionmaking. We must also intensify our efforts
in developing preventive action and a concerted response, including
national environmental governance and the international rule of
law, awareness-raising and education, and harness the power of
information technology to this end. All actors involved must work
together in the interest of a sustainable future.
- The role of civil society at all levels should be strengthened
through freedom of access to environmental information to all,
broad participation in environmental decision-making, as well
as access to justice on environmental issues.
- Science provides the basis for environmental decision-making.
There is a need for intensified research, fuller engagement of
the scientific community and increased scientific cooperation
on emerging environmental issues, as well as improved avenues
for communication between the scientific community, decision makers
and other stakeholders.
Note: the Declaration was adopted by ministers
of environment in Malmö, Sweden, at the First Global Ministerial
Environment Forum
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