By Gabor Heves New REC home page provides portal to the region... Frequent surfers of on-line environmental information have long experienced a common problem: There is an overwhelming wealth of information "out there," and it's getting harder and harder to navigate and find the precise information a user desires. This is where environmental portal sites come in. Portals are structured indexes of environmental information on the Internet. The new home page of The Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe (REC) provides a dynamically evolving portal site for a broad range of information pertaining to the region's environment The REC site always featured extensive content, but after a year-long intensive redesign process, the newly launched home page has become a true one-stop entry point to a wealth of outside resources, alongside the REC's in-house information. The site structures information in a number of different ways: geographically, according to the 15 Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries the REC serves; by general subject; and by stakeholder group, such as business or government. Aside from serving as a portal for any online information about the environment in CEE, the REC's web site now also offers easier access to the wealth of in-house information that the site contains, including dozens of REC publications, searchable on-line directories and information about the REC itself. ...while SD-Gateway is a portal to the world If you want to move outside the region, and look for general environmental information from anywhere in the world, a recent survey by Tomorrow Magazine found that the site called SD-Gateway tops the list of environmental portals. True to it's name, the site offers a gateway to all kinds of information about sustainable development, including more than 1,200 links to various on-line documents - all indexed by environmental network communications experts. Environmental links are grouped into six main categories and many subcategories. The site also offers a calendar of events, a job bank, links to related news sites and its own thematic publications as well as the so-called "SD-Webworks," which is an "on-line community sharing knowledge about using the Internet more effectively for sustainable development." SD-Gateway is run by the Sustainable Development Communications Network - an international knowledge network of which the REC is a founding member. Public participation, sustainable development module A new online publication focuses on the important issue of public participation in environmental decision-making. The on-line module is useful for people who know little about the subject, or for professionals working in the field. Besides giving an overview on the definition, institutions, and concept of public participation, the publication features information on legal and regulatory issues, research documents, case studies and tips on implementation. For further research, a bibliography of relevant publications and a collection of Internet links is available. This new on-line publication was written as a joint effort of project partners cooperating within the framework of the Sustainable Development Communications Network.

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