30 December 2009: The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) has extended the Online Access to Research in the Environment (OARE) project to Yemen, with a view to transferring scientific knowledge that may contribute to fighting climate change, food crises and water scarcity.
UNEP, the World Health Organization (WHO), Yemen’s Environmental Protection Authority and the Ministry of Water and Environment trained 30 Yemeni researchers, scientists, planners and lecturers in the use of OARE to support the country as it faces increasing environmental challenges due to climate change. Similar training activities were organized in November 2009, in Amman, Jordan, for 35 Jordanian and Iraqi participants, and will be held in Tunisia, Morocco and Afghanistan in early 2010. The OARE project started in 2007, when UNEP, in partnership with the WHO, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Yale and Cornell Universities, international publishers and private sector groups built one of the largest electronic collections of scientific knowledge in environmental and related areas.[UN Press Release]