Part 3Online Resources

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has developedthroughout the years many resources and tools which are useful forenvironmental education and training. A great number of suchresources and tools have also been developed electronically and addedto many web sites around the world. Others are available in manylibraries world-wide including the UNEP Library in Nairobi, Kenya.

This exercise is aimed at facilitating the easy access to importantenvironmental information for education, training, capacity-buildingand decision-making. By making such resources and tools available,UNEP expects to see an increase in people’s understanding ofenvironmental issues and more informed decision-making at all levelsof society.

The resources and tools which follow are just a sample of the richdiversity of materials UNEP, in collaboration with a number ofpartners, have developed as a contribution to environmentalprotection and to the improvement of people’s quality of life.

UNEP web site(www.unep.org)

The official web site of the United Nations Environment Programmeprovides background information on the work that UNEP has beendoing in the past 30 years. The information is divided according to

the UNEP’s eight divisions and six regionaloffices.

Information on a number of milestone and keydocuments such as Agenda 21, the MalmoDeclaration and the Political Declaration from theWorld Summit on Sustainable Development canbe found on this web site. The web site is alsocontent-based and thus environmentalinformation is presented according to a numberof focus areas which include EnvironmentalAssessment; Atmosphere; Chemicals; Marine &Coastal Areas; Freshwater; Land; Bio-diversity;Energy; Urban Issues; SustainableConsumption; Business & Industry; Governance& Law; Civil Society and NGOs.

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Programmes and Resources for Environmental Education and Training

Introduction

The UNEP web site is also rich in links to its partners and provides anextensive access to online environmental resources. These resourcesare grouped according to different stakeholders such asGovernments; Scientists; Journalists; Children and Youth; BusinessPersons and Civil Society.

To facilitate the exchange of information and to enable people andnations to actively participate in the celebrations of environmentaldays, this web site provides a detailed calendar on the mainenvironmental days, conferences and events taking place every yearworld-wide.

UNEP Portal(www.unep.net)

The UNEP.Net is global portal to authoritative environmentalinformation based on themes and regions. In this portal, informationon country profiles as well as on a number of themes can be found.UNEP is fulfilling a part of its mandate by bringing togetherenvironmental information and data providers and facilitating andencouraging the exchange of information betweennations and peoples by using the most currentInternet technologies to serve the world’senvironment citizens. The exchange of informationtakes place under the following themes: climatechange; freshwater; GEO data portal; mountains;socio-economic; and urban environment.

UNEP.Net is a decentralized and distributedsystem that allows the integrated applications toquery and generate reports from remoteenvironmental databases and servers. Thisarchitecture enables the contributing publishers tocontinue to upgrade their systems and updatetheir information holdings locally with benefitsbeing realized directly by the partnership.

In negotiating contributions with various partners, UNEP maintainsrespect for intellectual property, but encourages its partners toexchange and make their information and data available free ofcharge. The site also hosts independent specialized solutions andinformation/data on its publishers, developed to address specializedenvironmental issues and concerns. The dynamic and integratedapplications can be accessed by specialized software and tool kitsprovided through the site or directly through a Web browser.

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Resources

UNEP Library(www.unep.org)

The Library and Documentation Center was created in 1973. Whenthe Library first became operational, its collection comprised 1,000books on environmental issues donated to the United NationsConference on the Human Environment (Stockholm, June 1972) bypublishers from around the world. Currently the library has over20,000 publications and a cyber café which provides Kenyans, UNstaff and visitors with free access to the Internet, journals andinformation databases.

The Library has a mandate to develop and maintain a collection ofscientific and technical information on the global state of theenvironment which will assist the staff of UNEP in analyzing trends,assessing problems and promoting activities leading toenvironmentally sound development. In addition, the UNEP Libraryassists in the development and implementation of the United Nationsand UNEP’s documentation and information policy. It also acts asdepository library for the United Nations and some of its specializedagencies.

The services of the Library and Documentation Center include inter-library loan, reference, query response emanating from UNEP andelsewhere, preparing and disseminating documentary materials. Anacquisition list is produced regularly.

UN Optical Disc System, which has been operational since 1993,stores the electronic copies of United Nations documents in the sixUN official languages. You can search for documents by keywords,read them online and download them. More than 300,000documents are stored, some of which date back to 1946 – e.g.resolutions of the General Assembly, the Security Council, and theEconomic and Social Council. Altogether, over three million pagescan be retrieved.

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Programmes and Resources for Environmental Education and Training

Global Compact Resource Package(www.unglobalcompact.org)

The Global Compact is a voluntary corporatecitizenship initiative which aim to mainstream thenine principles in business activities around theworld and catalyse actions in support of UN goals.To aid in the understanding and implementation ofthe Global Compact and its principles, the GlobalCompact Office, in partnership with its core UNagencies, has developed ‘The Global CompactResource Package’.

This resource package includes an interactiveCD-ROM which is a tool to help organizations tointegrate the Global Compact’s principles intotheir daily operations. It covers the three mainareas of the Global Compact – human rights,labour, and the environment – and includesseveral sections, including presentations and case studies.

The CD-ROM is available for both PC and Mac. For more informationon this resource pack please email Global Compact atglobalcompact@un.org.

Youth for Sustainable Consumption Handbook(www.unep.org/children_youth/homepage_files/youth/handbook.htm)

The handbook explores what sustainable consumption is, why it isnecessary and how one can consume and live sustainably. Thepurpose of the survey distributed to youth in 24countries was to open a dialogue with youthand to understand what they know and thinkabout sustainable consumption and what theyforesee as their future.

Through using this handbook UNEP hopes thatthe youth will gain a better understanding of howour consumption patterns affect our environmentand why we should aim towards sustainableconsumption. In this regard, this handbookexplores three fundamental questions:

■ What is sustainable consumption?■ Why is it necessary?■ How can one live sustainably?

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Resources

YouthXchange Training Kit onSustainable Consumption(www.youthxchange.net)

YouthXchange (YXC) project explains howlifestyle choices in more affluent countries andthe situation in developing regions of the worldare closely inter-related. Unless moreresponsible consumption patterns are promotedand adopted now, environmental and socialproblems such as water will increase.

The output is a training kit – composed of aguide and an upcoming web site – designed toassist teachers, public authorities, youth groups,NGOs, etc., in other words, the most importantplayers in delivering information on sustainable

consumption. The goal of the kit is to raise awareness of sustainableconsumption and to empower young people in adopting sustainablechoices in their daily lives.

The web site is an easy-to-use training resource that appeals to bothtrainers and youth. Its friendly, multimedia approach strikes a chordwith the interests of young people and encourages them to networktowards sustainability.

Teaching for a Sustainable World(www.deh.au/education/publications/tsw/)

This online version was originally published as abook and distributed to educators working inprofessional development and teachereducation. This online version has beenpublished to provide a wide range of peopleaccess to the material. Additionally, the ability todownload the workshop modules onto a disk willenable workshop facilitators to make changes toor adapt the modules to suit the needs andinterests of their workshop participants.

This online course is divided into 26 moduleswhich were written by a team of environmentaleducation specialists drawn from manycountries, universities, government departmentsand community organisations.

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Programmes and Resources for Environmental Education and Training

To enable a better understanding of teaching and learningapproaches for environmental education processes, this course alsoprovides information and tips on educational methodologies as wellas activities for the development of workshop planning and facilitationskills.

Environmental Education Network PublishingProgramme(www.rolac.unep.mx/educamb/esp/catalogo.htm)

The publishing programme of the EnvironmentalTraining Network for Latin America and theCaribbean (ETN-LAC) was established in 1995.It has produced over 30 publications, includingmanuals, books, booklets and videos in fourdifferent series: Environmental Education andTraining Manuals Series, Basic Texts forEnvironmental Training Series, Latin AmericanEnvironmental Thought Series, EnvironmentalFora and Debates Series.

The publishing programme of the ETN-LAC isdirected to elaborate, systematize and spreadknowledge, methods and techniques forenvironmental management. This is donetrusting that this information will be used asbasic materials for environmental education andtraining programmes, and as a support tool forthe region’s sustainable development policies at different governmentlevels

These materials for environmental education and training programmesaim to support training initiatives in the different social sectors atprofessional levels, civil society, and community developmentprogrammes. Most of these publications are in Spanish and can bedownloaded as .pdf files from the ETN-LAC’s web site.

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Resources

UNEP-WCMC Interactive Maps Service(IMAPS)(www.unep-wcmc.org/reception/ims.htm)

Recognising the need for access to accurate and up-to-dateenvironmental sensitivity information, the United Nations EnvironmentProgramme World Conservation Monitoring Center (UNEP-WCMC) iscontinually developing a global repository of international habitat andsensitivity data which can be quickly and easily interpreted twenty-four hours a day.

The layers of spatial information in this tool include:

■ Species (cetaceans, corals, seagrasses, mangroves, turtles, birds);■ Areas protected by national and international legislation;■ Infrastructure (roads, hotels, airports, pipelines, oil spill equipment);■ Background information (country boundaries, bathymetry, previous

tanker spills);■ International Agreements (Ramsar Convention on Wetlands,

UNESCO Man; and■ Biosphere Programme, EU Bird/Habitat Directive).

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www.unep.orgUnited Nations Environment Programme

P.O. Box 30552, Nairobi, KenyaTelephone: (254 20) 621234

Fax: (254 20) 623927E-mail: cpiinfo@unep.org

www.unep.org