The Convention on Biological Diversity
represents the first comprehensive international statement on the importance of
biodiveristy. The United Nations Environment Programme had coordinated several
meetings on this issue in the late 1980's, and the final text of the convention was open
to signatures at the 1992 "Earth Summit" in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. One
year later, 168 countries had signed the agreement, although the United States was not one
of them. To date, the United States has still not signed the treaty.
The goals of this agreement include: the
conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of its components, and the fair
and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic
resources." This treaty focuses on sustainable development at the international
level, as a way to achieve economic and environmental goals concurrently. In
addition, the treaty recognizes the intergenerational equity issues complicating the
economic objectives today.
Key features of the Convention on
Biological Diversity
- Article 6 of this agreement stipulates general
measures for conservation and sustainable use of biological resources:
- "develop national strategies, plans or
prgrammes for the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity or adapt for
this purpose existing strategies, plans or programmes which shall reflect the measures set
out in this Convention; and
- integrate as far as possible and as
appropriate, the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity into relevant
sectoral or cross-sectoral plans, programmes and policies."
- Articles 8 and 9 refer to biological
techniques to ensure success of the biological diversity objectives, including both in-situ
and ex-situ measures.
- Article 10 identifies ways in which member
countries should promote sustainable development practices in order to ensure long-term
diveristy of biological resources.
- The Convention encourages throughout its text
the cooperation and coordination between member countries, particularly with respect to
North-South relationships. These provisions seek to prevent the exploitation of
ecologically-rich countries by economically-rich countries.
Will the Convention
on Biological Diversity be successful?
This convention recognizes the importance of
conserving biological diversity for present and future generations. However, the
convention also recognizes (as many international agreements do) the sovereignty of member
countries. Although the agreement identifies general objectives of conservation and
sustainable development, member countries assume responsibility for implementation.
It may be overly optimistic to assume that biodiversity is protected simply
because 175 countries have signed this treaty as of January 15, 1999. Measuring the
treaty's success is difficult because it lacks specific provisions for achieving its
objectives.
For more information, please see visit the
Convention's homepage at http://www.biodiv.org |
