IBM Europe/Middle East/Africa has donated equipment worth some $6.5m to the United Nations Environment Programme to support the Global Resource Information Database which forms part of the UN Global Environment Monitoring System: the system, which is active in 142 different countries, uses the database as a bridge between the monitoring, data collection, analysis and practical management of resources, giving the policy-maker data without jargon, and, in 1987, helped the UN agency to push for the headline-grabbing Montreal Protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer; following this success, the database, which has been in its pilot phase for two years thanks to the assistance of companies like DEC, is in demand from agencies and governments keen to develop international environmental programmes.
