Promote the effective implementation of existing international agreements of relevance to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, and in particular the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Flora (CITES), the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance, especially as Waterfowl Habitat (the Ramsar Convention), the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals, the World Heritage Convention, the Convention to Combat Desertification, and the Framework Convention on Climate Change.
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. Agenda 21 recommends that UNEP concentrates on further development of international environmental law, in particular conventions and guidelines, promotion of its implementation, and coordinating functions arising from an increasing number of international legal agreements, inter alia, the functioning of the secretariats of the Conventions, taking into account the need for the most efficient use of resources, including possible co-location of secretariats established in the future.
The 2002 review of the implementation of the outcome of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) should be undertaken by an international conference at the summit level. The objective should not be to renegotiate Agenda 21, which remains valid, but to inject a new spirit of cooperation and urgency based on agreed actions in the common quest for sustainable development. In this regard, the ratification of all environmental conventions and protocols, in particular those related to climate, desertification, biosafety and chemicals, should be urgently pursued by Governments.