1st Multistakeholder Partners Meeting on ecoMundus (15-16 May, 2006)

The ecoMundus initiative is a refocused effort, previously known as UNEP.Net, catalysed by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to implement a global partnership for environmental information and data exchange. 

The ecoMundus initiative is an integral part of a broader UNEP initiative called Environment Watch – a proposed coherent and multi-scaled system to keep the global environmental situation under review.  Environment Watch responds to the key consensus points that have emerged from almost three years of multistakeholder consultations on how to strengthen the scientific base of UNEP (see http://science.unep.org).  The proposal is now being further refined and developed through consultations and pilot activities as recommended by governments in the UNEP Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum.

Targetting international organisations (see participants list link below), this meeting explained current and planned activities, provided information on how to participate in the initiative and,  reported on progress relating to the development of standards and tools to support the exchange of information and data for both the bibliographic and geo-spatial sectors.

In addition,  participants provided concrete next steps on how they could collaborate in the initiative as well as input towards improved implementation of ecoMundus (see meeting report link below).