Bonn/Bucharest, 11 July 2012 - On Monday, 9 July the CMS Family Online Reporting System (ORS) was show-cased during an event organized by the UNEP/CMS and UNEP/AEWA Secretariats in collaboration with UNEP-WCMC in the margins of the 11th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Ramsar Convention in Bucharest, Romania.

This event marked an important step on the long journey towards enhancing synergies and harmonization in national reporting among biodiversity-related MEAs.

The CMS Family ORS, which was developed by UNEP-WCMC in close collaboration and under the guidance of the UNEP/AEWA Secretariat, provides a concrete example and proposal for streamlining of national reporting under the various MEAs and ultimately harmonization of their reporting processes. Given the participation in the event by countries' as well as organizations’ representatives and the interest that these expressed, it seems that we are now all sailing before the wind!

Presentations

1. The CMS Online Reporting System - AEWA's pioneering experience (Sergey Dereliev)

2. Functionalities of the Online Reporting System (Peter Herkenrath)

3. The CMS Family Online Reporting System - quo vadis? (Sergey Dereliev)

4. The Online Reporting System: linking with other reporting processes (Peter Herkenrath)

Photo courtesy of IISD/Earth Negotiations Bulletin.