Part 3

Online Resources

Programmes and Resources for Environmental Education and Training

Introduction
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has developed
throughout the years many resources and tools which are useful for
environmental education and training. A great number of such
resources and tools have also been developed electronically and added
to many web sites around the world. Others are available in many
libraries world-wide including the UNEP Library in Nairobi, Kenya.
This exercise is aimed at facilitating the easy access to important
environmental information for education, training, capacity-building
and decision-making. By making such resources and tools available,
UNEP expects to see an increase in peoples understanding of
environmental issues and more informed decision-making at all levels
of society.
The resources and tools which follow are just a sample of the rich
diversity of materials UNEP, in collaboration with a number of
partners, have developed as a contribution to environmental
protection and to the improvement of peoples quality of life.

UNEP web site

(www.unep.org)
The official web site of the United Nations Environment Programme
provides background information on the work that UNEP has been
doing in the past 30 years. The information is divided according to
the UNEPs eight divisions and six regional
offices.
Information on a number of milestone and key
documents such as Agenda 21, the Malmo
Declaration and the Political Declaration from the
World Summit on Sustainable Development can
be found on this web site. The web site is also
content-based and thus environmental
information is presented according to a number
of focus areas which include Environmental
Assessment; Atmosphere; Chemicals; Marine &
Coastal Areas; Freshwater; Land; Bio-diversity;
Energy; Urban Issues; Sustainable
Consumption; Business & Industry; Governance
& Law; Civil Society and NGOs.

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The UNEP web site is also rich in links to its partners and provides an
extensive access to online environmental resources. These resources
are grouped according to different stakeholders such as
Governments; Scientists; Journalists; Children and Youth; Business
Persons and Civil Society.
To facilitate the exchange of information and to enable people and
nations to actively participate in the celebrations of environmental
days, this web site provides a detailed calendar on the main
environmental days, conferences and events taking place every year
world-wide.

UNEP Portal
(www.unep.net)
The UNEP.Net is global portal to authoritative environmental
information based on themes and regions. In this portal, information
on country profiles as well as on a number of themes can be found.
UNEP is fulfilling a part of its mandate by bringing together
environmental information and data providers and facilitating and
encouraging the exchange of information between
nations and peoples by using the most current
Internet technologies to serve the worlds
environment citizens. The exchange of information
takes place under the following themes: climate
change; freshwater; GEO data portal; mountains;
socio-economic; and urban environment.
UNEP.Net is a decentralized and distributed
system that allows the integrated applications to
query and generate reports from remote
environmental databases and servers. This
architecture enables the contributing publishers to
continue to upgrade their systems and update
their information holdings locally with benefits
being realized directly by the partnership.
In negotiating contributions with various partners, UNEP maintains
respect for intellectual property, but encourages its partners to
exchange and make their information and data available free of
charge. The site also hosts independent specialized solutions and
information/data on its publishers, developed to address specialized
environmental issues and concerns. The dynamic and integrated
applications can be accessed by specialized software and tool kits
provided through the site or directly through a Web browser.

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Programmes and Resources for Environmental Education and Training

UNEP Library
(www.unep.org)
The Library and Documentation Center was created in 1973. When
the Library first became operational, its collection comprised 1,000
books on environmental issues donated to the United Nations
Conference on the Human Environment (Stockholm, June 1972) by
publishers from around the world. Currently the library has over
20,000 publications and a cyber caf which provides Kenyans, UN
staff and visitors with free access to the Internet, journals and
information databases.
The Library has a mandate to develop and maintain a collection of
scientific and technical information on the global state of the
environment which will assist the staff of UNEP in analyzing trends,
assessing problems and promoting activities leading to
environmentally sound development. In addition, the UNEP Library
assists in the development and implementation of the United Nations
and UNEPs documentation and information policy. It also acts as
depository library for the United Nations and some of its specialized
agencies.
The services of the Library and Documentation Center include interlibrary loan, reference, query response emanating from UNEP and
elsewhere, preparing and disseminating documentary materials. An
acquisition list is produced regularly.
UN Optical Disc System, which has been operational since 1993,
stores the electronic copies of United Nations documents in the six
UN official languages. You can search for documents by keywords,
read them online and download them. More than 300,000
documents are stored, some of which date back to 1946 e.g.
resolutions of the General Assembly, the Security Council, and the
Economic and Social Council. Altogether, over three million pages
can be retrieved.

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Resources

Global Compact Resource Package

(www.unglobalcompact.org)
The Global Compact is a voluntary corporate
citizenship initiative which aim to mainstream the
nine principles in business activities around the
world and catalyse actions in support of UN goals.
To aid in the understanding and implementation of
the Global Compact and its principles, the Global
Compact Office, in partnership with its core UN
agencies, has developed The Global Compact
Resource Package.
This resource package includes an interactive
CD-ROM which is a tool to help organizations to
integrate the Global Compacts principles into
their daily operations. It covers the three main
areas of the Global Compact human rights,
labour, and the environment and includes
several sections, including presentations and case studies.
The CD-ROM is available for both PC and Mac. For more information
on this resource pack please email Global Compact at
globalcompact@un.org.

Youth for Sustainable Consumption Handbook

(www.unep.org/children_youth/homepage_files/youth/handbook.htm)
The handbook explores what sustainable consumption is, why it is
necessary and how one can consume and live sustainably. The
purpose of the survey distributed to youth in 24
countries was to open a dialogue with youth
and to understand what they know and think
about sustainable consumption and what they
foresee as their future.
Through using this handbook UNEP hopes that
the youth will gain a better understanding of how
our consumption patterns affect our environment
and why we should aim towards sustainable
consumption. In this regard, this handbook
explores three fundamental questions:

What is sustainable consumption?

Why is it necessary?
How can one live sustainably?

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Programmes and Resources for Environmental Education and Training

YouthXchange Training Kit on

Sustainable Consumption
(www.youthxchange.net)
YouthXchange (YXC) project explains how
lifestyle choices in more affluent countries and
the situation in developing regions of the world
are closely inter-related. Unless more
responsible consumption patterns are promoted
and adopted now, environmental and social
problems such as water will increase.
The output is a training kit composed of a
guide and an upcoming web site designed to
assist teachers, public authorities, youth groups,
NGOs, etc., in other words, the most important
players in delivering information on sustainable
consumption. The goal of the kit is to raise awareness of sustainable
consumption and to empower young people in adopting sustainable
choices in their daily lives.
The web site is an easy-to-use training resource that appeals to both
trainers and youth. Its friendly, multimedia approach strikes a chord
with the interests of young people and encourages them to network
towards sustainability.

Teaching for a Sustainable World

(www.deh.au/education/publications/tsw/)
This online version was originally published as a
book and distributed to educators working in
professional development and teacher
education. This online version has been
published to provide a wide range of people
access to the material. Additionally, the ability to
download the workshop modules onto a disk will
enable workshop facilitators to make changes to
or adapt the modules to suit the needs and
interests of their workshop participants.
This online course is divided into 26 modules
which were written by a team of environmental
education specialists drawn from many
countries, universities, government departments
and community organisations.

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To enable a better understanding of teaching and learning

approaches for environmental education processes, this course also
provides information and tips on educational methodologies as well
as activities for the development of workshop planning and facilitation
skills.

Environmental Education Network Publishing

Programme
(www.rolac.unep.mx/educamb/esp/catalogo.htm)
The publishing programme of the Environmental
Training Network for Latin America and the
Caribbean (ETN-LAC) was established in 1995.
It has produced over 30 publications, including
manuals, books, booklets and videos in four
different series: Environmental Education and
Training Manuals Series, Basic Texts for
Environmental Training Series, Latin American
Environmental Thought Series, Environmental
Fora and Debates Series.
The publishing programme of the ETN-LAC is
directed to elaborate, systematize and spread
knowledge, methods and techniques for
environmental management. This is done
trusting that this information will be used as
basic materials for environmental education and
training programmes, and as a support tool for
the regions sustainable development policies at different government
levels
These materials for environmental education and training programmes
aim to support training initiatives in the different social sectors at
professional levels, civil society, and community development
programmes. Most of these publications are in Spanish and can be
downloaded as .pdf files from the ETN-LACs web site.

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Programmes and Resources for Environmental Education and Training

UNEP-WCMC Interactive Maps Service

(IMAPS)
(www.unep-wcmc.org/reception/ims.htm)
Recognising the need for access to accurate and up-to-date
environmental sensitivity information, the United Nations Environment
Programme World Conservation Monitoring Center (UNEP-WCMC) is
continually developing a global repository of international habitat and
sensitivity data which can be quickly and easily interpreted twentyfour hours a day.

The layers of spatial information in this tool include:

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Species (cetaceans, corals, seagrasses, mangroves, turtles, birds);

Areas protected by national and international legislation;
Infrastructure (roads, hotels, airports, pipelines, oil spill equipment);
Background information (country boundaries, bathymetry, previous
tanker spills);
International Agreements (Ramsar Convention on Wetlands,
UNESCO Man; and
Biosphere Programme, EU Bird/Habitat Directive).

www.unep.org
United Nations Environment Programme
P.O. Box 30552, Nairobi, Kenya
Telephone: (254 20) 621234
Fax: (254 20) 623927
E-mail: cpiinfo@unep.org
www.unep.org