World's leading experts gathered at the headquarters of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) in Nairobi on Monday to help UNEP boost its capabilities in early warning and environmental assessment. 

The scientists are also trying to pinpoint "knowledge gaps" in a bid to better forecast the impact of humankind's actions on the environment of the 21 century, said UNEP head of media Nick Nuttall in a statement.

"Links between global warming and heavy metal pollution, soil microbes and bumper crop yields and the degree to which a degraded environment can trigger political instability, are likely to be among the pressing issues facing scientists trying to unravel the fate of planet Earth," said the statement.

Nuttall said the researchers would be joined by governments on Wednesday to address how actions taken to solve one environmental crisis might impact on other areas of environmental, economic and social concerns.

Scientists will be meeting at UNEP headquarters on Jan. 12 and 13 and an estimated 100 ministers and government experts meet from Jan. 14 to 15 and the intergovernmental consultations will take place on Jan. 16, the statement said.

It said areas in need of strengthening include the health effects of chemical hazards, the impacts of urbanization and mega cities on the wider world and improved understanding of the planet's biodiversity.

"The overall aim of the week-long set of meetings, involving scientists, government officials and members of other organizations such as the European Environment Agency and the Convention on Biological Diversity, is to assess how best to boost UNEP's science base," he said.

"Governments cannot be expected to change industrial, agricultural and other practices without accurate and authoritative evidence that these are not only cost-effective but will genuinely make a difference and that they will help deliver sustainable development." UNEP Executive Director Klaus Toepfer was quoted as saying.

"So we need to plug the remaining gaps and better understand what is known in the jargon as 'interlink ages' in essence the consequences of our actions, across a wide range of issues," Toepfer said.

Other areas in need of strengthening include studies on the disturbance of the global nitrogen cycle as a result of agricultural fertilizers and traffic fumes; biodiversity assessments of marine and fresh water environments; the wider impacts of changes in land cover as a result of forest loss and agriculture and the health and environmental effects of a build up of toxic chemicals. 

(Xinhua News Agency January 13, 2004)