NEW: Chinese (simplified) language translation now available.

Full report now available in PDF format. Executive summary also online in PDF format.

World Resources 2002-2004: Decisions for the Earth is also available as a CD-ROM containing both the report and the data tables.

See also previous editions:

• World Resources 2000-2001: People and Ecosystems: The Fraying Web of Life
• World Resources 1998-99: Environmental Change and Human Health
• World Resources 1996-97: The Urban Environment

World Resources 2002-2004 focuses on the importance of good environmental governance. We explore how citizens, government managers, and business owners can foster better environmental decisions -- decisions that meet the needs of both ecosystems and people with equity and balance.

A Guide to World Resources 2002-2004 summarizes the preliminary findings and key messages of the report which will be released in July 2003. Copies of the guide were distributed at the World Summit on Sustainable Development meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa, August 26-September 4, 2002.

World Resources 2002-2004 has three goals:

• To define in everyday terms what environmental governance means and how it relates to today's environmental trends and social conditions.

• To assess the state of environmental governance in nations around the world. We report on the Access Initiative's ground-breaking effort to undertake a systematic study of environmental governance indicators.

• To advance the thesis that attention to better environmental governance is one of the most direct routes to reversing the world's environmental decline.

Who should decide where to build a road or locate a dam? When is the public consulted? Can people appeal decisions they find unfair? World Resources 2002–2004 examines how we make environmental decisions and who makes them, which is the process of environmental governance.

The report argues that better environmental governance is one of the most direct routes to fairer and more sustainable use of natural resources. Decisions made with greater participation and greater knowledge of natural systems -- decisions for the Earth -- can help to reverse the loss of forests, the decline of soil fertility, and the pollution of air and water that reflect our past failures.

Tenth in the biennial World Resources series on the global environment, the report defines governance in everyday terms, with reference to a wealth of case studies. It assesses the state of environmental governance in nations around the world and summarizes results from the Access Initiative, a first-ever attempt to systematically measure governments’ performance in providing their citizens access to environmental information, decision-making, and justice.

World Resources 2002–2004 also presents a wealth of national statistics on current environmental, social, and economic trends in more than 150 countries. The report departs from previous editions by making the full World Resources database freely accessible and searchable on-line in the companion website, EarthTrends (http://earthtrends.wri.org/). The award-winning EarthTrends site also provides data tables, country profiles, maps, and feature stories about current conditions. In addition, the World Resources database is published on CD-ROM with mapping software as Terra Viva! World Resources.

The World Resources series is produced by a unique collaboration of the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Environment Programme, the World Bank, and the World Resources Institute.

To order the complete report, World Resources 2002-2004: Decision for the Earth: Balance, voice and power, forthcoming in July 2003, or the companion CD-Rom with mapping software, TerraViva! World Resources, visit http://www.wristore.com/