Yojana Sharma analyses the work of a four-day meeting on access to data and information that will feed into next year’s Rio+20 conference on sustainable development.

Preventing loss of life and limb and limiting damage in disasters requires information that draws on the knowledge of local people and helps them react, reports Ochieng’ Ogodo.

When it comes to biodiversity information, incentives need to be provided to improve international sharing of data, report Tracy Irvine and Daniela Hirschfield.

'Blue carbon' is seen as an increasingly important issue, but it needs to be backed up by better science, reports Mićo Tatalović.

Smriti Mallapaty looks at an attempt to overcome the difficulties of accessing and understanding environmental and societal information.

African participants at an international meeting emphasise the need for continent-wide action to generate easy-to-access environmental data.

Crowdsourced environmental data can be useful, for example in measuring black carbon emissions, but concerns remain about quality, says Yojana Sharma.

SciDev.Net talks to Sylvia Earle, scientist, oceanographer, explorer, about her hopes for oceans at the Rio+20 conference in Brazil in 2012.

An Eye on Earth Declaration and a set of Special Initiatives target next year’s major international conference on sustainable development.

Whether it’s finding an post-earthquake area on which to build or updating drainage maps, GeoSUR can help.

Data-sharing is part of the answer to problems arising from the Arab region’s most serious challenge, water, finds Rehab Abd Almohsen.

Potentially lucrative sea-bottom minerals are a factor in a Pacific Island state’s drive to become the "greenest, cleanest destination" in the world.

The cities account for more than three quarters of emissions of CO2, are home to half the world population and will be 'highly visible' at Rio +20.

SciDev.Net speaks to UN Environment Programme executive director Achim Steiner at the Eye on Earth Summit (12-15 December) about next year's Rio+20.

A "piece of paper people can walk away with" and "a very valuable and very important" declaration is approved for submission to Rio+20.

New technologies offer the promise of delivering environmental information to anyone who wants it, anywhere in the world. But we are not quite there yet.

Information is crucial in dealing with natural calamities in Africa, but it must come from local people as well as from advanced technologies.

Africa lacks environmental data, a problem compounded by secrecy and an unwillingness to share, say civil society representatives.

Improving data collection is important but so is access, conference is told.