Richard Melson

March 2005

Earth

Earth Negotiations Bulletin

A Reporting Service for Environment and Sustainable Development Negotiations

http://www.iisd.ca/enbvol/enb-background.htm

"Earth Negotiations Bulletin"

enb@iisd.org

ENB Background

The Earth Negotiations Bulletin is a balanced, timely and independent reporting service that provides daily information in print and electronic formats from multilateral negotiations on environment and development. It is published by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), a non-profit organization based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The office of the Earth Negotiations Bulletin is based in New York City, two blocks from the United Nations.

The Bulletin is a one-page, two-sided "desktop" publication that is distributed each day to participants at UN negotiations related to environment and development. In addition to the hard-copy version, the Earth Negotiations Bulletin is available in electronic format on IISD’s "Linkages" web site on the Internet and by electronic mail. At the conclusion of each meeting, the Earth Negotiations Bulletin Team writes and edits a 10-18,000-word summary and analysis of the meeting, which is circulated in electronic format. This has enabled it to reach a wide range of people interested in environment and development negotiations. Many UN delegates, NGOs and UN staff who track environment and sustainable development policy consider the Earth Negotiations Bulletin to be essential reading. The Bulletin has received high praise from diplomats, UN staff, government officials, non-government organizations, the business community, media and the academic community for its objective and comprehensive presentation of the facts.

In the 12 years that IISD has published the Earth Negotiations Bulletin, electronic mail and the World Wide Web have changed the way that information is gathered and exchanged. During this period, the Earth Negotiations Bulletin staff has developed several derivative electronic products, using the information gathered in the production of the ENB. These new forms of computer-mediated communications and derivative products have expanded the readership of the Earth Negotiations Bulletin to an estimated 35,000 people worldwide.

ENB History

The Earth Negotiations Bulletin began as the joint initiative of three individuals from the NGO community, who were participating in the preparations for the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. Johannah Bernstein, an environmental lawyer and Director of the Canadian Participatory Committee for UNCED (CPCU), Pamela Chasek, a doctoral student at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and Langston James Goree VI "Kimo", a former UNDP programme officer and NGO activist from the Western Amazon, created the Earth Summit Bulletin in March 1992.

After publishing daily issues during the five weeks of the Fourth Preparatory Committee meeting for UNCED the three raised funds to publish at the Conference in Rio. Following the conclusion of UNCED the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) approached the three founders with an offer to continue publishing the Earth Summit Bulletin at follow-up negotiations to the Earth Summit. In November 1992 the Earth Summit Bulletin was renamed the Earth Negotiations Bulletin.

The International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) publishes the information gathered by the Earth Negotiations Bulletin team in several electronic publications:

You can subscribe to all these publications for free at: http://www.iisd.ca/email/subscribe.htm

Saturday, March 12, 2005