United Nations [UN] Environment Programme (UNEP)

UNEP operates a number of gopher/WWW services, concentrating on different aspects of their agenda. The main services are the UNEP gopher, UNEP WWW, Geneva Secretariat WWW and the CEDAR gopher/WWW:

(a) Main WWW/gopher: information on UNEP activities / programmes / personnel; International Directory Network database (see separate entry); UNEP Library catalogue; register of international environmental legal instruments (ELI/PAC) - see separate entry; UNEP publications list and links to other environmental sites.

Also included is information on some of the international environmental agreements and their implementing bodies (with resolutions and lists of papers from follow up meetings: note that these may be more extensive than those on Geneva WWW). These include the Vienna Convention on Protection of the Ozone Layer, the Montreal Protocol, Lusaka Agreement on Illegal Trade in Species in addition to the conventions with secretariats in Geneva which are listed below. See separate entries for all of these.

There is also information on other UNEP programmes: the Desertification Control Programme Activity Centre (DC/PAC); Environmental Law and Institutions (CELIB); GRID (searchable meta-database); Infoterra; GEMS; Oceans and Coastal Areas Programme; . See separate entries for these.

(b) WWW in Geneva (at the UNEP Europe office): Concentrates on activities of the UNEP Secretariats based in Geneva: primarily those monitoring the application of international environmental conventions. These include: Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal (Basel Convention), Convention on Biological Diversity (Rio), Framework Convention on Climate Change, Convention to Combat Desertification, Convention on Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), Convention on Migratory Species (The Bonn Convention), International Register of Potentially Toxic Chemicals (IRPTC). See separate entries for all of these. The WWW site also has data on the UNEP programmes on: financial services and the environment; trade and the environment (see separate entry); chemicals issues (including IRPTC, PIC and POPs: see separate entry)

(c) Central European Environmental Request Facility (CEDAR): see separate entry

(d) Global Resource Information Database (GRID - Geneva) (description of programme only): see separate entry for full information

(e) UNEP IE: see separate entry

(f) United Nations System-Wide Earthwatch: see separate entry

(g) Financial Services Sector and the Environment: reports on the impact of environmental risk and opportunities in the banking and insurance sectors

(h) Trade and the Environment: joint project with WTO and UNCTAD. Includes the full text of monograph series and background reports (text originates on UNDP gopher).

(i) Harmonisation of Environmental Monitoring Programme (HEM): see separate entry