Aarhus Clearinghouse Progress Report Michael Stanley-Jones Environmental Information Management Officer Aarhus Convention Secretariat Sixth Meeting of the Working Group of the Parties 5-7 April 2006

Clearinghouse’s Renewed Mandate DECISION II/3 On Electronic Information Tools and the Clearing-house Mechanism adopted in Almaty at Second Meeting of the Parties (May 2005) “Welcoming … the establishment of a clearing- house mechanism and the launch of the UNECE Aarhus Clearinghouse for Environmental Democracy”

In Almaty, the Meeting of the Parties… 2. Invites Parties, Signatories and other interested States to develop a national node of the clearing-house mechanism with legal and practical information on issues related to the Convention at national level, linked to the UNECE Aarhus Clearinghouse for Environmental Democracy, and invites other stakeholders to submit relevant information to the clearing house; …

AARHUS CLEARINGHOUSE: CENTRAL NODE National nodes of the Clearinghouse NATIONAL NODE NATIONAL WEB SITE AARHUS CLEARINGHOUSE: CENTRAL NODE NGO IGO ACADEMIC

Aarhus CH national nodes have so far been designated “ 19 ” Aarhus CH national nodes have so far been designated

The Resource Directory holds 830 separate entries The Resource Directory holds 830 separate entries. Each entry is ‘tagged’ with one or more thematic attribute: Access to Information 566 Public participation 385 Electronic Tools 249 Access to Justice 199 PRTRs 186 Strategic Decision-making 128 Convention Compliance 127 GMOs 86

Resources entries by activity: Research 414 Legislation 337  Projects 296  Policy 227  Procedures 201 

Source of entries by organizational type: NGOs 410 IGOs 258 Government 195 Academia 82

Leaders among Parties and Signatories 1. United Kingdom + — 69 2. European Community + — 34 3. Armenia + — 22 4. Kazakhstan + — 21 5. Georgia + — 20 6. Kyrgyzstan +/ — 19 7. Azerbaijan — 17 8. Germany + — 14 9. Ukraine + — 11 10. Ireland + — 10 11-14. Belarus +, Denmark, Italy +, CH — 9 * 15-17. Bulgaria +, R Moldova +, Tajikistan + — 8 * 18-20. Czech Rep, Finland, Norway — 7 * 21-24. Belg.+, Estonia +, FYRM +, Romania — 6 * 25-27. France, Latvia, Spain + — 5 * All others (19 States) — 41 * __________________________________________________ * entries each + designated Aarhus website / not operational

Visits Total Visits 2006 (Q1) 121,988 2005 (Q4) 69,322 21 month total 387,465

Traffic more than doubled in 2006 65.000 31,000 26,000 January February March

Next Steps … Ongoing outreach with resource providers Fresh News features Engage intern to build resource database Upgrade web calendar of principle 10 related events National node capacity building workshops Draft guidance for national nodes Integration of capacity-building information

E-mail: aarhus.clearinghouse@unece.org http://aarhusclearinghouse.unece.org E-mail: aarhus.clearinghouse@unece.org