Background to the Cities State of the Environment Report

In 1998, the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) and GRID-Arendal embarked on separate but related projects, focused on environmental information collected at the local level. ICLEI's Cities21® project is intended to engage ICLEI Members and their local communities in evaluating their local environmental strategies and performance.

UNEP/GRID-Arendal's City State of Environment on the Internet (CSoEI) project is a research project within the framework of Agenda 21/Local Agenda 21 to facilitate access to environmental information for sound decision making and general awareness raising in Cities for sustainable development. The objective is to develop a concept for simple and easily understood Cities' State of the Environment Reports on the Internet.

The purpose and objectives of the two related projects are complementary. By working together and sharing the joint knowledge and expertise it is believed that the local partners can benefit more extensively.

25-30 Pilot Cities will be selected for participation in UNEP/GRID-Arendal's Cities SoEI and the ICLEI's Cities21®, and will be encouraged to work closely with the program to assist in its formation to spearhead the development of a product intended to be used by cities world wide. Some of the other Pilot Cities include Moscow (Russia), Tromso (Norway), Christainsand (Norway) and Shanghai (China).

The City state of the Environment on Internet project (CsoEI) is part of South Africa's Local Agenda 21 Program. A sustainable local environmental policy requires knowledge and easily accessible environmental information for administrators, decision makers and citizens. The CsoEI project will facilitate the electronic dissemination of information on the current state of the environment in South Africa's cities, human induced environmental impacts and management responses geared towards achieving greater sustainability.

The South African pilot cities involved in the City state of Environment Program are Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban and Cape Town.

What is a State of the Environment Report?

It typically focuses on:

Environmental priorities in the region or country;
Using indicators to describe and predict environmental quality;
Comparisons of environmental quality with other countries;
Making information available to a wide audience;
Identification of gaps and research priorities;
Providing links to further information

A SoER contains the following information:

The current state of the environment;
Trends in environmental quality
Identification of environmental pressures
Compliance with international agreements;
Recommendations for improving the present state and for sustainable management of the environment.