World Summit on Sustainable Development Department of Public Information - News and Media Services Division - New York
	Johannesburg, South Africa 26 August-4 September 2002	30 August 2002

PRESS CONFERENCE BY THREE 'RIO CONVENTIONS'   The heads of the three conventions agreed upon at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 -- on biological diversity, desertification and climate change -- reported today at the World Summit on their status and stressed that coordination between the three treaties was vital in any efforts to reach sustainable development. Hamdallah Zedan, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, said his Convention protected areas that were the basis for agriculture and the food supply, medicines, water resources and renewable energy. It was clearly linked with the four other life-supporting systems of the Secretary-General's WEHAB initiative -- water, agriculture, health and energy. The Convention now had 185 parties, and that its Protocol on Biosafety -- an international regime to ensure the safe transport and handling of living organisms -- had been adopted and been ratified by 31 parties. Hama Arba Diallo, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, said the process of desertification -- land degradation in arid and semi-arid areas -- was not only a serious problem, but a source of poverty. If nations were serious about implementing agreed targets of the Millennium Summit -- to halve poverty by 2015 -- the Convention could help achieve that. Countries were ready to implement action programmes at the national, regional and subregional levels. The resources promised to support that implementation had not yet been received, but determination had been voiced at the Summit to remedy that. Joke Waller-Hunter, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, said her Convention was currently being implemented, and she was keen to see the Kyoto Protocol enter into force. So far, 90 countries had ratified it, including developed countries responsible for 37.1 per cent of carbon dioxide emissions in that group. The Protocol's entry into force now lay in the hands of the Russian Federation. Asked about Russia's stance on the Kyoto Protocol, Ms. Waller-Hunter said the Secretariat was confident that country would take a position in the coming months. No negative indications had been received, and the Protocol would enter into force soon after Russia had ratified it. Responding to another question, Mr. Zedan said it was vital that synergies be built among the three Conventions. The Conferences of the Parties and subsidiary bodies of all three were promoting collaboration, and soon would be looking at that at the national level. Mr. Diallo added that the responsibility for coordination and integration of the conventions should be seen as a national one, since each country was responsible for meeting its obligations. Press Conferences Summit News