Abu Dhabi to have first State of Environment Report by November 2006

The announcement came during a workshop, being held from June 5- 10, 2006, on Lessons Learnt on Successful State of Environment Reporting at EAD.

The report identifies and analyzes key issues in environmental areas according to each of their Drivers, Pressures, State, Impact and Response, also known as the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) DPSIR Model.

Core data, to be used in the development of the State of Environment report (SoE), was compiled by the Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi and its partners. They include local and federal government bodies, academia and non-governmental agencies.

The report will be produced in Arabic and English and will be available to the general public and decision makers in both electronic and hard copy formats at www.ead.ae and the AGEDI portal which will be launched soon.

The Report covers the following themes:


• Freshwater

• Atmosphere

• Land Resources

• Coastal and Marine Resources

• Biodiversity

• Development and Environment

• Environmental Management

• Outlook

EAD contracted UNEP/GRID-Arendal, which is an official United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) centre based in Norway, to produce the report. This center will aim to make credible, science-based knowledge understandable to the public and to decision-makers. They will also set the way forward for future updates of the report.

The SoE is part of the Abu Dhabi Global Environmental Data Initiative, which was launched by the UAE Government in 2002 at the World Summit for Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa. The Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi (EAD) was designated the lead agency, in partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), for the development and implementation of this initiative.

This month, the EAD team will visit Grid Arendal's headquarters in Norway to work closely in the production of the SoE. Moreover, in August, a 3-day training workshop will be conducted by Grid-Arendal in Abu Dhabi on the report and how to use it.