This strategy features in the framework of Agenda 21 as formulated at UNCED (Rio de Janeiro, 1992), now coordinated by the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development and implemented through national and local authorities.
The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Wastes and Their Disposal requires signatories to take "appropriate measures in national law and also to impose sanctions". Other conventions, such as the Convention of the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), provide for sanctions against signatories that do not abide by the obligation in CITES.