International co-operation in the field of the environment

The General Assembly,

Having considered the report of the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Programme on the work of its fourteenth session,

Having also considered the report of the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme on international conventions and protocols in the field of the environment,

Taking note of the Environmental Perspective to the Year 2000 and Beyond and the report of the World Commission on Environment and Development,

Noting the implications for the work of the United Nations Environment Programme of the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women and of the system-wide medium-term plan for women in development,

Aware that serious environmental problems are arising in both developed and developing countries,

Reaffirming the importance of taking fully into account the interrelationships between resources, environment, people and development in development policies and strategies,

Conscious that environmental considerations must be taken into full account by each country in framing and implementing its development plans in accordance with its development objectives,

Recognizing the importance of the international exchange of experience and knowledge and of the promotion of the transfer of technology for the protection and enhancement of the environment in accordance with respective national laws, regulations and policies,

1.         Takes note with appreciation of the report of the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Programme on the work of its fourteenth session and endorses the decisions contained therein, as adopted;

2.         Expresses its appreciation for the development of international co-operation in the field of the environment and the work of the United Nations Environment Programme during the fifteen years since the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, held at Stockholm from 5 to 16 June 1972, and calls for further action-oriented co-operation for the protection and enhancement of the environment;

3.         Takes note with appreciation of Governing Council decision 14/13 of 19 June 1987, by which it adopted the Environmental Perspective to t he Year 2000 and Beyond, and decision 14/14 of 19 June 1987, in which it accepted the report of the World Commission on Environment and Development as a guideline to be taken into account in further work of the United Nations Environment Programme;

4.         Considers that evaluation is an integral part of the programming cycle of the United Nations Environment Programme and should be undertaken using a methodology developed in consultation with the partners of the Programme in the United Nations system and with Governments;

5.         Welcomes the annual reports on the state of the world environment, in particular the report for 1987, fifteen years after the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, and requests that these reports be given wide dissemination and be drawn upon fully in the preparation of reports within the United Nations system on the world economic and social situation;

6.         Agrees with the Governing Council that the United Nations Environment Programme should attach importance to the problem of global climate change and that the Executive Director should ensure that the Programme co-operates closely with the World Meteorological Organization and the International Council of Scientific Unions and maintains an active, influential role in the World Climate Programme;

7.         Takes note of Governing Council decision 14/26 of 17 June 1987 regarding the rationalization of international conventions on biological diversity, in which the Council requested the Executive Director, in consultation with Governments and within available resources, to establish an ad hoc working group of experts to investigate in close collaboration with the Ecosystems Conservation Group and other international organizations the desirability and possible form of an umbrella convention to rationalize current activities in this field, and to address other areas which might fall under such a convention;

8.         Welcomes the importance given by the Governing Council to forest ecosystems and, bearing in mind existing programmes and expertise in this field, welcomes section I of Governing Council decision 14/1 B of 17 June 1987, in which it took note of and welcomed the initiative of the Executive Director to pursue consultations among countries owning tropical forests and other forest ecosystems, and other interested countries, aimed at finding ways and means to consider, through the appropriate international mechanisms, including the International Tropical Timber Organization, practical collaborative action for the sustainable use and conservation of significant areas of forest ecosystems and the genetic resources they contain;

9.         Expresses its appreciation for the leading role played by the United Nations Environment Programme in achieving the entry into force of the Agreement on the Action Plan for the Environmentally Sound Management of the Common Zambezi River system, the adoption of the Convention for the Protection of the Natural Resources and Environment of the South Pacific Region, the entry into force of the Convention for the Protection and Development of the Marine Environment of the Wider Caribbean Region and, in particular, the adoption of the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, and encourages the United Nations Environment Programme, through its Governing Council, to continue such efforts;

10.       Welcomes Governing Council decision 14/30 of 17 June 1987, in which it approved the Cairo Guidelines and Principles for the Environmentally Sound Management of Hazardous Wastes, and the steps taken by the United Nations Environment Programme to develop a global convention on environmentally sound transboundary movement of hazardous wastes, supports the Goals and Principles of Environmental Impact Assessment adopted by the Governing Council in its decision 14/25 of 17 June 1987 and its recommendations regarding their application, welcomes the adoption by the Governing Council in its decision 14/27 of 17 June 1987 of the London Guidelines for the Exchange of Information on Chemicals in International Trade and encourages further steps in this regard;

11.       Expresses its satisfaction at the results achieved at the first and second sessions of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment, held, respectively, at Cairo, from 16 to 18 December 1985, and at Nairobi, from 4 to 6 June 1987, the first Arab Ministerial Conference on Environmental Considerations in Development, held at Tunis from 13 to 15 October 1986, and the fifth Intergovernmental Regional Meeting on the Environment in Latin America and the Caribbean, held at Montevideo in April 1987;

12.       Agrees with the Governing Council on the desirability of creating and operating regional networks of non-governmental environmental organizations, especially in the developing countries;

13.       Reaffirms the need for additional financial resources from donor countries and organizations to assist developing countries in identifying, analysing, monitoring, preventing and managing environmental problems in accordance with their national development plans, priorities and objectives;

14.       Reaffirms the need for developed countries and appropriate organs and organizations of the United Nations system to strengthen technical co-operation with the developing countries to enable them to develop and enhance their capacity for identifying, analysing, monitoring, preventing and managing environmental problems in accordance with their national development plans, priorities and objectives;

15.       Also reaffirms the need for technical co-operation among developing countries in the field of the environment, and invites the appropriate organs and organizations of the United Nations system to assist, upon request of the parties concerned, in the promotion and strengthening of such co-operation;

16.       Concurs with Governing Council decision 14/6 of 17 June 1987, in which it decided that the clearing-house mechanism within the United Nations Environment Programme should focus its efforts on strengthening the capacity of developing countries to promote sustainable development by supporting policy planning and institution building, enabling the developing countries to give adequate priority to environmental considerations, and that it should, inter alia, support a limited number of programmes of regional significance;

17.       Takes note of Governing Council decision 14/10 of 18 June 1987 on the environmental impact of apartheid on Black agriculture in South Africa;

18.       Recalls the essential catalytic and co-ordinating role of the United Nations Environment Programme within the United Nations system concerning the environment, requests that that role be further developed in the light, particularly, of Governing Council decisions 14/13 and 14/14, and calls upon the Designated Officials for Environmental Matters to improve their effectiveness, bearing in mind those decisions;

19.       Agrees with the Governing Council on the importance it attached, in the annex to its decision 14/12 of 18 June 1987, to the preparation of the system-wide medium-term environment programme for the period 1990-1995, guided by the Environmental Perspective to the Year 2000 and Beyond, and urges the Administrative Committee on Co-ordination to develop an effective way of monitoring the implementation of the system-wide programme and of evaluating critical programmes therein that involve a number of organizations;

20.       Expresses its appreciation to those countries which have contributed regularly to the Environment Fund, and urges all countries that have not contributed to the Fund to do so for 1988 and in future years so that the financial base of the Fund may be expanded;

21.       Urges all contributing countries to increase their contributions to the Environment Fund for 1988 and in future years so as to enable the approved programme of activities to be fully implemented.