Programme Cooperation Agreement 2010 – 2011

ing the Chair of the IPCC, called on COP 17 delegates and global development partners to take more concerted and long-term action to save vital mountain ecosystems from the impacts of climate change. In 2011, GRID-Arendal partnered with the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) to produce an RRA publication to highlight the crucial role played by ecological networks in protecting the world’s migratory species in the air, on land, and at sea. Living Planet: Connected Planet – Prevent- ing the End of the World’s Wildlife Migration Through Eco- logical Networks 49 was launched at the 10 th Conference of Parties to CMS in Bergen, Norway in November 2011. The report played a pivotal role in supporting the formulation of CMS policy during the COP, specifically in relation to the passage of Resolution 10.3 on Ecological Networks, 50 as the quote below by the Executive Secretary of CMS, Ms Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, testifies: “ ...despite an extremely tight deadline you managed to produce a true milestone publication, which is already supporting CMS policy just as we had envisaged...

amendments that arose...only served to strengthen this Resolution, which is not least the result of this Rapid Response Assessment.” (Letter of 29 November 2011 addressed to Peter Prokosch) Maps of migratory routes included in the report (Figure 2) reveal that they criss-cross the world in all directions, with the species concerned confronting a multitude of threats along the way. The report highlights the urgent need to protect the re- maining tidal flats of the Yellow Sea, an important stag- ing area en-route to the Arctic for migratory birds along the East Asian-Australasian flyway. Following release of the report, a Working Group comprised of Birdlife Inter- national, Wetlands International, IUCN, GRID-Arendal, Ramsar and RSPB was established to recommend an ef- fective plan of action.

49. http://www.grida.no/publications/rr/living%2Dplanet/ 50. http://www.cms.int/bodies/COP/cop10/resolutions_adopt- ed/10_03_eco_networks_e.pdf

9 Environmental assessments and information

9.1 Africa Through UNEP’s Africa Environment Information Net- work (AEIN) GRID-Arendal’s activities in Africa have continued to focus on strengthened networking and data management and improved institutional capacity for en- vironmental assessment and reporting to support deci- sion-making. Over the two years 11 African countries were assisted through one-on-one or group capacity develop- ment processes. Ethiopia is the most recent country to be linked in and, because of its enhanced infrastructure for environmental data management and assessment, the government has commenced production of a com- prehensive environment outlook report for the country. As part of on-going efforts to strengthen environmental decision-making in Africa and mobilise additional sup- port and funding, a major strategic initiative by GRID- Arendal and UNEP to refocus and expand the AEIN is being prepared. The Africa Environment Outlook (AEO) series coordinated by UNEP is the key information-based decision support tool for the African Ministerial Conference on the Environ-

ment (AMCEN). An author’s manual produced with sup- port from GRID-Arendal was used in 2011 to train authors drafting Part II of the third AEO report (AEO-3) on health and environment linkages. With GRID-Arendal playing the coordinating lead author’s role for Part II of the report, a zero draft manuscript was compiled by the close of 2011. The report is set for finalisation and launch by September 2012. GRID-Arendal also contributed to the Africa Policy Chapter of UNEP’s flagship report, the fifth Global Envi- ronment Outlook (GEO 5) scheduled for launch right be- fore Rio+20 in June 2012. i The 2009 Uganda Atlas of Our Changing Environ- ment , produced in collaboration with the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) and UNEP, continues to generate positive outcomes. These include the application of the atlas methodology in envi- ronmental sensitivity atlases , of which three volumes have been published to guide the oil exploration and extrac- tion operations in the Albertine Valley. 51 There is growing

51. http://www.nemaug.org/atlas/Sensitivity_Atlas_2009_May.pdf; http://www.nemaug.org/sensitivity_atlas.php

27