Cognos BI - report identifiers and CAMID

I wanted some information to fill a knowledge gap.  I'm familiar with the idea of a CAMID being a type of search path used to connect to the permissions/profile of a particular user.

However in my organisation we also refer to a CAMID or identifier of a report.. we have two diferent cognos BI environments, a LIVE environment and a development environment.  When a report is developed to replace an existign report in the LIVE environment we have an/ import/export routine that copies the report across to the LIVE environment to essentially re-write or overplace the old report.  THe idea is that this should be done so as not to break existign views based on the report in LIVE.  Oir internal processes therefore stress that report names need to be the same ( obviously) and that reports need to be moved and not copied in each of the environments partly to retain the name but also to retain the CAMID.  

The questions are - what is the unique identified for the report that needs to be the same if we want to over write a report with an update but not interfere with views based on it?

I think now that it is the Search Path in the report properties.  This contaisn the CAMID of the report author ( I presume)  Copying a report would loose the CAMID of the original author and that is why Movign the report is important.  Do these statements make sense - are they correct.  Is the report ID given in the report properties of any practical use - what is it for.

I'd be very grateful for some expert advice on this.

Many thanks,

Andrew