17 September 2015: The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) launched the Law and Environmental Ontology Portal (LEO) at the 6th Multilateral Environment Agreement Information and Knowledge Management (MEA IKM) Initiative Steering Committee Meeting, held from 15-17 September 2015, in Montreux, Switzerland. Funded by the European Union, LEO provides an overview of relationships between multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs), as well as concepts, definitions and synonyms found in these conventions.

LEO is open to everyone, but aims to support the work of researchers, government policy makers, members of the judiciary and environmental journalists. It draws on the tools of Ecolex, Faolex and InforMEA, a project of the MEA IKM Initiative, which together cover more than 2,000 global, regional and bilateral environmental conventions, and some 10,000 decisions of their governing bodies. LEO is complimented by InforMEA’s e-learning tool, which provides open access courses that support users in the development of a comprehensive understanding of MEAs.

LEO is meant to evolve and improve over time through the harmonization of terminology and uniform vocabulary standards used by MEAs. Partners involved in developing and maintaining content include UN organizations, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the European Environmental Agency (EEA), the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), the Legal Response Initiative (LRI) and the UNEP-World Conservation Monitoring Center (UNEP-WCMC) as well as other specialized agencies. [LEO Website] [InforMEA E-learning Website] [InforMEA Website] [UNEP Press Release]