Regional approaches 23. Many environmental problems may have characteristics specific to a particular region, or become evident first in a regional situation. Regional organizations or the regional offices of international organizations may be well placed to implement an environmental early warning mechanism for the region, either independently, or as an intermediate stage in aglobal early warning process. In most instances this would be done through some kind of regional expert panels, with the same advantages and limitations as those at the national or global level. Unfortunately, the scientific community is less well organized at the regional level.
Most scientific bodies are either national or international.
Special scientific structures might have to be created to implement such regional early warning mechanisms. One possibility would be to draw on the model of a tribunal or high court. A law court is a legal mechanism to determine the truth in an area of uncertainty and contradictory views by weighing the evidence according to clear standards and precedents. Transposed to a scientific context, this could become a concrete and specialized form of peer review intended to produce policy relevant outcomes. They would define the critical questions and identify issues that they should take under advisement, either on their own initiative or based on submissions from governments, international organizations or scientific bodies.