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Table 2: Advantages and disadvantages of the range of UNEP’s GEO products

Digital means 7
Means Advantages Disadvantages Points remember

CD-ROMs
Suitable medium to Requires special Check CD-ROM use in
present complex and high equipment to use, target group first.
quantity of information, requires technical Abu Dhabi, UAE
relatively cheap to repro- expertise to develop.
duce, easy to distribute.

E-mail (-newsletter)
Effective medium to Difficult to stand out in Necessary to attract
approach small or large large number of e-mails attention right away. Be
number of people, cheap, sent each day. direct, and avoid long
fast, direct, possibility for messages.
feedback.

BOX 4 Examples of outputs for multipurpose and tailored reports

Although there are alternative formats, the traditional assessment reports are printed in
A4 format or close to this size, usually with soft cover. Examples of traditional assessment
reports are the UNEP’s Global Environment Outlook and regional reports (www.unep.
org/geo), assessment reports of the European Environment Agency (www.eea.europa.eu),
the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports (www.ipcc.ch) and many
others. These global or regional assessment reports are multipurpose, capturing the latest
findings for decision-makers and scientists.

At the country level, in most cases, SoE reports are the result of legal international and
national mandates. These reports are multipurpose, providing access to environmental
information. A range of examples of these reports is available for reference for good ideas
and inspiration. For example, a collection of national and regional SoE reports from South

Asia is available at http://www.rrcap.unep.org/reports/soe/sa_soe.cfm. SoE reports from
Central and Easter Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia are available at http://www.grida.
no/enrin. The Compendium of Sustainable Development Indicator Initiatives provides an

IEA Training Manual Workshop for the National Reporting Toolkit (NRT) 17