Environmental Profiles.

• Author: Atkinson, Carla

The genesis for Environmental Profiles can be traced back to a passing conversation that Sharon Matola, an animal researcher from Belize, had with a friend about her study of tapirs, a large, nocturnal "ungulate" (hoofed mammal) that is at risk of extinction. How, Matola's friend asked, could scientists researching this fairly obscure animal find each other and share information? It wouldn't be easy, replied Matola, director of the Belize Zoo and Tropical Education Center, because there wasn't a comprehensive international reference that listed who was doing research in particular areas or issues--or where they could be found.

Matola's curious friend, Bob Honig, a Washington, D.C.-based lawyer and public policy analyst, was surprised that no one had thought to fill this niche. "A light went off in my head that this would be a valuable project," says Honig. He talked the idea over with two former co-workers from his Capitol Hill days, Sarah Orrick, who edits the Congressional Digest and The Almanac of American Politics, and Linda Sobel Katz, a political communications consultant. The three found a publisher and went to work.

For a year, under the guidance of a distinguished advisory board, Katz, Honig, and Orrick sent out surveys and corresponded with governments, grassroots groups, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and individuals throughout the world, ending up with crates full of information in eight languages. Katz and her colleagues recruited interns to help sift through the piles filling her garage, got help in translating responses, and within a year they had a book.

Environmental Profiles, which has an introduction by U.S. Vice President Al Gore, covers more than 140 countries and turns out to be a story book of sorts as well as a reference: entries tell you the history behind the organizations and individuals profiled, and explain their ongoing work. "It was our desire to make grassroots environmentalists at either end of the globe aware of each other," says Honig. In all, the book profiles nearly 3,000 people and some 7,000 projects, programs, and campaigns, and includes an extensive index and appendixes on biodiversity, population planning, health, sustainable development and seven other key issue areas. A typical entry also lists resources the organization is seeking--a feature that makes the book a bulletin board for the environmental community.

Some of the logistical difficulties of gathering information from so many...