This sub-regional State of the Environment (SoE) Report is the first of such assessment resulted from the aboveprocess focusing on South Asian region (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka). Thereport was prepared through a consultative and participatory process soliciting input from various governmentagencies, NGOs, and intergovernmental organizations. With the substantive support from Development Alterna-tives (DA), the designated regional Collaborating Center, and regular feedback and support from the South AsiaCooperative Environment Programme (SACEP), this assessment exercise has been successful and instrumental inproviding significant input to the on-going GEO-3 and 2002 WSSD preparatory process.
It aims at providingguidelines for environmental action planning, policy setting and resource allocation for the coming decades, basedon a sound analysis of the state of, and trends in, the region's environment.The report elaborates and analyzes the priorities and key issues from the array of environmental concerns facing theregion. The report addresses five key environmental issues of South Asian countries such as (1) livelihood security(food, water, energy, and income), (2) environmental disasters (trends of occurrence, impact on biodiversity, lossincurred), (3) industrializations (growth, distribution, and waste generation), (4) urbanization (growth of cities,migration, population, and economic growth), and (5) loss of biodiversity.
