Issue 23: February 2003

New GLEAM initiative
lights up UNU symposium

The Forum for Globally-integrated Environmental Assessment Modeling (GLEAM) was officially launched at an international symposium held January 17 at UN University headquarters in Tokyo. 

A joint initiative by the UNU and the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), the GLEAM Forum is a platform for discussing globally-integrated environmental assessment, notably model-supported assessment. The forum will include multidisciplinary workshops for problem-solving, client-based projects, peer reviews and an electronic newsletter. 

In the wake of the World Summit for Sustainable Development in Johannesburg last year, many nations and institutions are accelerating their actions towards sustainability and global assessments of environmental resources and services have become central to this dialogue on achieving sustainable development.

The UNU symposium was an opportunity for international environmental experts to discuss approaches for global and thematic integration of environmental assessments. Successful strategies for global integration of assessments have to link the environmental, social, economic and institutional domains of sustainable development. These domains relate, respectively, to the health of ecosystems, vulnerability and poverty reduction, economic development, and mechanism for implementation.

This symposium provided perspectives on the challenges faced in integrating environmental assessments, a key element of which is linking environmental sustainability to poverty reduction and economic development. This was  discussed against a background of on-going poverty reduction programmes in Asia, which provide numerous lessons for the global dialogue. 

Work already undertaken to integrate various modeling systems also served as a starting point for further discussion. Experts from the United Nations Development Programme, RIVM, UNU Institute of Advanced Studies (UNU/IAS), Japan's National Institute for Environmental Studies and UNU Centre participated in the discussion.

The second GLEAM workshop, on Environmental Dimensions of Poverty, is scheduled for March 3-5 in Katmandu. Meanwhile, GLEAM is actively seeking expert individuals and institutions to become members of the forum which aims to: 

• Establish a worldwide network of experts focused on advancing knowledge and conducting policy-relevant assessments and applications.
• Serve as a catalyst in development of globally integrated models by providing a forum for discussion and
  identifying existing gaps and missing linkages in existing modeling initiatives.
• Promote capacity development in the developing countries to effectively utilize available models for their own sustainable development.

Applications forms are available on the GLEAM website.

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