[enviro-vlc] IUCN: Your gateway to environmental law

[Vern Weitzel]

http://cms.iucn.org/what/issues/index.cfm?uNewsID=999

Your gateway to environmental law
26 May 2008 | News - News story

Bonn, Germany, May 26, 2008 (IUCN/FAO/UNEP) – The world’s most comprehensive 
database on environmental law has been launched by IUCN at the CBD in Bonn. 
Available online at www.ecolex.org, it encompasses nearly 70,000 entries from 
more than 180 countries.

IUCN’s Environmental Law Centre has collected treaties, legislation, court 
decisions and literature on environmental law and natural resource management 
since the 1960s. ECOLEX now makes this data available for everyone, for free.
Entries range from the Sri Lankan Land Encroachment Ordinance from 1840 to the 
European Union plan for the recovery of the bluefin tuna from April 2008, and 
more are added each week. Legal specialists annotate each entry, and provide 
summaries for easy review of the data.

Launched during the IUCN reception in Bonn last week, the new ECOLEX interface 
is now much more usable, and includes powerful search functions for the needs of 
policy makers, advocacy groups, academics, researchers and students.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the UN Environment Programme 
(UNEP) and IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) have combined 
their knowledge on national and international environmental law in this 
database, creating a prime example for inter-agency cooperation.