UNEP showcases computer database
JAKARTA (JP): The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) showcased a computer database yesterday aimed at helping facilitate the transfer of green technology from industrialized to developing countries.
UNEP Deputy Director Lilia G.C. Casanova said the database provided access and transfer of scientific and technological information concerning environmentally sound technologies (ESTs).
Casanova said information accessible through the so-called maESTro program was "on institutions promoting ESTs all over the world, on sources of information about sustainable development all over the world, and on specific green technologies".
More than 80 countries around the world, mostly industrialized ones, use the information system which has been developed since 1995 by the UNEP-International Environmental Technology Center, she said.
"It's still an improving software program ... and it's provided for free to all, governments, academics, NGOs, etcetera," Casanova told a media conference at an international seminar on the EST information system in Serpong, West Java, yesterday.
Delegations from seven countries; Malaysia, Indonesia, China, The Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, and Japan, were participating in the three-day seminar co-organized by UNEP, the Environmental Impact Management Agency (Bapedal), and the office of the state minister of environment.
Casanova said the maESTro program could help the government gather necessary information needed for formulating effective sustainable development policies.
"Many governments cannot formulate effective policies on sustainable development because they lack the access to information on ESTs," she said.
The transfer of ESTs, as identified in Chapter 34 of Agenda 21 -- a document resulting from the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil -- is one of the indispensable elements for achieving sustainable development.
Bapedal Deputy Chairman Brig. Gen. (ret) Sukardi, who was representing State Minister of Environment Sarwono Kusumaatmadja at the media conference yesterday, said the Indonesian government had started using the program in the agency's command post.
"It's just a matter of time (before it is developed further)," Sukardi said, reiterating Casanova's earlier statement that maESTro was still a long way from perfection.
Bapedal's director for technical development, Liana Bratasida, said Indonesia was committed to the implementation of ESTs.
She said 20 of more than 60 companies -- including textile, pulp, plywood, cooking oil and steel firms -- which have voluntarily developed cleaner production strategies have gained ISO 14001 certification, recognizing their technologies' environmental friendliness. (aan)