In 1998, IISD took an interest in the North American Free Trade Agreement Chapter 11 rules on foreign investment. In 2000, IISD sought status as an amicus curiae (friend of the court) in the case of Methanex Inc. v. the United States. This marked the first time any civil society group had formally sought such status in an investor-state arbitration under international rules. In January 2001, the Tribunal ruled that it had, in principle, the power to grant such status and, in February 2004, the Tribunal issued specific rules on how IISD and others could formally apply for amicus status. In March 2004, IISD submitted its formal request and its written arguments to the Tribunal and in April, at the beginning of the new fiscal year, the Tribunal accepted IISD as an amicus, making IISD and a U.S. NGO the first civil society groups to be recognized in this way. Please click here.

IISD began the revitalization of a natural resources program, which will be known as "Sustainable Natural Resources Management." The initial focus will be regional and national, with an emphasis on water, agriculture and sustainable development. Please click here.

The Canada-India Energy Efficiency Project, one of the longest and largest in IISD's history, ended in 2003 with a range of outputs and important results. Please click here.

IISD signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the United Nations Environment Programme which provides a direct conduit for IISD to offer regular policy advice in the field of ecosystem management and human development. Please click here.

IISD'S training work expanded to include young professionals from other Arctic countries and from South Africa and Brazil. Please click here.

Just before the end of the fiscal year, IISD signed a five-year agreement with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), which will see the Institute working on a series of projects supporting AAFC initiatives associated with the Department's Agriculture Policy Framework. Please click here.

In 2003-2004, each issue of the Earth Negotiations Bulletin was published in French as well as in English. Please click here.

In 2003-2004, CDN$8.945 million was committed to IISD in the form of designated project funding. That represents an increase of about $200,000 over what was committed in the previous fiscal year. Please click here for more details.

It was another busy year across IISD's Web space. Between IISDnet (http://www.iisd.org) and IISD Linkages (http://www.iisd.ca), there were 1.75 million PDF document downloads. Across all of IISD's Web space, there were 13.44 million successful page requests. And more than 27,000 people currently subscribe to IISD's electronic mailing lists.

IISD completed a 375 tonne carbon offset credit purchase to offset carbon dioxide emissions from 2002-2003. Please click here for more statistics relating to our own sustainability performance.