"to provide leadership and encourage partnership in caring for the environment by inspiring, informing and enabling nations and peoples to improve their quality of life without compromising that of future generations."

Twenty years later, Agenda 21, was adopted at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Agenda 21 highlighted two of the needs in implementing the UNEP mandate as:

• The provision of access to reliable environmental information; and
• Increasing the capacity of governments to use such information and as a basis for environmental decision making and management.

These needs are being addressed under UNEP's Environmental Assessment Programme, of which the Global Resource Information Database (GRID) network forms an integral part. GRID is a global network of co-operating centres, which facilitate access to environmental information. Activities include data collation, distribution, processing, cataloguing, presentation and dissemination through the use of remote sensing, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), data management systems, Internet, WWW and telecommunications technologies. End users comprise UN organisations, government and regional agencies, policy makers, scientific institutions, local managers and the general public. Key features of these activities include:

• Initiatives to promote the use of environmental information products in the design and formulation of policy, guidelines, management procedures and decision making processes, rather than their development as stand-alone products.
• The implementation of a bottom-up approach to the design, management and use of data management systems, through stakeholder involvement.
• Design of information management systems and procedures that take account of organisational and policy issues (eg roles and responsibilities of data contributors, data ownership, access, charging mechanisms etc) as well as technical requirements.
• Design of systems and products that bridge the gap between scientists and end users, through conversion of data into accessible and user friendly information products.
• Design of technical data management systems appropriate to users needs, resources, technologies and expertise; and
• Capacity building and training in the use of information management systems and procedures.

General Information about the UN and UNEP:

• The UN
• UNEP
• The Environmental Information Networking Unit (EIN)
• GRID Centres