Contact: Dave DeFusco, Director of Communications, 203-436-4842

November 7, 2007

New Haven, Conn. -- Thirty-six countries have been added to a roster of developing nations that have access to one of the world’s largest collections of environmental science research online.

In the past 12 months, more than 500 public institutions and local nongovernmental organizations have enrolled in a free program called Online Access to Research in the Environment (OARE). Institutions enrolling in the program receive international scientific literature that has an annual retail subscription value of over $1.5 million and that represents 75 percent of the world’s most prestigious and highly cited scientific research in the environmental sciences.

When it began in October 2006, OARE offered access to scientific literature to 70 of the world’s poorest nations with a gross national income per capita below $1,250. With the launch of the second phase of the program, the consortium has added the following countries, areas and territories with gross national income per capita between $1,250 and $3,500: Albania, Algeria, Belarus, Boznia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cape Verde, Columbia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Guatemala, Iraq, Jamaica, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Serbia and Montenegro, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Morocco, Namibia, Paraguay, Peru, Romania, Tunisia, Western Samoa, Republic of Serbia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Swaziland, Syrian Arab Republic, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Tonga, Vanuatu, and West Bank and Gaza.

Yale University, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the International Association of Scientific Technical and Medical Publishers and over 340 international publishers and prestigious scientific societies and associations administer OARE, whose goal is to reduce the great disparities in scientific resources between developed and developing nations.

Gus Speth, dean of the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, said, “In an age characterized by rapid globalization and exponential expansion of scientific knowledge, it is not surprising that the scientific gap between the developed and developing countries has assumed great importance in the international development community. Thanks to advances in information and communication technologies and the generosity of many publishers, there is now an unprecedented opportunity to provide less-developed countries intellectual capital that we in the developed world take for granted.”

In addition to receiving a remarkable quantity of research from around the word, enrolled institutions are also provided access to international scientific search engines (A&I Databases), intellectual tools that leading scientific and professional communities use to identify research on specific topics within thousands of scientific publications from around the world.

“Providing practitioners, researchers and scientists with online access to scientific research on the environment has been a long-held dream and desire by institutions around the world,” said Achim Steiner, executive director of UNEP. “OARE is contributing greatly to the reduction in the North-South scientific gap and digital divide, and to the intellectual foundation of environmental institutions in many developing nations.”

After a free three-month trial, the institutions in these countries are asked to pay an annual enrollment fee of $1,000. Representing less than one-tenth of one percent of the annual retail subscription value of resources in OARE, all fees will be reinvested to support training in enrolled institutions.

OARE is also launching a new technological infrastructure designed with help from top programmers at Microsoft Corporation -- its new technology partner -- and introducing Ex Libris SFX software to the program, a new tool that allows developing countries to open full-text articles directly from within international research databases, dramatically reducing the time required to search for and access international research.

“Ex Libris will provide its SFX linking solution to enable scientists in developing countries to access the critical information needed for their research,” said Robert Mercer, Ex Libris President of North America.

OARE aims to contribute to the development of expert professional and academic communities and an informed public, encourage scientific creativity and productivity, and build the capacity of environmental professionals to manage fragile ecosystems, protect human health and manage natural renewable resources sustainably. Support for the coordination of the project is provided by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

Enabled by technology and guided by shared vision, the OARE consortium is increasing the number and diversity of its participating organizations and its richness of scientific holdings. The partners encourage organizations in developing countries to explore the resources available in OARE, and encourage institutions interested in joining the consortium to contact them to learn more about how they might contribute to the OARE mission. Institutions can enroll in OARE by completing the online registration form available on the website at www.oaresciences.org or writing to oare@oaresciences.org.

For more information, contact OARE coordinators Paul Bendiks Walberg, 203-314-7576 or paul.walberg@yale.edu; Kimberly Parker, 203-432-0067 or kimberly.parker@yale.edu; and Constant Serge Bounda, (254-20) 762-3105 or serge.bounda@unep.org.