On 5 June four UN agencies, in collaboration with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and other key partners, concluded a week of meetings to promote new tools and better access to information to assist Parties to more effectively implement obligations under 18 Multilateral Environment Agreements (MEA).

The Multilateral Environment Agreements and Knowledge Management (MEA IKM) Initiative seeks to develop harmonised and interoperable information systems in support of knowledge management activities among 18 MEAs for the benefit of Parties and the environment community at large.

"Collaboration in the implementation of our respective mandates towards concrete results is crucial in overcoming the challenge of institutional fragmentation in the field of international environmental law" noted Ms. Mrema, who assumed her function as Director of the UNEP Division of Environmental Law and Conventions last week.

"The MEA Information and Knowledge Management Initiative is a creative way of enhancing environmental governance and giving expression to one coherent body of international environmental law. MEA Secretariats are collaborating with the Secretariats of UNEP and other organizations to develop innovative information and knowledge tools to better support decision making and implementation. Such initiatives are welcomed by CITES." said John E. Scanlon Secretary-General of CITES and co-chair of the Steering Committee.

The Steering Committee of the MEA IKM Initiative met for the fifth time to discuss key knowledge management issues, such as easier-to-use joint on-line reporting tools for MEA Parties, the development of a thesaurus on Environmental Law and Conventions and the translation of InforMEA tools into different languages. The MEA IKM initiative, which was inspired by the renewed emphasis the United Nations is placing on information and communication tools, is one of the largest sustainable development knowledge management projects in the UN system.

For further information please visit the InforMEA website www.informea.org and the InforMEA facebook page https://www.facebook.com/informea.org

Or contact: eva.duer@unep.org or marcos.silva@cites.org