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INFOTERRA
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The Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment, convened
by the United Nations in 1972 to consider the condition of the
environment, called for an international mechanism for the exchange
of environmental information. The result was The International
Referral System (IRS), later renamed INFOTERRA, The Global
Environmental Information Exchange Network, established in 1975 by
a decision of the third session of the Governing Council of UNEP.
The main direction given to INFOTERRA was to develop a mechanism to
"facilitate the exchange of environmental information within and
among nations".
Together with IRPTC, the Global Environmental Monitoring
System (GEMS) and the Global Resource Information Database (GRID),
INFOTERRA is a complement of UNEP's Earthwatch Programme and
therefore plays an important part in fulfilling UNEP's global
mandate of monitoring, assessment and dissemination of information
on the environment, catalysing and spurring others to action at
international, regional and national levels.
INFOTERRA is guided by and receives its mandate directly
from the UNEP Governing Council. Periodically, however, meetings are
convened where representatives of NFPs from all partner nations in
the network gather to compare experiences and to map out strategies
for improving and strengthening network links and operations, with
particular emphasis on technical co-operation between countries.
INFOTERRA began its operations in 1977 with a dozen partner
countries. It was, from the start, designed as a decentralized
information system operating through a worldwide network of
national environmental institutions designated and supported by
their governments as national focal points and co-ordinated by a
programme activity centre at UNEP Headquarters in Nairobi. Today,
this linking structure consists of 165 national focal points, 11
regional service centres, and 34 special sectoral sources.
In the early years INFOTERRA operated only as a referral
system. However, following the recommendations of an idependent
assessment of the system done in 1981, INFOTERRA evolved and
expanded its services to include substantive information and
document delivery.
The direction for INFOTERRA over the next decade has been
further defined by the United Nations Conference on Environment and
Development (UNCED) held in Rio de Janeiro last year. Chapter
40 of UNCED's global plan of action, Agenda 21, addresses the
importance of information for decision making. Part A of that
chapter is mostly concerned with data collection, but Part B
entitled "Improving information availability" specifically cites
expansion of the Infoterra system as a world mandate. However, it
is not only in Chapter 40 of Agenda 21 that scientific and
technical information exchange is highlighted. Every chapter of the
Agenda dealing with an environmental subject area urges the
improvement of methods of dissemination of scientific and technical
information. The mandate from the world community is clearly there
for INFOTERRA to develop a strategy which will make it a more
effective network with a leadership role in the reliable,
effective, and timely dissemination of the world's scientific and
technical environmental information.
The INFOTERRA national focal points are usually situated
in the information and documentation sections of environment
ministries, and national environmental protection agencies which
are often also the focal points for national information networks.
They act as the primary access points through which queries from
users are channelled to INFOTERRA sources and through which users
receive their replies.
Each national focal point compiles a "Who's Who" of
environmental expertise in their country, and selects the best
sources for inclusion in INFOTERRA's main publication the
International Directory of Sources, which is compiled by the
Programme Activity Centre in Nairobi. Sources are constantly
monitored and updated, and new ones are being added all the time.
The International Directory of Sources exists as both
printed 'hardcopy' and as a database. For this reason the
International Directory is often referred to as the INFOTERRA
Database. It does not contain all the world's environmental
information in itself, but is the means of access to more than
7,000 sources of information on over 1,000 environmental subjects.
The sources are located in government ministries and documentation
centres, research institutes, universities, non-governmental and
international organisations, United Nations agencies and private
consultancies. The sources can be accessed by country, by name of
organization and by environmental subject-area.
In addition to the International Directory in database and
printed form, the Programme Activity Centre periodically publishes
specialized directories and sourcebooks like this actual one; the
Thesaurus of Environmental Terms; Operations Manual; and the
quarterly INFOTERRA Bulletin. All these publications are provided
free of charge to NFPs in the appropriate working language. Other
publications include the technical Exchange of Environmental
Experiences Series, brochures, posters and leaflets for promotional
purposes, and on videotape a short programme about INFOTERRA.
The regional service centres have been set up, within key
national focal points, to act as centres for regional co-operation.
Geographic regions face common environmental problems, as well as
having common languages and cultural aspects. The regional service
centres act as focal points for the exchange of information and
experience at regional level and for the development of
sub-networks to facilitate this exchange.
The development of companion relationships between network
partners, especially between developed and developing countries,
has emerged as a further means of strengthening network links. The
first such companionship has established the Southern African
Sub-regional INFOTERRA network. With generous assistance from the
national focal points of the USA and Ireland, the Southern African
Development Community (SADC) countries have been provided with
equipment and training and are developing a common bibliographic
system for organizing their environmental collections, a system of
document exchange, sharing of promotional materials and regional
identification of environmental information sources.
As environmental problems increase in complexity and
specialized scientific knowledge proliferates, there is an ever
increasing need by network users for substantive information
tailored to particular needs in specialized areas of concern.
Certain organisations and institutions are generally recognized as
being leaders in particular fields of expertise, and INFOTERRA has
identified environmental priority areas within which 34 such
centres of excellence; these so called special sectoral sources,
provide highly specialized scientific response to users' queries.
As a component part of a United Nations programme, the
INFOTERRA network has access to specialized databases and
information sources on environment related subjects located in UNEP
such as IRPTC; other UN agencies especially UNESCO, FAO, WHO, ILO,
UNIDO; and major international organisations including IUCN, WWF
and CABI. Many of these organisations are also special sectoral
sources contracted to provide information to the INFOTERRA network.
INFOTERRA network partners use four working languages to
communicate: English, French, Russian and Spanish. Substantive
information can usually be located or, if necessary, translated
into most of the world languages.
The INFOTERRA network as a whole handles more than 30,000
queries per year on every aspect of the human and physical
environment, including the control of lead pollution or acid rain
to sustainable management of national parks and conservation of
fragile ecosystems. Over 85% of enquiries are responded to with
substantive information, sometimes in the form of existing
publications or research data, and sometimes tailor-made to a
specific enquiry in a specialized area of concern. There is no
membership fee and no charge for most INFOTERRA services. Users
merely submit their query to their NFP by mail, telephone, telex,
fax, e-mail or personal visit. Answers are usually provided free of
charge. If a commercial database is used, or costly on-line
searches are made, the user will be charged at cost. If the enquiry
comes from an official of a developing country, they may qualify
for a totally free service.
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Joerg Findeisen
find@cedar.univie.ac.at
Central European Environmental Data Request Facility
CEDAR
Infoterra on listproc@pan.cedar.univie.ac.at
The Infoterra subscription list is a public list intended for general
communications on environmental topics; posing queries to the
Infoterra network; requesting information from UNEP (United Nations
Environment Programme); etc.
Subscription to this list is open. In addition to posing queries,
subscribers are encouraged to respond to queries as well, since this
list will ultimately be comprised of both sources and users of
environmental information on a global basis.
A description of Infoterra appears below. To subscribe to the list,
please send the following command to listproc@pan.cedar.univie.ac.at
(leave the subject line blank):
subscribe infoterra "your name"
To post a message to the list, send your mail to
infoterra@pan.cedar.univie.ac.at
The list will be moderated by several Infoterra/PAC staff members.
The moderators and list owner encourage public discussion and debate.
However, the list should not be used to air grievances against other
subscribers and all participants should adhere to proper
"netiquette."
INFOTERRA/PAC Staff
INFOTERRA Programme Activity Centre
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
P.O. BOX 30552
NAIROBI
KENYA
Cable: UNITERRA, NAIROBI
Telex: 22068 UNITERRA
Telefax: (254 2) 22 69 49 or 62 42 69
Telephone: (254 2) 62 12 34 or 62 32 74
E-mail: spen@cedar.univie.ac.at
spencerl@unep.no