Geneva,
14 June 2011 - The Multilateral Environmental Agreements
Information and Knowledge Management Initiative (MEA
IKM), launched today develops harmonizes MEA information
systems to assist Parties and the environment community
at large. Supported by UNEP the initiative currently
includes 17 MEAs from 12 Secretariats hosted by three
UN organizations and IUCN. It is open to observers involved
in MEA information and data management.

The first project – InforMEA, the
United Nations Information Portal on Multilateral Environmental
Agreements – was
launched on 14 June at the occasion of the initiative’s
2nd Steering Committee Meeting, attended by Ms. Maria Louisa
Silva, Executive Secretary of the Barcelona Convention,
Mr. John Scanlon, Secretary General of Convention on Trade
in Endangered Species (CITES), and Mr. Jim Willis, Executive
Secretary of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions.

“With the launch of InforMEA the global environmental
community has taken a major stride forward in making information
transparent and easier to apply for solving the complex
challenges we face in the Information Age”, Achim
Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and Executive Director,
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

The InforMEA Portal presents COP decisions and resolutions,
news, calendars, events, country specific MEA Membership,
national focal points, as well as in the near future national
reports and implementation plans organized against a set
of 200 hierarchical terms taken from MEA Conference of
the Parties (COP) Agendas.

In contrast to similar external endeavors this project
harvests and displays information directly from MEA Secretariats,
who remain the custodians of their data. This allows for
accurate and timely data availability in a cost effective
manner. MEA secretariats individually implement the technical
solution identified.

Harmonization of information standards and formats will
facilitate the development of many other knowledge tools
among conventions. For example, the Convention on Migratory
Species and CITES could display the species listed on both
of their respective appendices or the Stockholm Convention
may feature decisions related to endangered migratory species
threatened by POPs. Once such an application is developed,
the tool is maintained at minimal cost.

www.informea.org - Making key MEA information “speak
to one another”

For further information please contact:

Marcos Silva (CITES): marcos.silva@cites.org,
Eva Duer (UNEP): eva.duer@unep.org,
or Florian Keil at the UNEP/AEWA Secretariat: fkeil@unep.de.