Africa Environment Information Network Stakeholders Meeting
INECE participated in the United Nations Environment Programme's (UNEP) Africa Environment Information Network Stakeholders Meeting in Pretoria, South Africa, on February 24-26, 2003. EPC Co-chair Charles Sebukeera was one of the principal organizers of the event. Salim Ebrahim, who assisted INECE with activities at the World Summit on Sustainable Development, attended the stakeholders meeting on behalf of INECE. Mr. Ebrahim formerly served as Director to the Gauteng Province Directorate of Environment in South Africa.

UNEP Releases African Environment Outlook
On July 4, 2002, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) released the Africa Environmental Outlook publication, a report which has been described as the most comprehensive and authoritative assessment of the Continent's environment ever produced.

Klaus Toepfer, Executive Director of UNEP, said at the launch in Kampala, Uganda: "This pioneering assessment on the state of Africa's environment will be invaluable for governments on the Continent and across the world in prioritizing efforts to achieve a new dawn for these lands. It will also be a vital report for nations meeting at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) which opens at the end of August in Johannesburg" (quoted from a press release published by UNEP.) The publication was recently approved by the African Ministers of the Environment, and will be used as a method to measure success of Africa's efforts towards achieving sustainable development.

Charles Sebukeera, Regional Coordinator for Africa of UNEP's Division of Early Warning and Assessment and Co-Chair of the INECE Executive Planning Committee, is currently developing a Regional Environmental Information Network, with Web portals for each country, that will be comprised of eight thematic areas (Atmosphere, Biodiversity, Coastal and Marine Environments, Forests, Freshwater, Land, and Urban Areas) corresponding to those outlined in the African Environmental Outlook. He also plans to begin a project to define a set of indicators to provide early warnings of environmental stress affecting these same eight themes. Sebukeera hopes to integrate an enforcement and compliance element into the environmental stress indicators.

The African Environment Outlook is available at http://www.unep.org/aeo or at Earthprint (USD $37.50).