ELCI activities are concentrated in five thematic areas: Forests, water, energy, agriculture, and environmental governance.
For each thematic area, a variety of approaches and projects are implemented. These are based at the local, national and
regional levels, with cross-cutting initiatives concentrating at international fora.

ELCI focuses on the local-global linkages, especially with those initiatives that bring policy or ideas to the grassroot levels
or ''on the ground'' case studies or lessons learned to the decision making people.

The main aspects of this work are communication, information generation and dissemination aimed at environmental
conservation and sustainable use of natural resources.

In addition, ELCI focuses on the link between Civil Society and UNEP, encouraging a stronger advisory role od NGOs in
UNEP decision making.