Environment Status Report extract

EXTRACT ON ESR FROM PCEF MINUTES 6 Oct 2007

Environment Status Report

As decided in the inception meeting of the PCEF, one of the tasks that the Forum should take up is the development of a framework for the Environment Status Report ESR). This is a mandatory annual report that municipalities in Maharashtra are required to produce.

The process agreed upon at the meeting is:

1. A core group consisting of Aneeta Benninger, Ranjit Gadgil, Himanshu Kulkarni, Sanskriti Menon, Laxmi Narayan, Ajay Ojha, Vijay Paranjpye (and expandable as per needs) should be set up, to
develop an overall framework for the report and for individual chapters
work with the PCEF theme groups and additional groups/ individuals to take up responsibilities for the development of various sections of the ESR, including Indicators for each theme
review and edit the drafts submitted by each group
submit a budget to the PMC for developing the framework and content

2. The minutes of this meeting are to be considered as the formal communication to PCEF from PMC to begin work on the ESR

3. Decisions related to content and framework:
a. Currently ESR focuses on PMC’s contribution to environment management. However, achievements by NGOs, Corporates, Citizens Forums and their best practices should be a part of the ESR.
b. The ESR should report on ecological carrying capacity and the footprint of the city and not only sectoral environmental status. This paradigm of environmental status reporting can take into account the impacts of Pune such as due to the sourcing of water from catchments outside Pune and releasing effluents without treatment.
c. A document containing the framework and benchmarks for various sectors of the ESR is one deliverable. This would help to standardize the future ESRs and make them comparable and over time to reveal the changing status of environment
d. Methods for collecting and reviewing data should be standardized; thus data gaps in current data collection systems should also be identified
e. ESR should be based on ‘spatial and temporal’ approach because environmental changes do not happen in sectors. Performance of each municipal ward must be reviewed, ranked and linked to budget allocation. ESR should have two components – status of municipal services offered and status of ambient environment.
f. An ongoing data compilation process may be developed so that data and information from diverse sources can be gathered at one location (online and as a repository)
g. The ESR should be uploaded on the PMC website
h. ESR should have relevant indicators from the Human Development Index (HDI).


ESR - Possible Reporting Framework

See CEROI – City Environment Reports on the Internet http://ceroi.net/index.htm