Over 20 global and regional Conventions, five UN agencies, two observers as well as an array of partners, gathered in Montreux on 5-8 June 2018 with the aim of improving access and sharing of information to assist Parties to more effectively implement Multilateral Environment Agreements (MEAs).
The ninth meeting of the InforMEA initiative* covered a wide range of issues including: technical aspects of harmonizing and linking information systems in support of knowledge management, better management of documents for semantic interoperability, cross-linking MEA strategic plans to Sustainable Development Goals, and enhancing the learning base of online courses.
The CITES Secretariat acts as a co-chair of the InforMEA initiative and was represented by David Morgan (Officer-in-Charge). A number of technical officers also participated in the relevant parts of the meeting, contributing to the discussions on knowledge management, information and communication technology, documentation, trade data/information management, and capacity-building.
For further details about the meeting, see: https://www.informea.org/en/article/enhancing-collective-intelligence-international-agreements-protect-our-planet
* The InforMEA Initiative brings together Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEA) to develop harmonized and interoperable information systems for the benefit of Parties and the environment community at large. The Initiative is facilitated by the UN Environment, financially supported by the European Union. For more information, see https://www.informea.org.