EDRC's Mission

The Stichting Environment & Development Resource Centre (EDRC) was established in Amsterdam 
in 1991* as a non-profit foundation. 
It's aim is to contribute to the achievement of global sustainable development -  development that is 
environmentally sound, socially just and respectful of cultural diversity.
 
EDRC also serves as a catalyst for new initiatives to redress shortcomings in the international environment-development 
policy-making process. The Centre acts as an independent 'honest-broker', carrying out and commissioning innovative studies, 
promoting co-operation between the environment and development movements, between researchers and activists, 
and between NGOs and decision makers. 
 
EDRC also produces the Rapid Environment And Development International Timetable - READIT, a comprehensive 
on-line data base of sustainable development events, organisations and news: http://www.readit2002.net.
 
IRIS Progamme: Since its founding, EDRC has played a leading role in the global NGO activities in preparation for and 
follow-up to the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in 1992 and the World Summit on Sustainable 
Development (WSSD) in 2002.
 
Currently, the primary activities of EDRC are in providing technical and programme assistance to international agencies, 
governments, and  non-governmental organisations working in the field of sustainable development.
 
For a complete list of projects from 1988 to the present see: Activities.

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*Our sister organisation, the International Association EDRC was established in Brussels in 1988 and dissolved in 1998. During its 10 years of the operation, the association's membership consisted of individuals working primarily on international policy issues that have significant implications both for environment and for development. It was their shared conviction that neither area of concern can be effectively addressed in isolation from the other, and that, together, they should be at the centre of political debate on international economic, financial and trade relations - especially South-North and East-West relations.

The association worked with a variety of partners with a common interest in co-operating to overcome the environment-development policy log-jam. It promoted bridge building and active co-operation between the development, environment and conservation movements - North, South, East and West, and between representatives of non-governmental organisations and officials of international institutions and national administrations as well as parliamentarians, researchers, industry / the private sector, consumers' organisations and trade unions.

Activities focused especially on Western European environment, trade and development policies as they affected Amazonia, Africa, Asia and Central and Eastern Europe.   

The work was divided into three programme areas:

ERICA Programme: Europe's Role in Environmental Aspects of North-South Economic Relations (aid, debt, trade and investment), including the establishment of the International Working Group on Environment, Trade and Development.

ORCHIS Programme: Promoting an Integrated Approach in Relations between the EU and the Amazon Pact Countries - including serving as the secretariat for the European Working Group on Amazonia. This programme also involved facilitating NGO consultations with the Inter American Development Bank.

ACACIA Programme: Other activities of the International Association EDRC focused on housing and urban development, biodiversity in Central and Eastern Europe, capacity building for NGOs in developing and CEE countries, and international environmental law.