The UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Sub-regional Workshop "Capacity-building for the Aarhus Clearinghouse Mechanism and Electronic Information Tools" was held at the Regional Environmental Centre for Central Asia (CAREC), in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on 11-12 June 2007. The Workshop reviewed implementation of recommendations promoting access to environmental information over the Internet. The recommendations were adopted at the second Meeting of the Parties to the Aarhus Convention, in Almaty, in May 2005.
"Two years following adoption of decision II/3 on electronic information tools and the clearinghouse mechanism, it seemed appropriate to return to Almaty to stage this workshop," said Michael Stanley-Jones, UNECE's Environmental Information Management Officer. "The workshop also provided us with our first opportunity to test the recent upgrades to the design of the Clearinghouse with focus group of experts and users." A new phase in the devleopment of the Aarhus Clearinghouse was formally launched by the UNECE.on 21 May 2007, in Geneva.
The workshop, which brought together twenty-three IT and environmental information experts from 10 countries in the region, aimed to increase participation in the Convention's Clearinghouse Mechanism and advance public access to environmental information.
Governments are invited to establish national node web portals within the Aarhus Clearinghouse Mechanism. Nongovernmental and other stakeholder organizations are also invited to participate as "information nodes" of the Clearnghouse. Many EECCA-based NGOs publish extensive information on the implementation of the Convention in their region.
The Aarhus Clearinghouse for Environmental Democracy promotes the exchange of information on the treaty's implementation and on progress on principle 10 of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development globally.
The Clearinghouse was developed by the UNECE Aarhus Convention secretariat in Geneva through a joint project with UNEP/GRID-Arendal (Norway). More than 15 countries have created national web portals containing information on the Aarhus Convention since the launch of the Clearinghouse Mechanism in July 2004.
[An earlier version of the above feature appeared in the Clearinghouse on 7 June 2007]
