GRID-Arendal: 30 Years of Making a Difference

Year 2000 was our first operational year as UNEP’s key Polar Centre. This new task has provided GRID-Arendal with improved scope for serving our Arctic mission. A visible result of this is a much higher interest from international media for information from GRID- Arendal on information related to the Polar environment. GRID-Arendal focused its expertise in support of international environmental conventions. A CD-ROM/web site featuring the IPCC Special Reports on Climate Change , was produced and released at COP 6 of the UNFCCC in The Hague, in November. A collection of 22 national state-of-biodiversity reports, Biodiversity in Central and Eastern Europe , was produced by GRID-Arendal in collaboration with its network of experts in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia for the Conference of Parties (COP) of the Convention on Biological Diversity. GRID-Arendal conducted training at the regional workshops on the implementation of the Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making, and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters in Ashgabat and Tbilisi. A project on health and development of the indigenous peoples in the Arctic was developed by GRID-Arendal in co-operation with the World Health organization (WHO) to develop an overview of health and environment issues in the region. An assessment of national and sub-national health practices with special focus implications for indigenous peoples was carried out in Russia and Scandinavia.

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