A guide to World Resources 2002-2004: decisions for the Earth: balance, voice, and power

Is good governance the key to environmental improvements?

World Resources 2002-2004 focuses on the importance of good environmental governance and explores how citizens, government managers and business owners can foster better environmental decisions. The report argues that better environmental governance is one of the most direct routes to fairer and more sustainable use of natural resources. Decisions made with greater participation and greater knowledge of natural systems decisions for the Earth can help to reverse the loss of forests, the decline of soil fertility, and the pollution of air and water that reflect our past failures.

The report has three goals:

To define in everyday terms what environmental governance means and how it relates to today's environmental trends and social conditions.
To assess the state of environmental governance in nations around the world via case studies reporting on the Access Initiative's efforts to undertake a systematic study of environmental governance indicators.
To advance the thesis that attention to better environmental governance is one of the most direct routes to reversing the world's environmental decline.

World Resources 2002–2004 also presents a wealth of national statistics on current environmental, social, and economic trends in more than 150 countries. The report departs from previous editions by making the full World Resources database freely accessible and searchable online in the companion website, EarthTrends (http://earthtrends.wri.org - see Further Information). The EarthTrends site also provides data tables, country profiles, maps, and feature stories about current conditions.

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A guide to World Resources 2002-2004: decisions for the Earth: balance, voice, and power