The side event, held on the opening day of the second meeting of the Parties to the Aarhus Convention, highlighted how capacity-building partners are promoting access to information under the Aarhus Convention using state-of-the-art information technologies.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
At their first meeting, the Parties to the Aarhus Convention recognized the need to develop more effective means of providing public access to environmental information and actively disseminating it to the public. They established a task force on electronic information tools under the authority of the Working Group of the Parties with a mandate to facilitate the implementation of the Convention through the preparation of recommendations on electronic information tools. These recommendations are incorporated in draft decision II/3 on electronic information tools and the clearing-house mechanism, which are on the agenda of the second meeting of the Parties (25-27 May 2005) for consideration and adoption.
The event featured presentations on the relevance and employment of electronic tools to meet obligations under the Convention and PRTR Protocol.
Speakers
Ms Svetlana Zhekova, Chairperson, UNECE Task Force on Electronic Information Tools and First Secretary for Environment, <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><?xml:namespace prefix = u1 />Mission of Bulgaria to the European Communities
Ms Tatiana Terekhova, Administrator, PRTR 'Virtual Classroom', United Nations Institute for Training and Research
Ms Lydia Astanina, ‘Greenwomen’ Kazakhstan / European ECO Forum
Mr Valentin Yemelin, Program Manager, Capacity Building, UNEP / GRID-Arendal
Mr Roman Baranov, Chief specialist, Pskov Environmental Information Center
Mr Christopher Jarvis, Freedom of Information Policy Manager, Environment Agency of England and Wales
Ms Magda Toth Nagy, Head of the Public Participation Programme, Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe
Mr Michael Stanley-Jones, Environmental Information Management Officer, Aarhus Convention Secretariat, Environment and Human Settlements Division, UNECE
Programme
1. Chairperson's Introduction: The Recommendations on the more effective use of electronic tools to provide public access to environmental information (http://www.unece.org/env/documents/2005/pp/ece/ece.mp.pp.2005.7.e.pdf)
2. The PRTR Virtual Classroom and Russian language discussion forum (UNITAR / European ECO Forum) (http://prtrvc.unitar.org)
3. What’s In Your Backyard: Applicability of local environmental information systems in EECCA region - Pskov pilot project (UNEP/GRID-Arendal)
4. UK electronic public registers (Environment Agency of England and Wales)
http://www2.environment-agency.gov.uk/epr/search.asp
5. Capacity building for establishing PRTRs and using electronic tools
for access to information in new EU and accession countries (REC) (http://www.rec.org)
6. The Aarhus Clearinghouse for Environmental Democracy (presented by the secretariat in plenary) (http://aarhusclearinghouse.unece.org)
Organizers
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE)
United Kingdom Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) / Environment Agency of England and Wales
UNEP / GRID-Arendal
