It will coincide with the 10th anniversary celebrations of ENFO – the Environmental Information Service.  ENFO is managed by the Department of the Environment (DOE) and is the Irish national focal point for INFOTERRA – the global environmental information exchange network of UNEP.  A total of 177 countries currently participate in INFOTERRA.

Public access to environmental information is becoming increasingly important in the new millennium.  Access to information empowers citizens to take positive action in the areas of environmental protection and sustainable development.  Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development encapsulates the important linkage between information access and public participation in environmental decision-making.

In Europe, Principle 10 was the basis for the negotiation and adoption of the first ever environmental rights convention – the  Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters. (Aarhus, Denmark  - June 1998).

INFOTERRA 2000 will focus on the practical measures needed to establish and operate a national information service on environmental matters, and in particular

(a) the definition of environmental information;
(b) the identification of users groups and suppliers of information;
(c) networking among institutional stakeholders on the supply side;
(d) the infrastructure and tools needed to provide the information service;
(e) the promotion and evaluation of the service.

The conference will bring together environmental information experts from all continents and representing ministries of environment, environmental protection agencies, non-governmental organisations, inter-governmental organisations and the United Nations.  UNEP will also launch a revitalised INFOTERRA programme by addressing the reform of the INFOTERRA network to meet the environmental information access challenges of the 21st century.