Country Information Sources

Country Information Sources

The following list of resources identifies links to websites which provide information organised by country. The list was last updated 8 November 2001.

•Text highlighted in green indicates links to information prepared by national agencies.

•Text highlighted in yellow indicates links to information drafted by other agencies (although information from national sources will have been used).

Information on initiatives which aim to harmonize reporting by national agencies, through greater integration and information sharing, plus links to information on reporting requirements can be found elsewhere on the UNEP-WCMC website.

We would welcome suggestions of further websites we should add.

International agreement reports and profiles

Convention on Biological Diversity	National reports submitted by Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in compliance with Article 26 of the Convention and related agreements
Convention on Wetlands	National reports submitted by Contracting Parties to the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance
Climate Change Convention	Access to National Communications required from Contracting Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, and to other information including in depth reviews of the national communications
Desertification Convention	National reports submitted by Contracting Parties to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification
Eurobats	National reports submitted by Parties to the Agreement on the Conservation of Bats in Europe (Convention on Migratory Species)

National State of Environment Reports

State of Environment Reporting Information System	This information system (SERIS) has been jointly developed by GRID Arendal, the European Environment Agency, and the Danish National Environmental Research Institute
ENRIN Programme	Under this UNEP programme GRID-Arendal supports production of user-friendly State of Environment reports on the Internet by countries in Central and Eastern Europe and the Newly Independent States
Links to SoE Reports	GRID-Arendal also provides links to all State of Environment reports that it knows to be available on line
State of Environment Reports	A UNEP page linking to on-line State of the Environment reports.

International programme reports and profiles

Caribbean Sustainable Development	National profiles prepared by the ECLAC/CDCC secretariat on the basis of questionnaires submitted by Governments, standardized to allow for country comparisons
Small Island Developing States	Country profiles covering fisheries and forestry in the Small Island Developing States, with further links to agricultural and trade data, as well as general country information (on the FAO web site)
Sustainable Development	UN System-Wide website on national implementation of the Rio Commitments - established to begin the process of streamlining access to and use of information gathered by the UN system in reviewing implementation of the Rio commitments
Earth Summit+5/Agenda 21	Country Profiles provided by national governments to the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development on implementation of Agenda 21 for Earth Summit + 5 in 1997
WSSD/Agenda 21	National Assessment Reports on Agenda 21 implementation submitted to the summit secretariat for the World Summit on Sustainable Development.

Development assistance sources

AusAID	Access to Country Information on those countries and regions in which AusAID plays an active role
CIDA	Regions and Countries section of the CIDA Virtual Library on International Developments
JICA	Access to Country Study Reports prepared for Japan's official development assistance, Japanese International Cooperation Agency
USAID	Regions and Countries section of the USAID web site, including country reports (within each regional section)
World Bank	Access to Countries and Regions information compiled by the World Bank information by country and region

Access to national sources

Directory of Biodiversity and Conservation Data Centres	Maintained by the Association for Biodiversity Information, an international network of national and subnational Natural Heritage Programs and Conservation Data Centres
EIONET Country Information Pages	Links to government and quasi-government bodies dealing with the environment within the member countries of the European Environment Agency's European Environment Information and Observation Network
National CHMs	Links to national "Clearing-House Mechanism" contacts and websites, established in the context of the Convention on Biological Diversity, and accessed through the Clearing-House Mechanism home page
Yahoo! - Government: Countries	Searchable access to web resources in most countries, and including a link to the web sites of national parliaments
European Nature Conservation Organizations by country	Made available by the European Centre for Nature Conservation

Sources with general information presented by country

Country Studies	An information service provided by the U.S. Library of Congress
UNEP.Net	Developing interface for integrated access to information managed by UNEP and its partners
The 2000 World Factbook	Compiled by the United States Central Intelligence Agency for briefing government officials
World Travel Guide	Compiled by Columbus Press, and comprising a comprehensive travel guide including health and safety issues

Specific categories of information by country

Earth Trends Portal	An "environmental information portal" compiled by the World Resources Institute a series of country information pages organized by sector or issue
Economic Surveys	Economic assessment of OECD member states
Environmental treaty accession	Managed as part of the IUCN/UNEP Joint Environmental Law Information Service, and also available as part of the CEISIN Environmental Treaties and Resource Indicators Project
FAO Statistics Database	On-line databases covering international statistics in the following areas: production, trade, food, fertilizer and pesticides, land use and irrigation, forest products, fishery products, population and agricultural machinery
Forestry Profiles by Country	Information supplied by the FAO on the state of forests throughout the world
Species Conservation Dtabase - Animals	The UNEP-WCMC Species Conservation Database holds information on threatened species and others of conservation concern. Part of this database is common to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals
Threatened Plants Database	The UNEP-WCMC Threatened Plants Database of plants, used in developing the 1997 IUCN Red List of globally threatened plant species
UN List of Protected Areas	The definitive list of the world's protected areas maintained by the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas and WCMC, published in 1997
UNESCO Statistics	Statistical data on education, science, culture and communication, including the UNESCO Statistical Yearbook 1998
World Resources 2000-2001	Query the data tables in this and the previous edition of the World Resources Report compiled by the World Resources Institute

Other sites with information on selected countries

MBendi Information for Africa	Business information
US Department of State	Background information on countries of the world compiled by the US State Department

For further information please contact:

Jeremy Harrison
UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre
219 Huntingdon Road, Cambridge CB3 0DL, UK
Tel: +44 1223 277314 Fax: +44 1223 277136
Email: jerry.harrison@unep-wcmc.org