ENVIS as National Focal Point of INFOTERRA of UNEP

ENVIS due to its comprehensive network has been designed as the National Focal Point (NFP) for INFOTERRA, a global environmental information network of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). In order to strengthen the information activities of the NFP, ENVIS was designated as the Regional Service Centre (RSC) of INFOTERRA of UNEP in 1985 for the South Asia Sub-Region countries

The responsibilities of NFP are: 

	Compiling and maintaining a national inventory of sources of environmental information;
	Evaluating the information supply capability of each source and registering the appropriate ones in
	INFOTERRA;
	Providing INFOTERRA services to national users;
	Assisting and monitoring the flow of environmental information to or from their community of sources and
	users;
	Actively publicizing INFOTERRA and its services;
	Establishing and maintaining in the development, evaluation and improvement of INFOTERRA.

Activities of the NFP/ RSC

In order to strengthen the information activities of the National Focal Point, ENVIS was designated as the Regional Service Centre (RSC) of INFOTERRA of UNEP in 1985 for the South Asia Sub-Region countries. The basic responsibilities both as NFP as well as RSC bestowed on ENVIS was to provide substantive environmental information to the users of the South Asia Sub-Region countries

ENVIS as RSC as well as NFP of INFOTERRA of UNEP is also engaged in the following activities:

	Distribution of information leaflets, brochures, etc. about INFOTERRA activities of National Focal Point in
	the South Asia Sub-Region countries namely Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
	Appraisal of NFPs of the South Asia Sub-Region countries about the service being provided to National
	and international user by the RSC.
	Publicizing RSC as well as NFP activities by inserting INFOTERRA advertisement in their regular quarterly
	journal namely Paryavaran Abstracts, published by ENVIS and having circulation of over 2,700 national/ international users. This journal is also sent free of cost to all the National Focal Points and users in the South Asia Sub-Regional countries.
	Maintenance of close liasion with all the NFPs in the Sub-region.
	Providing database searches from the existing database of their entire ENVIS network.
	Providing INFOTERRA directory service through INFOTERRA database available in the micro-CDS/ISIS
	format to the users in the region.