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G D R C    M o s a i c
www.gdrc.org

January 2005
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THIS MONTH'S SPOTLIGHT: Urban MEAs
from GDRC's Programme on Urban Environmental 
Management

"Global multi-lateral environmental greements 
(MEAs) become meaningless unless it is clearly 
grounded with priorities and action at the local 
level."

One of the key outputs of the 1992 Rio Summit 
was to highlight and focus attention on the 
global environment. It also generated a number 
of multilateral environment agreements (MEAs), 
the most recent of them being the Kyoto 
Protocol promulgated in December 1997. 

Many MEAs are specifically directed at cities, 
including Local Agenda 21 and Habitat Agenda, 
and other MEAs have clear implications on the 
way cities function and are managed. There 
are two sets of questions: how do cities 
contribute to the conditions and problems 
addressed by these MEAs? And on the 
reverse flow, how do these MEAs affect the 
natural, built-up and social environments of 
cities?

GDRC compiled a series of resources on the 
issue of MEAs, and has made it available online 
at:

http://www.gdrc.org/uem/mea/

As with all sections of GDRC, contributions,
comments and suggestions are always welcome 
from users and subscribers! Please contact 
GDRC's Coordinator at - mosaic@gdrc.org
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FOCUS ON GDRC: LEARNING LESSONS

Don't be afraid ... 

This is the starting line of a short 3-line 
Japanese hyku that says: "Don't be afraid / 
Of what you know / The unknown can 
be learnt." 

The meaning is clear - we should take into 
account what we already know, what we 
already have - and not on what we don't 
have or don't know. We can always learn 
what we don't know!

This is a very important lesson for GDRC - 
to respect what its visitors already know. 
And to build on it, layer by layer, with 
new information, new linkages, new 
connections to other topics!
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MONTHLY STATISTICS FOR GDRC'S WEBSITE

Total hits encountered - 776,153 
Total files downloaded - 620,748
Total pages viewed - 242,801 
Total web visitors - 85,158 
Total KBytes - 5,974,423 
Pages per day - Avg. 7,832; Max. 12,943 
Visits per day - Avg. 2,747; Max. 3,880
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WHAT'S NEW AT GDRC'S WEBSITE?
Highlists from new items added to GDRC's
programme pages:

- Urban Environmental Management: 
  Waste Management - added GDRC 
  documents on (a) "The 3R Concept 
  and Waste Minimization", (b) "An Urban 
  Waste Management Continuum", and 
  (c) "Examples of Waste Management 
  in Japan (1997-2001)" 
- Urban Environmental Management: 
  Energy systems - "An Introduction 
  to Energy Sources from Oceans" 
- Sustainable Business: Sustainable 
  Business Concepts - Going Green

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ABOUT GDRC MOSAIC

The "GDRC Mosaic" is a monthly email newsletter 
that provides information bites, and summarizes 
programme activities of GDRC, including new items 
added to the website. 

To subscribe: http://www.gdrc.org/about/newsletter.html
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe-mosaic@gdrc.org
Comments, suggestions and contributions: mosaic@gdrc.org 

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CONTACT ADDRESS:

Global Development Research Center
5-13-3-1601, Nakano-cho, Miyakojima-ku, 
Osaka 534-0027, Japan
Tel / Fax: +(81-6) 6925-8005
Email: mosaic@gdrc.org
Web: http://www.gdrc.org/
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Copyright (C) 2005-2007, GDRC. All rights reserved.