Moscow Seminar

In 1994, UNEP initiated a program to support environment assessment reporting and data management capacities in countries with economies in transition in Central and Eastern Europe. This includes identification of needs and the formulation of project proposals to meet these needs. With partner agencies and other donors, UNEP seeks to leverage finances to correct any imbalances. This activity is a part of UNEP's global ENRIN (Environment and Natural Resources Networking) program, which is a direct follow-up of Agenda 21, chapter 40 on information for decision-making. This chapter underlines that there is a need for easily accessible environmental information at all levels, from that of senior environmental decision-makers to the grass roots. An agreement has been made with the GRID-Arendal center in Norway for implementation of the ENRIN program in Central and Eastern Europe.

The international workshop on "Integrated Environmental Information Systems in Support of Decision-Making in Countries in Transition" was held in Moscow on May 29 - 31, 1995 to follow-up the interest the program has met in the CIS countries. The workshop was attended by 80 participants: Government Representatives from the CIS countries, representatives from international organizations (UNEP, IEC, OECD, IRPTC, WHO, WCMC, World Bank, Black Sea PCU, US/EPA) and experts from the CIS countries and abroad.

This report presents the results of the workshop together with the initial analyses in the CIS countries. It is intended to distill and present promising avenues of cooperation, stimulate discussion and promote international consensus on the way ahead. It also seeks to attract other partners to this important venture of ensuring true international cooperation in stimulating cooperative action on issues affecting our shared resources.

Nairobi, 31. August 1995

Assistant Executive Director Harvey Croze, UNEP

Arendal, 31. August 1995

Director Svein Tveitdal, GRID-Arendal

Acknowledgements

This report has been compiled at GRID-Arendal under UNEP's ENRIN programme.

It is mainly the output of a workshop which took place in Moscow in May 1995. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the persons responsible for contributions to this publication, in particular:

For organizing the workshop, the Centre for International Projects under the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of the Russian Federation, namely Director Sergei Tikhonov, Tatyana Butylina and Andrei Terentiev.

For considerable assistance in the workshop's organization and their presence during the workshop Bo Libert and Carla Bertuzzi from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris and Alexander Savastenko from the Interstate Ecological Council (IEC) in Minsk.

For writing the individual national reports and presenting them at the workshop all the delegates from the CIS countries and for expert presentations on priority issues the representatives from scientific institutions and international organizations.

For assisting in organizing the workshop and for providing valuable input to this proceedings Nickolai Denisov of GRID-Arendal. Svein Tveitdal, Karen Folgen and Arnt Brox also from GRID-Arendal contributed considerably to the event's success by their presence in Moscow.

For coordinating the publication and maintaining communication between the authors, the editors, the lay-out persons and others, Dawn Freund at GRID-Arendal. For making the publication fully UNEP compatible and providing us with practical input, Danielle Mitchell of UNEP/DEA Nairobi.

The report was edited by Solfrid Tjørhom of Fevik, Norway; Per Harald Stabell of Litangen & Kuvaas (Arendal, Norway) was responsible for the lay-out; the front cover map was designed by Philippe Rekacewicz of Le Monde Diplomatique in Paris.

Constructive advice and practical support was provided by various individuals within the UNEP system, namely ENRIN coordinator Dan Claasen of UNEP/DEA in Nairobi and Andrea Matte-Baker of UNEP/ROE in Geneva.

Arendal, 9.9.1995

Otto Simonett

Programme Manager Eastern Europe

and Developing Countries

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Last updated 10 April, 1996 by Lorant Czaran /

Seminar Objectives

INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP ON INTEGRATED ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS IN SUPPORT OF DECISION-MAKING IN COUNTRIES IN TRANSITION

29-31 May, 1995

Moscow, The Russian Federation

Taking into consideration the decisions of UNCED and its basic document, Agenda 21, the decisions of the Environmental Action Programme for Central and Eastern Europe, adopted at the Ministerial Conference on Environment for Europe (Lucerne), and the decisions of the 18th Session of UNEP Governing Council on measures concerning countries with economies in transition and the necessity of addressing their key environmental issues, UNEP, the OECD, GRID and the Interstate Ecological Council of the CIS (IEC) have convened, via the Centre for International Projects of the Ministry of Protection of the Environment and Natural Resources of the Russian Federation in Moscow, in the period May 29-31, 1995, the International Seminar "Integrated Environmental Information Systems in Support of Decision-Making in Countries in Transition" for representatives of the environmental ministries and agencies of the CIS countries.

Primary attention during the Seminar was paid to issues related to Chapter 40 of Agenda 21 (Information for decision-makers), in particular, the general lack of capacities at national and international levels for collecting and assessing data, processing it into adequate environmental information and disseminating it among users.

The Seminar has been held within the framework of the Agreement on co-operation between the IEC and UNEP according to the decisions of the 4th Session of the IEC (December 1993), which identified, on the basis of UNEP proposals, priority fields of activity for 1994-95.

This event was a follow-up of the OECD/UNEP Workshop "Integrated Environmental Information Systems in Support of Decision Making at the Oblast Level in Russia", held in January 1995 in Moscow.

The Seminar was included into the programme on developing the UNEP information system on the environment and natural resources (ENRIN) for countries of Central and Eastern Europe with economies in transition.

SEMINAR OBJECTIVES

1. Overview assessments of the environmental information management capacities and needs in the CIS-countries.

2. International programmes focusing on environmental information for decision-making.

3. International electronic networks with environmental components.

4. Methods and tools for efficient environmental information communication to users.

5. Recommendations for future action to fulfill the information, capacity building and networking needs.

Seminar Outputs

1. Assessment reports on the status of environmental information systems in the CIS-countries.

2. Documentation on international programmes and expert presentations.

3. Recommendations for future action to follow up Agenda 21, Chapter 40, in countries with economies in transition.

4. Planning and implementation of cooperating projects to improve the information base and strengthen the environmental information management capacities in the countries of the region.

The present seminar was devoted to the discussion of experience in the field of international information systems operation, as well as of mechanisms for collection, assessment and harmonization of data at national and regional levels. The holding of this seminar was connected with the necessity of establishing information-analytical systems and harmonizing such systems in the environmental ministries of the CIS countries. The existing potential of environmental information systems in transition economies was discussed, in order to use the experience in international information systems functioning in order to solve the problem of environmental and natural-resource information integration in governmental authorities of the CIS countries. The aim of this seminar was to facilitate understanding of the role and place of environmental information systems in the process of decision-making in transition economies. Perspectives for the international development of information networks and communications in decision-making were discussed. This will give an opportunity to improve coordination of environmental activities.

Basic requirements to data harmonization:

- requirements to environmental information should

be the key principle;

- knowledge and information for environmental impacts assessment require coordinated understanding;

- data collection systems and accessibility should

be improved;

- standardizing of classifications and definitions

deserves attention;

- development of meta-information systems should become the key component of international

co-operation.

It is necessary to develop:

- internal information capacities;

- local networks;

- available capacities for external support;

- communication with external networks;

- system boards (PC-Modem-Telephone)

- links with UNEP programmes and other regional environment programmes.

The development of environmental information systems on a territorial level requires a critical assessment of demands within each area, and local administrations should work out basic adjustment systems, regulations and recommendations to support development.

It requires:

- assistance to the development of unified

methodologies and quality control standards;

- a broad exchange of information;

- outlining of priorities for creating a permanent environmental information network.

This could be shaped as a thoroughly designed plan to be used to identify international donors for economic co-operation related to specific plan components.

Recommendations

The Seminar main proposals and

recommendations are:

General Recommendations

- to consider it expedient to hold a training course on the Seminar subject to become familiarized with the latest information integrated systems (programmes), to be attended by a broad scope of specialists;

- to publish the Seminar information materials;

- parallel to creating an information network, to create Russian software versions and translate information and catalogues of environmental databases into Russian as the UN language most often used

in CIS countries;

- to consider creating information metadatabases on CIS environmental activities a priority trend in

intergovernmental co-operation.

Recommendations for UNEP and other

international organisations

- to address UNEP with the proposal of including all

CIS countries in the list of countries to be equipped with a programme-technical complex for interlinking with the INTERNET and GRID-UNEP, and recommend that UNEP should render the necessary assistance in computer support and electronic exchange of

environmental information between CIS states within the INTERNET, particularly in environment monitoring;

- UNEP and other international organisations should consider the possibility of organising a project jointly with the Intergovernmental Ecological Union on

creating metadatabases on CIS data accessible to all project participants, on coordinated trends for

describing environmental activities of institutions in CIS countries, creating an automated information

system on a regional basis, and providing CIS

countries with technical facilities and

computer software;

- to support the idea of creating a programme on the UNEP information network on environment and

natural resources (ENRIN) for countries in transition in Central and Eastern Europe. It would be expedient to consider the programme in detail;

- to consider the possibility of locating Internet-

MERCURE stations in CIS countries;

- to organise work on creating Russian-English and English-Russian computer dictionaries on the

environment;

- to provide UNEP, OECD, UNDP and other

organisations support for the publishing and

dissemination of theoretical and practical information on methodology and techniques for creating GIS

systems, and environment monitoring on regional

and national levels;

- to provide sets of computer products for

environmental information and environment

monitoring systems created for the UN before 1995;

- to consider it expedient to promote programmes on creating an Intergovernmental Environmental Information Agency, and an Intergovernmental Environment Monitoring System using modern

telecommunication systems for a timely transfer and exchange of environmental information within CIS.

- to address UNEP with a proposal on organising an international project to work out a coordinated system of environmental indicators including the creation of an international expert team.

Recommendations for the Intergovernmental Ecological Council (IEC) of CIS countries

- to approve the concept of developing an interstate environmental monitoring system (adopted at the 5th Session of the IEC), to recommend development and adoption by the next IEC Session of a Statute on the Interstate System of Environmental Information;

- to recommend development of a concept of interstate exchange of environmental scientific and technical information and the above Statute to be considered at the next IEC Session;

- to recommend that CIS countries should consider

creating intergovernmental information systems for environmental decision-making;

- in view of the large volume of environmental data

on CIS countries, the Parliaments and executive

environment bodies in the CIS countries should

facilitate information flow passage through the CIS Interparliament Assembly Commission on Environment and the IEC as coordinating bodies for national and international activities;

- to consider it expedient to hold seminars through the Centre for International Projects on environmental safety and environment risk management, and to consider the possibility of publishing reference books, training manuals and monographs for training

specialists in the field of environmental risk for

the regions.

Recommendations on organisation

of environmental monitoring

It is necessary to rely on the following issues in order to create national and interstate systems of environmental monitoring:

- coordination and integration of various

monitoring systems;

- integrated information for decision-making;

- development of systems for primary data collection within the framework of research programmes on background environmental monitoring.

It seems necessary that GRID, GEMS, the EEA and other international organisations begin co-ordination of activities in the field of addressing methodological issues of organising environmental monitoring in the CIS countries.

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The following recommendations are proposed having in mind the existing UNEP/GRID environmental information systems to be used for countries with economies in transition.

1. In general, there are relevant initiatives in all the countries; there is, however, a lack of funding, equipment and expertise in handling current information management systems.

Many international organisations operate programmes related to environmental information systems in countries in transition. Awareness of programmes both between international organisations and within the recipient community is often incomplete. This leads to misunderstandings and also duplication. There is willingness in all the countries to cooperate and harmonize the programmes.

There exist considerable electronic network capabilities both in the CIS countries and within international organisations; there are, however, practical problems (lack of capacities, hardware, expertise) to fully tap into these systems. It is necessary to get an overview of the current e-mail systems and establish new systems as soon as possible.

2. It is necessary to establish means for information communications as fast as possible. There are impressive and innovative capacities in the area of communication (TV-Ecoinform) and cartographic design (research and academic institutions have a long tradition in environmental cartography). However, the practical problems (e.g. publishing reports, maps, data in sufficient quality and quantity) are considerable.

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