Gateway to World of Environmental Law Now Online

Environment News Service, USA
http://www.ens-newswire.com
December 8, 2003

ROME, Italy, December 8, 2003 (ENS) - The world’s largest environmental law database, ECOLEX, is now available online at: http://www.ecolex.org.

With more than 100,000 legal references, ECOLEX is intended as an essential resource for developing the necessary tools to promote environmental management and build capacity worldwide.

The new database was developed by combining the legal libraries of three organizations - the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and IUCN–The World Conservation Union, the world’s largest conservation organization.

The need for such a service became apparent in the constantly growing number and variety of requests to these three organizations for data, and for help in locating information on specific environmental law topics.

The information in the system covers treaties, national legislation, soft law and other non-binding policy and technical guidance documents, judicial decisions, and law and policy literature.

One of the unique aspects of the database is the inclusion of legal references from developing countries. Currently, more than 120 developing countries have provided input to ECOLEX.

Ensuring adequate information coverage from developing countries will remain an important goal for the ECOLEX partner organizations.

Over the past 30 years, environmental law become a recognized legal discipline, and a major tool for the achievement of environment and natural resource management, in the context of sustainable development.

Ever since the 1972 Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment there has been a rapid growth in the number of Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) negotiated by governments such as the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Convention on Biodiversity, and the Stockholm Convention on Persistant Organic Pollutants.

Users of ECOLEX can now examine any one of 450 Multilateral Environmental Agreements and see which governments have signed or ratified that particular agreement. Conversely, it is also possible to see all the MEAs signed or ratified by any one government.

The ECOLEX partners are committed to the further development and enhancement of the gateway in order to respond to the ever increasing demand for information about environmental law from a wide user base ranging from decision makers, policy advisors and lawyers to nongovernmental organizations, advocacy groups, students, and the general public.

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/dec2003/2003-12-08-19.asp#anchor7

Current Developments

Environment