Environmental Reporting and Information Exchanges in the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean Countries: Current situation and preliminary needs assessment in Egypt, Syria, Morocco, Tunisia and Israel

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The information contained in this report is the outcome of the compilation and analysis of information and documents available within SMAP Clearinghouse, completed by the information collected in the four above-mentioned countries in the course of SMAP RMSU expert missions, and by the main  conclusions of national meetings, namely those centred on current national capacities in terms of using and contributing effectively towards the EU and regional environmental information exchange systems.

The report is made up as follows:
• The first part summarises the principal international and regional environmental conventions signed and ratified by all the South and East Mediterranean countries, and the reporting obligations entailed in said Conventions. Furthermore, there is a short overview of environmental programmes dealing, among other things, with pollution in the Mediterranean, such as Med Pol, SMAP, Medstat and EMWIS, which have developed an environmental – and sometimes data - information exchange and management system. This chapter has been drafted both in French and English.

• The second part describes current status of environmental information and reporting in the four countries visited, namely Egypt, Syria, Tunisia and Morocco, with an additional chapter on Israel which was the object of a simple desk study. For each country there is an overview of the national and international institutional framework (reminder); national institutions involved in reporting activities, and mechanisms setup for environmental information exchange and processing; existing reports; national environmental information and data management systems, and capacity-building requirements. The strengths and weaknesses of environmental information management, institutional and legal constraints, as well as national capacity-building requirements in the field of environmental information exchange and management have been compiled during the national meetings. The national reports have been drafted in English for Syria, Egypt and Israel, in French for Tunisia and Morocco.