Navigation Path

Home About CENIA Director's Introductory Statement

CENIA was established on 1 April 2005 by the transformation of the former Czech Environmental Institute, organisation acting under the auspices of the Ministry of the Environment. The objective of CENIA is to provide information on the environment enabling the public to get a comprehensive view of the condition and sustainability of the environment we live in.

In order to meet this objective CENIA collects and interprets data and provides their assessment. CENIA is the central gateway of the whole subject area as well as a place of concentrated outputs (an environmental information portal). The Agency is a cornerstone of the Single Environmental Information System that falls under the responsibility of the Ministry of the Environment, as provided in Section 19, subsection 4 of Act No. 2/1969 Coll., the Competence Act.

The results of the work, based mainly on active implementation of Act No. 123/1998 Coll., on the Right to Environmental Information, are presented in the form of maps converted into sustainable development indicators and published in information publications, the most important of which is the Statistical Yearbook of the Environment of the Czech Republic.

Nearly all the information gathered by CENIA is funded by the taxpayers, thus they are intended to be the main beneficiaries of CENIA’s activities. In this way, the citizens’ rights to environmental information are fulfilled through the Agency. The data gathered by CENIA is served to facilitate public administration and it may be used for educational purposes at schools of all levels. CENIA provides useful assistance to those interested in the conservation of nature, public health and the improvement of the quality of life. Therefore the Agency covers topics of environmental education, Local Agenda 21, sustainable development, support of sustainable consumption and production (environmentally friendly products, EMAS and cleaner production).

An important aspect of the activities carried out by CENIA is the assistance provided to public administration in the area of integrated pollution prevention and control (IPPC) and environmental impact assessment (EIA/SEA). The Agency collects information on the best available techniques. CENIA wants to become an equal partner of industry and industrial unions in finding an effective way to maintain a balance between economic development and environmental protection.

CENIA’s website will eventually contain new products and information based on the wants and needs of its users. The employees of CENIA are ready to help you.

Jiří Hradec,
Director of CENIA, Czech Environmental Information Agency