Earthwatch was established in 1972 to "monitor major global disturbance in the environment and to give early warning of problems requiring international action".
The focus is on providing data to support decision-making in response to the UN General Assembly resolution on "Strengthening International Cooperation in the Monitoring of Global Environmental Problems".
The mandate was strengthened by the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro and its Agenda-21 chapter on Information for Decision Making.
[1] The UNEP Division of Early Warning and Assessment provides the Earthwatch Secretariat, based in Nairobi.
This led to a Plan of Implementation with a 10-20-year horizon under which Earthwatch would focus on collecting and correlating data related to the Millennium Development Goals.