This section of the country profile provides access to the main environmental assessment reports produced by the national environmental authority and other relevant institutions with an environmental observation and reporting mandate. Assessment reports will generally fall into two main categories by type:

• integrated assessments
• thematic assessments

and their geographic coverage can range from national down to local.

The reports presented are national and local state-of-the-environment (SOE) reports and other relevant assessment outputs already catalogued in PEARL. They are listed in reverse chronological order and the report titles are hyper-linked to the underlying metadata. Full text, where available, will be provided in due course.

PEARL (Prototype Environmental Assessment and Reporting Landscape)

In addition, some important research studies and findings on environmental issues relevant to the country are also presented, where available. Users are encouraged to contact the institutions responsible for these research findings should further information be required.

Environmental research concerns itself with the dynamic state of the environment, its origins and history, as well as with the natural and anthropogenic changes that it has undergone. The focus of interest is on the interactions between human activities (e.g. agriculture and forestry, industrial production, housing, mobility) and environmental systems (e.g. soil, water, air, biosphere). The dividing line between environmental research and other areas of research is, however, problematic and sometimes ill-defined.

UNEP works closely with the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE), which was established by ICSU – the International Council for Science (http://www.icsu-scope.org/). SCOPE is an interdisciplinary body of natural and social science expertise focused on global environmental issues, operating at the interface between scientific and decision-making instances. It is supported by a worldwide network of scientists and scientific institutions developing syntheses and reviews of scientific knowledge on current or potential environmental issues.