Introduction
The objective of PEARL (Prototype Environmental Assessment and Reporting Landscape) is to provide governments and the international community with a comprehensive overview from both a thematic and geographic perspective of the various environmental assessments completed or being undertaken globally. This web-based system is freely available on the internet (www.unep.org/pearl) to all interested stakeholders. It serves as a tool to provide timely, relevant, reliable and targeted information on what is being done by various institutions to keep the global environmental situation under continuous review.
Background
One of UNEP’s main functions since its inception at the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment in 1972 is to keep under review the world environmental situation, as mandated by UN General Assembly resolution 2997 (XXVII).
The objective being to ensure that emerging environmental problems of wide international significance receive appropriate and adequate considerations by Governments. The increasing complexity of environmental degradation now requires an enhanced capacity for scientific assessment, monitoring and early warning.
For this reason UNEP’s Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum (GC/GMEF) has initiated a consultative process to identify gaps and needs in the current assessment structure, and the means to address them. In the latter half of 2003 the Executive Director initiated a consultative process with governments, inter-governmental organizations (IGOs), non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and scientific institutions (SIs) on ways and means to strengthen the scientific base of UNEP. This ongoing multi-stakeholder consultative process is referred to as the Science Initiative and a description of the process to date is available at "http://www.unep.org/scienceinitiative" . The first intergovernmental consultation on Strengthening the Scientific Base of UNEP was held on 14-15 January 2004.
Outcome of the intergovernmental consultation 14-15 January 2004
The intergovernmental consultation produced a number of key findings and it was suggested that UNEP could provide an umbrella for coordination by providing periodic stock of ongoing environmental assessment activities, while avoiding duplicating or interfering with existing mechanisms where those were working well.
The consultation highlighted the following questions to be answered:
1.Coverage:
- What does the “assessment landscape” look like, i.e.
- what assessments are under way and their geographic coverage?
- of what? (thematic coverage)
- by whom? (organizations, institutions and partners involved),
- for what purpose? (goal, scope and mandate)
2. Effectiveness:
This area draws on the work carried out at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University such as the Global Environmental Assessment (GEA) Project.(URL -http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/gea/index.html.
Are these assessments effective i.e. are they salient (relevant to decision-makers needs), scientifically credible and do they have legitimacy amongst the various stakeholder groups?
3. Impacts: Are these assessments having an impact and making a difference, i.e. positively influencing environmental policy making and implementation, human behavior and/or the state of the environment?
Objectives of Mapping the Assessment Landscape
The two main objectives of the exercise are:
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To provide a definitive baseline overview of the thematic and geographic coverage of and scope of the assessment at all levels (global, regional, sub-regional and national)
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To identify the gaps in information to assist in setting assessment priorities e.g. addressing the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) Plan of Implementation.
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