Who are GEO partners, and how were they involved in the GEO-4 production process?
Strong partnership is vital for GEO assessments. The main strength of the GEO process is that it is consultative, participatory and inclusive; it includes a ‘bottom-up’ capacity building component and a global network of GEO Collaborating Centres and other partners. The ‘GEO partners’ comprise a vast network of centres of excellence, individual experts, government representatives, UN bodies and other partners. The global network of GEO Collaborating Centres forms a strong assessment partnership at the core of the process and a focus for building capacity at various levels. More than 50 CCs played an active role in preparing the GEO-4 report. Three organizations, IUCN-The World Conservation Union, the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE) and the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), represent global networks while the rest are regional or specialized centres of excellence. Regional centres were responsible for most of the regional inputs, combining top-down integ
