24 May 2012: The Information Portal on Multilateral Environmental Agreements (InforMEA), which was launched in 2011, has expanded its platform to include new tools as well as new members.

The new members include the four UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Conventions and the Regional Seas Programme. The European Environment Agency (EEA) joined as an observer.

The expansion of membership was agreed at InforMEA’s third annual meeting, held from 22-24 May 2012, in Montreux, Switzerland. Participants also discussed the development of a Virtual College on MEAs, a Single Information Portal on Trade and Environment, a facility to analyse national reports, the development of a Thesaurus on Environmental Law and Conventions, and extensions of the open application programming interface (API) enabling InforMEA to exchange information with its participating MEAs.

Supported by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), InforMEA aims to assist MEAs’ Parties and the environment community at large to access MEA-related information from one central location. The portal provides information on MEAs’ decisions and resolutions, news, calendars of events, lists of Parties, national focal points and national reports and strategies. It currently includes 40 global and regional agreements from 14 Secretariats hosted by four UN agencies and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). InforMEA also integrates literature, national legislation and case law included in Ecolex – the Gateway to Environmental Law, managed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), IUCN and UNEP. [CITES News] [InforMEA website]