Following up on the Eye on Earth Summit, a newsletter was launched, under the patronage of the President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
The sixth issue highlights: the Eye on Earth Summit Declaration to the Rio+20 preparatory meeting; the eight special initiatives adopted at the Eye on Earth Summit; and contributions on green accounting.
May 2012: The sixth issue of “View,” the Eye on Earth (EoE) Newsletter, highlights: the EoE Summit Declaration that will provide input to the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD, or Rio+20); the eight special initiatives adopted at the EoE Summit; and contributions on green accounting.
Following up on the Summit, which was held in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE), from 12-15 December 2011, the “View” newsletter was launched under the patronage of the His Highness Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of UAE. The sixth issue highlights the Declaration’s focus on the steps required to ensure that environmental data and information become easily accessible to all those who need it. It also calls on States to develop the legislative tools to fully implement Principle 10 of the 1992 Rio Declaration on Environment and Development. The Summit Declaration was signed by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the Ministry of Environment and Water of the UAE and the Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi (EAD). It was submitted to the 2nd Intercessional Meeting of the UNCSD, which met from 23 April – 4 May 2012, in New York, US.
The newsletter also describes the eight initiatives adopted at the Summit, namely: eye on water security; eye on biodiversity; eye on oceans and blue carbon; eye on global network of networks; eye on disaster management; eye on community sustainability and resiliency; eye on environmental education; and eye on access for all. Eye on biodiversity, for example, aims to increase the understanding of what makes ecosystems resilient by harnessing existing datasets, creating new data where there are major gaps, and bringing this together in ways that are useful to decision makers.
On green accountability, this issue of “View” highlights the call of John Scanlon, Secretary-General of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), for indicators to measure the impact of taking species from the wild, to regulate their sustainable use, and to understand how species keep ecosystems healthy. [Publication: Eye on Earth View, Issue 6]