| United Nations | A/CONF.151/26 (Vol. III) |
General Assembly
Distr. GENERAL
14 August 1992
ORIGINAL: ENGLISH
REPORT OF THE UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCE ON
ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT*
(Rio de Janeiro, 3-14 June 1992)
* The present document is a preliminary version of the report of the
United Nations Conference on Environment and Development and is being issued
in five volumes. The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development and
section I (Social and economic dimensions) of Agenda 21 are in volume I;
section II (Conservation and management of resources for development) of
Agenda 21 is in volume II; and sections III (Strengthening the role of major
groups) and IV (Means of implementation) of Agenda 21 and the non-legally
binding authoritative statement of principles for a global consensus on the
management, conservation and sustainable development of all types of forests
are in volume III. The proceedings of the Conference and opening and
closing statements are in volume IV. Statements made during the Summit
Segment are in volume V.
92-38364 3581-82e (E) 180992
/... CONTENTS*
Annex II. AGENDA 21 (continued)
Chapter Paragraphs
Page
SECTION III. STRENGTHENING THE ROLE OF MAJOR GROUPS
23. Preamble ............................................ 23.1 - 23.4 4
24. Global action for women towards sustainable and
equitable development ............................... 24.1 - 24.12 5
25. Children and youth in sustainable development ....... 25.1 - 25.17 11
26. Recognizing and strengthening the role of indigenous
people and their communities ........................ 26.1 - 26.9 16
27. Strengthening the role of non-governmental
organizations: partners for sustainable
development ......................................... 27.1 - 27.13 20
28. Local authorities' initiatives in support of
Agenda 21 ........................................... 28.1 - 28.7 24
29. Strengthening the role of workers and their trade
unions .............................................. 29.1 - 29.14 26
30. Strengthening the role of business and industry ..... 30.1 - 30.30 29
31. Scientific and technological community .............. 31.1 - 31.12 34
32. Strengthening the role of farmers ................... 32.1 - 32.14 39
SECTION IV. MEANS OF IMPLEMENTATION
33. Financial resources and mechanisms .................. 33.1 - 33.21 43
34. Transfer of environmentally sound technology,
cooperation and capacity-building ................... 34.1 - 34.29 49
35. Science for sustainable development ................. 35.1 - 35.25 57
* For section I (Social and economic dimensions), see
A/CONF.151/26 (Vol. I); for section II (Conservation and management of
resources for development), see A/CONF.151/26 (Vol. II).
CONTENTS (continued)
Chapter Paragraphs
Page
36. Promoting education, public awareness and training .. 36.1 - 36.27 70
37. National mechanisms and international cooperation
for capacity-building in developing countries ....... 37.1 - 37.13 81
38. International institutional arrangements ............ 38.1 - 38.45 87
39. International legal instruments and mechanisms ...... 39.1 - 39.10 100
40. Information for decision-making ..................... 40.1 - 40.30 104
Annex III. NON-LEGALLY BINDING AUTHORITATIVE STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLES
FOR A GLOBAL CONSENSUS ON THE MANAGEMENT, CONSERVATION AND
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF ALL TYPES OF FORESTS ............ 111
Resolution 2. EXPRESSION OF THANKS TO THE PEOPLE AND GOVERNMENT OF
BRAZIL .................................................. 117
Resolution 3. CREDENTIALS OF REPRESENTATIVES TO THE CONFERENCE ........ 118
SECTION III. STRENGTHENING THE ROLE OF MAJOR GROUPS
Chapter 23
PREAMBLE
23.1. Critical to the effective implementation of the objectives, policies
and mechanisms agreed to by Governments in all programme areas of Agenda 21
will be the commitment and genuine involvement of all social groups.
23.2. One of the fundamental prerequisites for the achievement of
sustainable development is broad public participation in decision-making.
Furthermore, in the more specific context of environment and development,
the need for new forms of participation has emerged. This includes the need
of individuals, groups and organizations to participate in environmental
impact assessment procedures and to know about and participate in decisions,
particularly those which potentially affect the communities in which they
live and work. Individuals, groups and organizations should have access to
information relevant to environment and development held by national
authorities, including information on products and activities that have or
are likely to have a significant impact on the environment, and information
on environmental protection measures.
23.3. Any policies, definitions or rules affecting access to and
participation by non-governmental organizations in the work of United
Nations institutions or agencies associated with the implementation of
Agenda 21 must apply equally to all major groups.
23.4. The programme areas set out below address the means for moving
towards real social partnership in support of common efforts for sustainable
development.
Chapter 24
GLOBAL ACTION FOR WOMEN TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE
AND EQUITABLE DEVELOPMENT
PROGRAMME AREA
Basis for action
24.1. The international community has endorsed several plans of action and
conventions for the full, equal and beneficial integration of women in all
development activities, in particular the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies
for the Advancement of Women, 1/ which emphasize women's participation in
national and international ecosystem management and control of environment
degradation. Several conventions, including the Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (General Assembly
resolution 34/180, annex) and conventions of ILO and UNESCO have also been
adopted to end gender-based discrimination and ensure women access to land
and other resources, education and safe and equal employment. Also relevant
are the 1990 World Declaration on the Survival, Protection and Development
of Children and the Plan of Action for implementing the Declaration
(A/45/625, annex). Effective implementation of these programmes will depend
on the active involvement of women in economic and political decision-making
and will be critical to the successful implementation of Agenda 21.
Objectives
24.2. The following objectives are proposed for national Governments:
(a) To implement the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies for the
Advancement of Women, particularly with regard to women's participation in
national ecosystem management and control of environment degradation;
(b) To increase the proportion of women decision makers, planners,
technical advisers, managers and extension workers in environment and
development fields;
(c) To consider developing and issuing by the year 2000 a strategy of
changes necessary to eliminate constitutional, legal, administrative,
cultural, behavioural, social and economic obstacles to women's full
participation in sustainable development and in public life;
(d) To establish by the year 1995 mechanisms at the national, regional
and international levels to assess the implementation and impact of
development and environment policies and programmes on women and to ensure
their contributions and benefits;
(e) To assess, review, revise and implement, where appropriate,
curricula and other educational material, with a view to promoting thedissemination to both men and women of gender-relevant knowledge and
valuation of women's roles through formal and non-formal education, as well
as through training institutions, in collaboration with non-governmental
organizations;
(f) To formulate and implement clear governmental policies and
national guidelines, strategies and plans for the achievement of equality in
all aspects of society, including the promotion of women's literacy,
education, training, nutrition and health and their participation in key
decision-making positions and in management of the environment, particularly
as it pertains to their access to resources, by facilitating better access
to all forms of credit, particularly in the informal sector, taking measures
towards ensuring women's access to property rights as well as agricultural
inputs and implements;
(g) To implement, as a matter of urgency, in accordance with
country-specific conditions, measures to ensure that women and men have the
same right to decide freely and responsibly the number and spacing of their
children and have access to information, education and means, as
appropriate, to enable them to exercise this right in keeping with their
freedom, dignity and personally held values;
(h) To consider adopting, strengthening and enforcing legislation
prohibiting violence against women and to take all necessary administrative,
social and educational measures to eliminate violence against women in all
its forms.
Activities
24.3. Governments should take active steps to implement the following:
(a) Measures to review policies and establish plans to increase the
proportion of women involved as decision makers, planners, managers,
scientists and technical advisers in the design, development and
implementation of policies and programmes for sustainable development;
(b) Measures to strengthen and empower women's bureaux, women's
non-governmental organizations and women's groups in enhancing
capacity-building for sustainable development;
(c) Measures to eliminate illiteracy among females and to expand the
enrolment of women and girls in educational institutions, to promote the
goal of universal access to primary and secondary education for girl
children and for women, and to increase educational and training
opportunities for women and girls in sciences and technology, particularly
at the post-secondary level;
(d) Programmes to promote the reduction of the heavy workload of women
and girl children at home and outside through the establishment of more and
affordable nurseries and kindergartens by Governments, local authorities,
employers and other relevant organizations and the sharing of household
tasks by men and women on an equal basis, and to promote the provision ofenvironmentally sound technologies which have been designed, developed and
improved in consultation with women, accessible and clean water, an
efficient fuel supply and adequate sanitation facilities;
(e) Programmes to establish and strengthen preventive and curative
health facilities, which include women-centred, women-managed, safe and
effective reproductive health care and affordable, accessible, responsible
planning of family size and services, as appropriate, in keeping with
freedom, dignity and personally held values. Programmes should focus on
providing comprehensive health care, including pre-natal care, education and
information on health and responsible parenthood, and should provide the
opportunity for all women to fully breastfeed at least during the first four
months post-partum. Programmes should fully support women's productive and
reproductive roles and well-being and should pay special attention to the
need to provide equal and improved health care for all children and to
reduce the risk of maternal and child mortality and sickness;
(f) Programmes to support and strengthen equal employment
opportunities and equitable remuneration for women in the formal and
informal sectors with adequate economic, political and social support
systems and services, including child care, particularly day-care facilities
and parental leave, and equal access to credit, land and other natural
resources;
(g) Programmes to establish rural banking systems with a view to
facilitating and increasing rural women's access to credit and to
agricultural inputs and implements;
(h) Programmes to develop consumer awareness and the active
participation of women, emphasizing their crucial role in achieving changes
necessary to reduce or eliminate unsustainable patterns of consumption and
production, particularly in industrialized countries, in order to encourage
investment in environmentally sound productive activities and induce
environmentally and socially friendly industrial development;
(i) Programmes to eliminate persistent negative images, stereotypes,
attitudes and prejudices against women through changes in socialization
patterns, the media, advertising, and formal and non-formal education;
(j) Measures to review progress made in these areas, including the
preparation of a review and appraisal report which includes recommendations
to be submitted to the 1995 world conference on women.
24.4. Governments are urged to ratify all relevant conventions pertaining
to women if they have not already done so. Those that have ratified
conventions should enforce and establish legal, constitutional and
administrative procedures to transform agreed rights into domestic
legislation and should adopt measures to implement them in order to
strengthen the legal capacity of women for full and equal participation in
issues and decisions on sustainable development.
24.5. States parties to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women should review and suggest amendments to it by
the year 2000, with a view to strengthening those elements of the Convention
related to environment and development, giving special attention to the
issue of access and entitlements to natural resources, technology, creative
banking facilities and low-cost housing, and the control of pollution and
toxicity in the home and workplace. States parties should also clarify the
extent of the Convention's scope with respect to the issues of environment
and development and request the Committee on the Elimination of
Discrimination against Women to develop guidelines regarding the nature of
reporting such issues, required under particular articles of the Convention.
(a) Areas requiring urgent action
24.6. Countries should take urgent measures to avert the ongoing rapid
environmental and economic degradation in developing countries that
generally affects the lives of women and children in rural areas suffering
drought, desertification and deforestation, armed hostilities, natural
disasters, toxic waste and the aftermath of the use of unsuitable
agro-chemical products.
24.7. In order to reach these goals, women should be fully involved in
decision-making and in the implementation of sustainable development
activities.
(b) Research, data collection and dissemination of information
24.8. Countries should develop gender-sensitive databases, information
systems and participatory action-oriented research and policy analyses with
the collaboration of academic institutions and local women researchers on
the following:
(a) Knowledge and experience on the part of women of the management
and conservation of natural resources for incorporation in the databases and
information systems for sustainable development;
(b) The impact of structural adjustment programmes on women. In
research done on structural adjustment programmes, special attention should
be given to the differential impact of those programmes on women, especially
in terms of cut-backs in social services, education and health and in the
removal of subsidies on food and fuel;
(c) The impact on women of environmental degradation, particularly
drought, desertification, toxic chemicals and armed hostilities;
(d) Analysis of the structural linkages between gender relations,
environment and development;
(e) The integration of the value of unpaid work, including work that
is currently designated "domestic", in resource accounting mechanisms in
order better to represent the true value of the contribution of women to theeconomy, using revised guidelines for the United Nations System of National
Accounts, to be issued in 1993;
(f) Measures to develop and include environmental, social and gender
impact analyses as an essential step in the development and monitoring of
programmes and policies;
(g) Programmes to create rural and urban training, research and
resource centres in developing and developed countries that will serve to
disseminate environmentally sound technologies to women.
(c) International and regional cooperation and coordination
24.9. The Secretary-General of the United Nations should review the
adequacy of all United Nations institutions, including those with a special
focus on the role of women, in meeting development and environment
objectives, and make recommendations for strengthening their capacities.
Institutions that require special attention in this area include the
Division for the Advancement of Women (Centre for Social Development and
Humanitarian Affairs, United Nations Office at Vienna), the United Nations
Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the International Research and Training
Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW) and the women's programmes
of regional commissions. The review should consider how the environment and
development programmes of each body of the United Nations system could be
strengthened to implement Agenda 21 and how to incorporate the role of women
in programmes and decisions related to sustainable development.
24.10. Each body of the United Nations system should review the number of
women in senior policy-level and decision-making posts and, where
appropriate, adopt programmes to increase that number, in accordance with
Economic and Social Council resolution 1991/17 on the improvement of the
status of women in the Secretariat.
24.11. UNIFEM should establish regular consultations with donors in
collaboration with UNICEF, with a view to promoting operational programmes
and projects on sustainable development that will strengthen the
participation of women, especially low-income women, in sustainable
development and in decision-making. UNDP should establish a women's focal
point on development and environment in each of its resident representative
offices to provide information and promote exchange of experience and
information in these fields. Bodies of the United Nations system,
governments and non-governmental organizations involved in the follow-up to
the Conference and the implementation of Agenda 21 should ensure that gender
considerations are fully integrated into all the policies, programmes and
activities.
Means of implementation
Financing and cost evaluation
24.12. The Conference secretariat has estimated the average total annual
cost (1993-2000) of implementing the activities of this chapter to be about
$40 million from the international community on grant or concessional terms.
These are indicative and order-of-magnitude estimates only and have not been
reviewed by Governments. Actual costs and financial terms, including any
that are non-concessional, will depend upon, inter alia, the specific
strategies and programmes Governments decide upon for implementation.
Notes
1/ Report of the World Conference to Review and Appraise the
Achievements of the United Nations Decade for Women: Equality, Development
and Peace, Nairobi, 15-26 July 1985 (United Nations publication, Sales
No. E.85.IV.10), chap. I, sect. A.
Chapter 25
CHILDREN AND YOUTH IN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
INTRODUCTION
25.1. Youth comprise nearly 30 per cent of the world's population. The
involvement of today's youth in environment and development decision-making
and in the implementation of programmes is critical to the long-term success
of Agenda 21.
PROGRAMME AREAS
A. Advancing the role of youth and actively involving
them in the protection of the environment and the
promotion of economic and social development
Basis for action
25.2. It is imperative that youth from all parts of the world participate
actively in all relevant levels of decision-making processes because it
affects their lives today and has implications for their futures. In
addition to their intellectual contribution and their ability to mobilize
support, they bring unique perspectives that need to be taken into account.
25.3. Numerous actions and recommendations within the international
community have been proposed to ensure that youth are provided a secure and
healthy future, including an environment of quality, improved standards of
living and access to education and employment. These issues need to be
addressed in development planning.
Objectives
25.4. Each country should, in consultation with its youth communities,
establish a process to promote dialogue between the youth community and
Government at all levels and to establish mechanisms that permit youth
access to information and provide them with the opportunity to present their
perspectives on government decisions, including the implementation of
Agenda 21.
25.5. Each country, by the year 2000, should ensure that more than
50 per cent of its youth, gender balanced, are enrolled in or have access to
appropriate secondary education or equivalent educational or vocational
training programmes by increasing participation and access rates on an
annual basis.
25.6. Each country should undertake initiatives aimed at reducing current
levels of youth unemployment, particularly where they are disproportionately
high in comparison to the overall unemployment rate.
25.7. Each country and the United Nations should support the promotion and
creation of mechanisms to involve youth representation in all United Nations
processes in order to influence those processes.
25.8. Each country should combat human rights abuses against young people,
particularly young women and girls, and should consider providing all youth
with legal protection, skills, opportunities and the support necessary for
them to fulfil their personal, economic and social aspirations and
potentials.
Activities
25.9. Governments, according to their strategies, should take measures to:
(a) Establish procedures allowing for consultation and possible
participation of youth of both genders, by 1993, in decision-making
processes with regard to the environment, involving youth at the local,
national and regional levels;
(b) Promote dialogue with youth organizations regarding the drafting
and evaluation of environment plans and programmes or questions on
development;
(c) Consider for incorporation into relevant policies the
recommendations of international, regional and local youth conferences and
other forums that offer youth perspectives on social and economic
development and resource management;
(d) Ensure access for all youth to all types of education, wherever
appropriate, providing alternative learning structures, ensure that
education reflects the economic and social needs of youth and incorporates
the concepts of environmental awareness and sustainable development
throughout the curricula; and expand vocational training, implementing
innovative methods aimed at increasing practical skills, such as
environmental scouting;
(e) In cooperation with relevant ministries and organizations,
including representatives of youth, develop and implement strategies for
creating alternative employment opportunities and provide required training
to young men and women;
(f) Establish task forces that include youth and youth
non-governmental organizations to develop educational and awareness
programmes specifically targeted to the youth population on critical issues
pertaining to youth. These task forces should use formal and non-formal
educational methods to reach a maximum audience. National and local media,
non-governmental organizations, businesses and other organizations should
assist in these task forces;
(g) Give support to programmes, projects, networks, national
organizations and youth non-governmental organizations to examine the
integration of programmes in relation to their project requirements,encouraging the involvement of youth in project identification, design,
implementation and follow-up;
(h) Include youth representatives in their delegations to
international meetings, in accordance with the relevant General Assembly
resolutions adopted in 1968, 1977, 1985 and 1989.
25.10. The United Nations and international organizations with youth
programmes should take measures to:
(a) Review their youth programmes and consider how coordination
between them can be enhanced;
(b) Improve the dissemination of relevant information to governments,
youth organizations and other non-governmental organizations on current
youth positions and activities, and monitor and evaluate the application of
Agenda 21;
(c) Promote the United Nations Trust Fund for the International Youth
Year and collaborate with youth representatives in the administration of it,
focusing particularly on the needs of youth from developing countries.
Means of implementation
Financing and cost evaluation
25.11. The Conference secretariat has estimated the average total annual
cost (1993-2000) of implementing the activities of this programme to be
about $1.5 million on grant or concessional terms. These are indicative and
order-of-magnitude estimates only and have not been reviewed by Governments.
Actual costs and financial terms, including any that are non-concessional,
will depend upon, inter alia, the specific strategies and programmes
Governments decide upon for implementation.
B. Children in sustainable development
Basis for action
25.12. Children not only will inherit the responsibility of looking after
the Earth, but in many developing countries they comprise nearly half the
population. Furthermore, children in both developing and industrialized
countries are highly vulnerable to the effects of environmental degradation.
They are also highly aware supporters of environmental thinking. The
specific interests of children need to be taken fully into account in the
participatory process on environment and development in order to safeguard
the future sustainability of any actions taken to improve the environment.
Objectives
25.13. National governments, according to their policies, should take
measures to:
(a) Ensure the survival, protection and development of children, in
accordance with the goals endorsed by the 1990 World Summit for Children
(A/45/625, annex);
(b) Ensure that the interests of children are taken fully into account
in the participatory process for sustainable development and environmental
improvement.
Activities
25.14. Governments should take active steps to:
(a) Implement programmes for children designed to reach the
child-related goals of the 1990s in the areas of environment and
development, especially health, nutrition, education, literacy and poverty
alleviation;
(b) Ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child (General Assembly
resolution 44/25 of 20 November 1989, annex), at the earliest moment and
implement it by addressing the basic needs of youth and children;
(c) Promote primary environmental care activities that address the
basic needs of communities, improve the environment for children at the
household and community level and encourage the participation and
empowerment of local populations, including women, youth, children and
indigenous people, towards the objective of integrated community management
of resources, especially in developing countries;
(d) Expand educational opportunities for children and youth, including
education for environmental and developmental responsibility, with
overriding attention to the education of the girl child;
(e) Mobilize communities through schools and local health centres so
that children and their parents become effective focal points for
sensitization of communities to environmental issues;
(f) Establish procedures to incorporate children's concerns into all
relevant policies and strategies for environment and development at the
local, regional and national levels, including those concerning allocation
of and entitlement to natural resources, housing and recreation needs, and
control of pollution and toxicity in both rural and urban areas.
25.15. International and regional organizations should cooperate and
coordinate in the proposed areas. UNICEF should maintain cooperation and
collaboration with other organizations of the United Nations, Governments
and non-governmental organizations to develop programmes for children and
programmes to mobilize children in the activities outlined above.
Means of implementation
(a) Financing and cost evaluation
25.16. Financing requirements for most of the activities are included in
estimates for other programmes.
(b) Human resource development and capacity-building
25.17. The activities should facilitate capacity-building and training
activities already contained in other chapters of Agenda 21.
Chapter 26
RECOGNIZING AND STRENGTHENING THE ROLE OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLE
AND THEIR COMMUNITIES
PROGRAMME AREA
Basis for action
26.1. Indigenous people and their communities have an historical
relationship with their lands and are generally descendants of the original
inhabitants of such lands. In the context of this chapter the term "lands"
is understood to include the environment of the areas which the people
concerned traditionally occupy. Indigenous people and their communities
represent a significant percentage of the global population. They have
developed over many generations a holistic traditional scientific knowledge
of their lands, natural resources and environment. Indigenous people and
their communities shall enjoy the full measure of human rights and
fundamental freedoms without hindrance or discrimination. Their ability to
participate fully in sustainable development practices on their lands has
tended to be limited as a result of factors of an economic, social and
historical nature. In view of the interrelationship between the natural
environment and its sustainable development and the cultural, social,
economic and physical well-being of indigenous people, national and
international efforts to implement environmentally sound and sustainable
development should recognize, accommodate, promote and strengthen the role
of indigenous people and their communities.
26.2. Some of the goals inherent in the objectives and activities of this
programme area are already contained in such international legal instruments
as the ILO Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention (No. 169) and are being
incorporated into the draft universal declaration on indigenous rights,
being prepared by the United Nations working group on indigenous
populations. The International Year for the World's Indigenous People
(1993), proclaimed by the General Assembly in its resolution 45/164 of
18 December 1990, presents a timely opportunity to mobilize further
international technical and financial cooperation.
Objectives
26.3. In full partnership with indigenous people and their communities,
Governments and, where appropriate, intergovernmental organizations should
aim at fulfilling the following objectives:
(a) Establishment of a process to empower indigenous people and their
communities through measures that include:
(i) Adoption or strengthening of appropriate policies and/or legal
instruments at the national level;
(ii) Recognition that the lands of indigenous people and their
communities should be protected from activities that are
environmentally unsound or that the indigenous people concerned
consider to be socially and culturally inappropriate;
(iii) Recognition of their values, traditional knowledge and resource
management practices with a view to promoting environmentally
sound and sustainable development;
(iv) Recognition that traditional and direct dependence on renewable
resources and ecosystems, including sustainable harvesting,
continues to be essential to the cultural, economic and physical
well-being of indigenous people and their communities;
(v) Development and strengthening of national dispute-resolution
arrangements in relation to settlement of land and
resource-management concerns;
(vi) Support for alternative environmentally sound means of production
to ensure a range of choices on how to improve their quality of
life so that they effectively participate in sustainable
development;
(vii) Enhancement of capacity-building for indigenous communities, based
on the adaptation and exchange of traditional experience,
knowledge and resource-management practices, to ensure their
sustainable development;
(b) Establishment, where appropriate, of arrangements to strengthen
the active participation of indigenous people and their communities in the
national formulation of policies, laws and programmes relating to resource
management and other development processes that may affect them, and their
initiation of proposals for such policies and programmes;
(c) Involvement of indigenous people and their communities at the
national and local levels in resource management and conservation strategies
and other relevant programmes established to support and review sustainable
development strategies, such as those suggested in other programme areas of
Agenda 21.
Activities
26.4. Some indigenous people and their communities may require, in
accordance with national legislation, greater control over their lands,
self-management of their resources, participation in development decisions
affecting them, including, where appropriate, participation in the
establishment or management of protected areas. The following are some of
the specific measures which Governments could take:
(a) Consider the ratification and application of existing
international conventions relevant to indigenous people and their
communities (where not yetdone) and provide support for the adoption by the General Assembly of a
declaration on indigenous rights;
(b) Adopt or strengthen appropriate policies and/or legal instruments
that will protect indigenous intellectual and cultural property and the
right to preserve customary and administrative systems and practices.
26.5. United Nations organizations and other international development and
finance organizations and Governments should, drawing on the active
participation of indigenous people and their communities, as appropriate,
take the following measures, inter alia, to incorporate their values, views
and knowledge, including the unique contribution of indigenous women, in
resource management and other policies and programmes that may affect them:
(a) Appoint a special focal point within each international
organization, and organize annual interorganizational coordination meetings
in consultation with Governments and indigenous organizations, as
appropriate, and develop a procedure within and between operational agencies
for assisting Governments in ensuring the coherent and coordinated
incorporation of the views of indigenous people in the design and
implementation of policies and programmes. Under this procedure, indigenous
people and their communities should be informed and consulted and allowed to
participate in national decision-making, in particular regarding regional
and international cooperative efforts. In addition, these policies and
programmes should take fully into account strategies based on local
indigenous initiatives;
(b) Provide technical and financial assistance for capacity-building
programmes to support the sustainable self-development of indigenous people
and their communities;
(c) Strengthen research and education programmes aimed at:
(i) Achieving a better understanding of indigenous people's knowledge
and management experience related to the environment, and applying
this to contemporary development challenges;
(ii) Increasing the efficiency of indigenous people's resource
management systems, for example, by promoting the adaptation and
dissemination of suitable technological innovations;
(d) Contribute to the endeavours of indigenous people and their
communities in resource management and conservation strategies (such as
those that may be developed under appropriate projects funded through the
Global Environment Facility and the Tropical Forestry Action Plan) and other
programme areas of Agenda 21, including programmes to collect, analyse and
use data and other information in support of sustainable development
projects.
26.6. Governments, in full partnership with indigenous people and their
communities should, where appropriate:
(a) Develop or strengthen national arrangements to consult with
indigenous people and their communities with a view to reflecting their
needs and incorporating their values and traditional and other knowledge and
practices in national policies and programmes in the field of natural
resource management and conservation and other development programmes
affecting them;
(b) Cooperate at the regional level, where appropriate, to address
common indigenous issues with a view to recognizing and strengthening their
participation in sustainable development.
Means of implementation
(a) Financing and cost evaluation
26.7. The Conference secretariat has estimated the average total annual
cost (1993-2000) of implementing the activities of this programme to be
about $3 million on grant or concessional terms. These are indicative and
order-of-magnitude estimates only and have not been reviewed by Governments.
Actual costs and financial terms, including any that are non-concessional,
will depend upon, inter alia, the specific strategies and programmes
Governments decide upon for implementation.
(b) Legal and administrative frameworks
26.8. Governments should incorporate, in collaboration with the indigenous
people affected, the rights and responsibilities of indigenous people and
their communities in the legislation of each country, suitable to the
country's specific situation. Developing countries may require technical
assistance to implement these activities.
(c) Human resource development
26.9. International development agencies and Governments should commit
financial and other resources to education and training for indigenous
people and their communities to develop their capacities to achieve their
sustainable self-development, and to contribute to and participate in
sustainable and equitable development at the national level. Particular
attention should be given to strengthening the role of indigenous women.
Chapter 27
STRENGTHENING THE ROLE OF NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS:
PARTNERS FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
PROGRAMME AREA
Basis for action
27.1. Non-governmental organizations play a vital role in the shaping and
implementation of participatory democracy. Their credibility lies in the
responsible and constructive role they play in society. Formal and informal
organizations, as well as grass-roots movements, should be recognized as
partners in the implementation of Agenda 21. The nature of the independent
role played by non-governmental organizations within a society calls for
real participation; therefore, independence is a major attribute of
non-governmental organizations and is the precondition of real
participation.
27.2. One of the major challenges facing the world community as it seeks to
replace unsustainable development patterns with environmentally sound and
sustainable development is the need to activate a sense of common purpose on
behalf of all sectors of society. The chances of forging such a sense of
purpose will depend on the willingness of all sectors to participate in
genuine social partnership and dialogue, while recognizing the independent
roles, responsibilities and special capacities of each.
27.3. Non-governmental organizations, including those non-profit
organizations representing groups addressed in the present section of
Agenda 21, possess well-established and diverse experience, expertise and
capacity in fields which will be of particular importance to the
implementation and review of environmentally sound and socially responsible
sustainable development, as envisaged throughout Agenda 21. The community
of non-governmental organizations, therefore, offers a global network that
should be tapped, enabled and strengthened in support of efforts to achieve
these common goals.
27.4. To ensure that the full potential contribution of non-governmental
organizations is realized, the fullest possible communication and
cooperation between international organizations, national and local
governments and non-governmental organizations should be promoted in
institutions mandated, and programmes designed to carry out Agenda 21.
Non-governmental organizations will also need to foster cooperation and
communication among themselves to reinforce their effectiveness as actors in
the implementation of sustainable development.
Objectives
27.5. Society, Governments and international bodies should develop
mechanisms to allow non-governmental organizations to play their partnership
role responsibly and effectively in the process of environmentally sound and
sustainable development.
27.6. With a view to strengthening the role of non-governmental
organizations as social partners, the United Nations system and Governments
should initiate a process, in consultation with non-governmental
organizations, to review formal procedures and mechanisms for the
involvement of these organizations at all levels from policy-making and
decision-making to implementation.
27.7. By 1995, a mutually productive dialogue should be established at the
national level between all Governments and non-governmental organizations
and their self-organized networks to recognize and strengthen their
respective roles in implementing environmentally sound and sustainable
development.
27.8. Governments and international bodies should promote and allow the
participation of non-governmental organizations in the conception,
establishment and evaluation of official mechanisms and formal procedures
designed to review the implementation of Agenda 21 at all levels.
Activities
27.9. The United Nations system, including international finance and
development agencies, and all intergovernmental organizations and forums
should, in consultation with non-governmental organizations, take measures
to:
(a) Review and report on ways of enhancing existing procedures and
mechanisms by which non-governmental organizations contribute to policy
design, decision-making, implementation and evaluation at the individual
agency level, in inter-agency discussions and in United Nations conferences;
(b) On the basis of subparagraph (a) above, enhance existing or, where
they do not exist, establish, mechanisms and procedures within each agency
to draw on the expertise and views of non-governmental organizations in
policy and programme design, implementation and evaluation;
(c) Review levels of financial and administrative support for
non-governmental organizations and the extent and effectiveness of their
involvement in project and programme implementation, with a view to
augmenting their role as social partners;
(d) Design open and effective means of achieving the participation of
non-governmental organizations in the processes established to review and
evaluate the implementation of Agenda 21 at all levels;
(e) Promote and allow non-governmental organizations and their
self-organized networks to contribute to the review and evaluation of
policies and programmes designed to implement Agenda 21, including support
for developing country non-governmental organizations and their
self-organized networks;
(f) Take into account the findings of non-governmental review systems
and evaluation processes in relevant reports of the Secretary-General to the
General Assembly, and of all pertinent United Nations organizations and
other intergovernmental organizations and forums concerning implementation
of Agenda 21, in accordance with the review process for Agenda 21;
(g) Provide access for non-governmental organizations to accurate and
timely data and information to promote the effectiveness of their programmes
and activities and their roles in support of sustainable development.
27.10. Governments should take measures to:
(a) Establish or enhance an existing dialogue with non-governmental
organizations and their self-organized networks representing various
sectors, which could serve to: (i) consider the rights and responsibilities
of these organizations; (ii) efficiently channel integrated non-governmental
inputs to the governmental policy development process; and (iii) facilitate
non-governmental coordination in implementing national policies at the
programme level;
(b) Encourage and enable partnership and dialogue between local
non-governmental organizations and local authorities in activities aimed at
sustainable development;
(c) Involve non-governmental organizations in national mechanisms or
procedures established to carry out Agenda 21, making the best use of their
particular capacities, especially in the fields of education, poverty
alleviation and environmental protection and rehabilitation;
(d) Take into account the findings of non-governmental monitoring and
review mechanisms in the design and evaluation of policies concerning the
implementation of Agenda 21 at all levels;
(e) Review government education systems to identify ways to include
and expand the involvement of non-governmental organizations in the field of
formal and informal education and of public awareness;
(f) Make available and accessible to non-governmental organizations
the data and information necessary for their effective contribution to
research and to the design, implementation and evaluation of programmes.
Means of implementation
(a) Financing and cost evaluation
27.11. Depending on the outcome of review processes and the evolution of
views as to how best to build partnership and dialogue between official
organizations and groups of non-governmental organizations, relatively
limited but unpredictable, costs will be involved at the international and
national levels in enhancing consultative procedures and mechanisms.
Non-governmental organizations will also require additional funding in
support of their establishment of, improvement of or contributions to Agenda
21 monitoring systems. These costs will be significant but cannot be
reliably estimated on the basis of existing information.
(b) Capacity-building
27.12. The organizations of the United Nations system and other
intergovernmental organizations and forums, bilateral programmes and the
private sector, as appropriate, will need to provide increased financial and
administrative support for non-governmental organizations and their
self-organized networks, in particular those based in developing countries,
that contribute to the monitoring and evaluation of Agenda 21 programmes,
and provide training for non-governmental organizations (and assist them to
develop their own training programmes) at the international and regional
levels to enhance their partnership role in programme design and
implementation.
27.13. Governments will need to promulgate or strengthen, subject to
country-specific conditions, any legislative measures necessary to enable
the establishment by non-governmental organizations of consultative groups,
and to ensure the right of non-governmental organizations to protect the
public interest through legal action.
Chapter 28
LOCAL AUTHORITIES' INITIATIVES IN SUPPORT OF AGENDA 21
PROGRAMME AREA
Basis for action
28.1. Because so many of the problems and solutions being addressed by
Agenda 21 have their roots in local activities, the participation and
cooperation of local authorities will be a determining factor in fulfilling
its objectives. Local authorities construct, operate and maintain economic,
social and environmental infrastructure, oversee planning processes,
establish local environmental policies and regulations, and assist in
implementing national and subnational environmental policies. As the level
of governance closest to the people, they play a vital role in educating,
mobilizing and responding to the public to promote sustainable development.
Objectives
28.2. The following objectives are proposed for this programme area:
(a) By 1996, most local authorities in each country should have
undertaken a consultative process with their populations and achieved a
consensus on "a local Agenda 21" for the community;
(b) By 1993, the international community should have initiated a
consultative process aimed at increasing cooperation between local
authorities;
(c) By 1994, representatives of associations of cities and other local
authorities should have increased levels of cooperation and coordination
with the goal of enhancing the exchange of information and experience among
local authorities;
(d) All local authorities in each country should be encouraged to
implement and monitor programmes which aim at ensuring that women and youth
are represented in decision-making, planning and implementation processes.
Activities
28.3. Each local authority should enter into a dialogue with its citizens,
local organizations and private enterprises and adopt "a local Agenda 21".
Through consultation and consensus-building, local authorities would learn
from citizens and from local, civic, community, business and industrial
organizations and acquire the information needed for formulating the best
strategies. The process of consultation would increase household awareness
of sustainable development issues. Local authority programmes, policies,
laws and regulations to achieve Agenda 21 objectives would be assessed and
modified, based on local programmes adopted. Strategies could also be used
in supporting proposals for local, national, regional and international
funding.
28.4. Partnerships should be fostered among relevant organs and
organizations such as UNDP, the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements
(Habitat) and UNEP, the World Bank, regional banks, the International Union
of Local Authorities, the World Association of the Major Metropolises,
Summit of Great Cities of the World, the United Towns Organization and other
relevant partners, with a view to mobilizing increased international support
for local authority programmes. An important goal would be to support,
extend and improve existing institutions working in the field of local
authority capacity-building and local environment management. For this
purpose:
(a) Habitat and other relevant organs and organizations of the United
Nations system are called upon to strengthen services in collecting
information on strategies of local authorities, in particular for those that
need international support;
(b) Periodic consultations involving both international partners and
developing countries could review strategies and consider how such
international support could best be mobilized. Such a sectoral consultation
would complement concurrent country-focused consultations, such as those
taking place in consultative groups and round tables.
28.5. Representatives of associations of local authorities are encouraged
to establish processes to increase the exchange of information, experience
and mutual technical assistance among local authorities.
Means of implementation
(a) Financing and cost evaluation
28.6. It is recommended that all parties reassess funding needs in this
area. The Conference secretariat has estimated the average total annual
cost (1993-2000) for strengthening international secretariat services for
implementing the activities in this chapter to be about $1 million on grant
or concessional terms. These are indicative and order-of-magnitude
estimates only and have not been reviewed by Governments.
(b) Human resource development and capacity-building
28.7. This programme should facilitate the capacity-building and training
activities already contained in other chapters of Agenda 21.
Chapter 29
STRENGTHENING THE ROLE OF WORKERS AND THEIR TRADE UNIONS
PROGRAMME AREA
Basis for action
29.1. Efforts to implement sustainable development will involve adjustments
and opportunities at the national and enterprise levels, with workers
foremost among those concerned. As their representatives, trade unions are
vital actors in facilitating the achievement of sustainable development in
view of their experience in addressing industrial change, the extremely high
priority they give to protection of the working environment and the related
natural environment, and their promotion of socially responsible and
economic development. The existing network of collaboration among trade
unions and their extensive membership provide important channels through
which the concepts and practices of sustainable development can be
supported. The established principles of tripartism provide a basis for
strengthened collaboration between workers and their representatives,
Governments and employers in the implementation of sustainable development.
Objectives
29.2. The overall objective is poverty alleviation and full and sustainable
employment, which contribute to safe, clean and healthy environments - the
working environment, the community and the physical environment. Workers
should be full participants in the implementation and evaluation of
activities related to Agenda 21.
29.3. To that end the following objectives are proposed for accomplishment
by the year 2000:
(a) To promote ratification of relevant conventions of ILO and the
enactment of legislation in support of those conventions;
(b) To establish bipartite and tripartite mechanisms on safety, health
and sustainable development;
(c) To increase the number of environmental collective agreements
aimed at achieving sustainable development;
(d) To reduce occupational accidents, injuries and diseases according
to recognized statistical reporting procedures;
(e) To increase the provision of workers' education, training and
retraining, particularly in the area of occupational health and safety and
environment.
Activities
(a) Promoting freedom of association
29.4. For workers and their trade unions to play a full and informed role
in support of sustainable development, Governments and employers should
promote the rights of individual workers to freedom of association and the
protection of the right to organize as laid down in ILO conventions.
Governments should consider ratifying and implementing those conventions, if
they have not already done so.
(b) Strengthening participation and consultation
29.5. Governments, business and industry should promote the active
participation of workers and their trade unions in decisions on the design,
implementation and evaluation of national and international policies and
programmes on environment and development, including employment policies,
industrial strategies, labour adjustment programmes and technology
transfers.
29.6. Trade unions, employers and Governments should cooperate to ensure
that the concept of sustainable development is equitably implemented.
29.7. Joint (employer/worker) or tripartite (employer/worker/Government)
collaborative mechanisms at the workplace, community and national levels
should be established to deal with safety, health and environment, including
special reference to the rights and status of women in the workplace.
29.8. Governments and employers should ensure that workers and their
representatives are provided with all relevant information to enable
effective participation in these decision-making processes.
29.9. Trade unions should continue to define, develop and promote policies
on all aspects of sustainable development.
29.10. Trade unions and employers should establish the framework for a
joint environmental policy, and set priorities to improve the working
environment and the overall environmental performance of enterprise.
29.11. Trade unions should:
(a) Seek to ensure that workers are able to participate in
environmental audits at the workplace and in environmental impact
assessments;
(b) Participate in environment and development activities within the
local community and promote joint action on potential problems of common
concern;
(c) Play an active role in the sustainable development activities of
international and regional organizations, particularly within the United
Nations system.
(c) Provide adequate training
29.12. Workers and their representatives should have access to adequate
training to augment environmental awareness, ensure their safety and health,
and improve their economic and social welfare. Such training should ensure
that the necessary skills are available to promote sustainable livelihoods
and improve the working environment. Trade unions, employers, Governments
and international agencies should cooperate in assessing training needs
within their respective spheres of activity. Workers and their
representatives should be involved in the design and implementation of
worker training programmes conducted by employers and Governments.
Means of implementation
(a) Financing and cost evaluation
29.13. The Conference secretariat has estimated the average total annual
cost (1993-2000) of implementing the activities of this programme to be
about $300 million from the international community on grant or concessional
terms. These are indicative and order-of-magnitude estimates only and have
not been reviewed by Governments. Actual costs and financial terms,
including any that are non-concessional, will depend upon, inter alia, the
specific strategies and programmes Governments decide upon for
implementation.
(b) Capacity-building
29.14. Particular attention should be given to strengthening the capacity
of each of the tripartite social partners (Governments and employers' and
workers' organizations) to facilitate greater collaboration towards
sustainable development.
Chapter 30
STRENGTHENING THE ROLE OF BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY
INTRODUCTION
30.1. Business and industry, including transnational corporations, play a
crucial role in the social and economic development of a country. A stable
policy regime enables and encourages business and industry to operate
responsibly and efficiently and to implement longer-term policies.
Increasing prosperity, a major goal of the development process, is
contributed primarily by the activities of business and industry. Business
enterprises, large and small, formal and informal, provide major trading,
employment and livelihood opportunities. Business opportunities available
to women are contributing towards their professional development,
strengthening their economic role and transforming social systems. Business
and industry, including transnational corporations, and their representative
organizations should be full participants in the implementation and
evaluation of activities related to Agenda 21.
30.2. Through more efficient production processes, preventive strategies,
cleaner production technologies and procedures throughout the product life
cycle, hence minimizing or avoiding wastes, the policies and operations of
business and industry, including transnational corporations, can play a
major role in reducing impacts on resource use and the environment.
Technological innovations, development, applications, transfer and the more
comprehensive aspects of partnership and cooperation are to a very large
extent within the province of business and industry.
30.3. Business and industry, including transnational corporations, should
recognize environmental management as among the highest corporate priorities
and as a key determinant to sustainable development. Some enlightened
leaders of enterprises are already implementing "responsible care" and
product stewardship policies and programmes, fostering openness and dialogue
with employees and the public and carrying out environmental audits and
assessments of compliance. These leaders in business and industry,
including transnational corporations, are increasingly taking voluntary
initiatives, promoting and implementing self-regulations and greater
responsibilities in ensuring their activities have minimal impacts on human
health and the environment. The regulatory regimes introduced in many
countries and the growing consciousness of consumers and the general public
and enlightened leaders of business and industry, including transnational
corporations, have all contributed to this. A positive contribution of
business and industry, including transnational corporations, to sustainable
development can increasingly be achieved by using economic instruments such
as free market mechanisms in which the prices of goods and services should
increasingly reflect the environmental costs of their input, production,
use, recycling and disposal subject to country-specific conditions.
30.4. The improvement of production systems through technologies and
processes that utilize resources more efficiently and at the same time
produce less wastes - achieving more with less - is an important pathway
towards sustainability for business and industry. Similarly, facilitating
and encouraging inventiveness, competitiveness and voluntary initiatives are
necessary for stimulating more varied, efficient and effective options. To
address these major requirements and strengthen further the role of business
and industry, including transnational corporations, the following two
programmes are proposed.
PROGRAMME AREAS
A. Promoting cleaner production
Basis for action
30.5. There is increasing recognition that production, technology and
management that use resources inefficiently form residues that are not
reused, discharge wastes that have adverse impacts on human health and the
environment and manufacture products that when used have further impacts and
are difficult to recycle, need to be replaced with technologies, good
engineering and management practices and know-how that would minimize waste
throughout the product life cycle. The concept of cleaner production
implies striving for optimal efficiencies at every stage of the product life
cycle. A result would be the improvement of the overall competitiveness of
the enterprise. The need for a transition towards cleaner production
policies was recognized at the UNIDO-organized ministerial-level Conference
on Ecologically Sustainable Industrial Development, held at Copenhagen in
October 1991. 1/
Objectives
30.6. Governments, business and industry, including transnational
corporations, should aim to increase the efficiency of resource utilization,
including increasing the reuse and recycling of residues, and to reduce the
quantity of waste discharge per unit of economic output.
Activities
30.7. Governments, business and industry, including transnational
corporations, should strengthen partnerships to implement the principles and
criteria for sustainable development.
30.8. Governments should identify and implement an appropriate mix of
economic instruments and normative measures such as laws, legislations and
standards, in consultation with business and industry, including
transnational corporations, that will promote the use of cleaner production,
with special consideration for small and medium-sized enterprises.
Voluntary private initiatives should also be encouraged.
30.9. Governments, business and industry, including transnational
corporations, academia and international organizations, should work towards
the development and implementation of concepts and methodologies for the
internalization of environmental costs into accounting and pricing
mechanisms.
30.10. Business and industry, including transnational corporations, should
be encouraged:
(a) To report annually on their environmental records, as well as on
their use of energy and natural resources;
(b) To adopt and report on the implementation of codes of conduct
promoting the best environmental practice, such as the Business Charter on
Sustainable Development of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and
the chemical industry's responsible care initiative.
30.11. Governments should promote technological and know-how cooperation
between enterprises, encompassing identification, assessment, research and
development, management marketing and application of cleaner production.
30.12. Industry should incorporate cleaner production policies in its
operations and investments, taking also into account its influence on
suppliers and consumers.
30.13. Industry and business associations should cooperate with workers and
trade unions to continuously improve the knowledge and skills for
implementing sustainable development operations.
30.14. Industry and business associations should encourage individual
companies to undertake programmes for improved environmental awareness and
responsibility at all levels to make these enterprises dedicated to the task
of improving environmental performance based on internationally accepted
management practices.
30.15. International organizations should increase education, training and
awareness activities relating to cleaner production, in collaboration with
industry, academia and relevant national and local authorities.
30.16. International and non-governmental organizations, including trade
and scientific associations, should strengthen cleaner production
information dissemination by expanding existing databases, such as the UNEP
International Cleaner Production Clearing House (ICPIC), the UNIDO
Industrial and Technological Information Bank (INTIB) and the ICC
International Environment Bureau (IEB), and should forge networking of
national and international information systems.
B. Promoting responsible entrepreneurship
Basis for action
30.17. Entrepreneurship is one of the most important driving forces for
innovations, increasing market efficiencies and responding to challenges and
opportunities. Small and medium-sized entrepreneurs, in particular, play a
very important role in the social and economic development of a country.
Often, they are the major means for rural development, increasing off-farm
employment and providing the transitional means for improving the
livelihoods of women. Responsible entrepreneurship can play a major role in
improving the efficiency of resource use, reducing risks and hazards,
minimizing wastes and safeguarding environmental qualities.
Objectives
30.18. The following objectives are proposed:
(a) To encourage the concept of stewardship in the management and
utilization of natural resources by entrepreneurs;
(b) To increase the number of entrepreneurs engaged in enterprises
that subscribe to and implement sustainable development policies.
Activities
30.19. Governments should encourage the establishment and operations of
sustainably managed enterprises. The mix would include regulatory measures,
economic incentives and streamlining of administrative procedures to assure
maximum efficiency in dealing with applications for approval in order to
facilitate investment decisions, advice and assistance with information,
infrastructural support and stewardship responsibilities.
30.20. Governments should encourage, in cooperation with the private
sector, the establishment of venture capital funds for sustainable
development projects and programmes.
30.21. In collaboration with business, industry, academia and international
organizations, Governments should support training in the environmental
aspects of enterprise management. Attention should also be directed towards
apprenticeship schemes for youth.
30.22. Business and industry, including transnational corporations, should
be encouraged to establish world-wide corporate policies on sustainable
development, arrange for environmentally sound technologies to be available
to affiliates owned substantially by their parent company in developing
countries without extra external charges, encourage overseas affiliates to
modify procedures in order to reflect local ecological conditions and share
experiences with local authorities, national Governments and international
organizations.
30.23. Large business and industry, including transnational corporations,
should consider establishing partnership schemes with small and medium-sized
enterprises to help facilitate the exchange of experience in managerial
skills, market development and technological know-how, where appropriate,
with the assistance of international organizations.
30.24. Business and industry should establish national councils for
sustainable development and help promote entrepreneurship in the formal and
informal sectors. The inclusion of women entrepreneurs should be
facilitated.
30.25. Business and industry, including transnational corporations, should
increase research and development of environmentally sound technologies and
environmental management systems, in collaboration with academia and the
scientific/engineering establishments, drawing upon indigenous knowledge,
where appropriate.
30.26. Business and industry, including transnational corporations, should
ensure responsible and ethical management of products and processes from the
point of view of health, safety and environmental aspects. Towards this
end, business and industry should increase self-regulation, guided by
appropriate codes, charters and initiatives integrated into all elements of
business planning and decision-making, and fostering openness and dialogue
with employees and the public.
30.27. Multilateral and bilateral financial aid institutions should
continue to encourage and support small- and medium-scale entrepreneurs
engaged in sustainable development activities.
30.28. United Nations organizations and agencies should improve mechanisms
for business and industry inputs, policy and strategy formulation processes,
to ensure that environmental aspects are strengthened in foreign investment.
30.29. International organizations should increase support for research and
development on improving the technological and managerial requirements for
sustainable development, in particular for small and medium-sized
enterprises in developing countries.
Means of implementation
Financing and cost evaluation
30.30. The activities included under this programme area are mostly changes
in the orientation of existing activities and additional costs are not
expected to be significant. The cost of activities by Governments and
international organizations are already included in other programme areas.
Notes
1/ See A/CONF.151/PC/125.
Chapter 31
SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL COMMUNITY
INTRODUCTION
31.1. The present chapter focuses on how to enable the scientific and
technological community, which includes, among others, engineers,
architects, industrial designers, urban planners and other professionals and
policy makers, to make a more open and effective contribution to the
decision-making processes concerning environment and development. It is
important that the role of science and technology in human affairs be more
widely known and better understood, both by decision makers who help
determine public policy and by the general public. The cooperative
relationship existing between the scientific and technological community and
the general public should be extended and deepened into a full partnership.
Improved communication and cooperation between the scientific and
technological community and decision makers will facilitate greater use of
scientific and technical information and knowledge in policies and programme
implementation. Decision makers should create more favourable conditions
for improving training and independent research in sustainable development.
Existing multidisciplinary approaches will have to be strengthened and more
interdisciplinary studies developed between the scientific and technological
community and policy makers and with the general public to provide
leadership and practical know-how to the concept of sustainable development.
The public should be assisted in communicating their sentiments to the
scientific and technological community concerning how science and technology
might be better managed to affect their lives in a beneficial way. By the
same token, the independence of the scientific and technological community
to investigate and publish without restriction and to exchange their
findings freely must be assured. The adoption and implementation of ethical
principles and codes of practice for the scientific and technological
community that are internationally accepted could enhance professionalism
and may improve and hasten recognition of the value of its contributions to
environment and development, recognizing the continuing evolution and
uncertainty of scientific knowledge.
PROGRAMME AREAS
A. Improving communication and cooperation among the
scientific and technological community, decision
makers and the public
Basis for action
31.2. The scientific and technological community and policy makers should
increase their interaction in order to implement strategies for sustainable
development on the basis of the best available knowledge. This implies that
decision makers should provide the necessary framework for rigorous researchand for full and open communication of the findings of the scientific and
technological community, and develop with it ways in which research results
and the concerns stemming from the findings can be communicated to
decision-making bodies so as to better link scientific and technical
knowledge with strategic policy and programme formulation. At the same
time, this dialogue would assist the scientific and technological community
in developing priorities for research and proposing actions for constructive
solutions.
Objectives
31.3. The following objectives are proposed:
(a) To extend and open up the decision-making process and broaden the
range of developmental and environmental issues where cooperation at all
levels between the scientific and technological community and decision
makers can take place;
(b) To improve the exchange of knowledge and concerns between the
scientific and technological community and the general public in order to
enable policies and programmes to be better formulated, understood and
supported.
Activities
31.4. Governments should undertake the following activities:
(a) Review how national scientific and technological activities could
be more responsive to sustainable development needs as part of an overall
effort to strengthen national research and development systems, including
through strengthening and widening the membership of national scientific and
technological advisory councils, organizations and committees to ensure
that:
(i) The full range of national needs for scientific and technological
programmes are communicated to Governments and the public;
(ii) The various strands of public opinion are represented;
(b) Promote regional cooperative mechanisms to address regional needs
for sustainable development. Such regional cooperative mechanisms could be
facilitated through public/private partnerships and provide support to
Governments, industry, non-governmental educational institutions and other
domestic and international organizations, and by strengthening global
professional networks;
(c) Improve and expand scientific and technical inputs through
appropriate mechanisms to intergovernmental consultative, cooperative and
negotiating processes towards international and regional agreements;
(d) Strengthen science and technology advice to the highest levels of
the United Nations, and other international institutions, in order to ensurethe inclusion of science and technology know-how in sustainable development
policies and strategies;
(e) Improve and strengthen programmes for disseminating research
results of universities and research institutions. This requires
recognition of and greater support to the scientists, technologists and
teachers who are engaged in communicating and interpreting scientific and
technological information to policy makers, professionals in other fields
and the general public. Such support should focus on the transfer of skills
and the transfer and adaptation of planning techniques. This requires full
and open sharing of data and information among scientists and decision
makers. The publication of national scientific research reports and
technical reports that are understandable and relevant to local sustainable
development needs would also improve the interface between science and
decision-making, as well as the implementation of scientific results;
(f) Improve links between the official and independent research
sectors and industry so that research may become an important element of
industrial strategy;
(g) Promote and strengthen the role of women as full partners in the
science and technology disciplines;
(h) Develop and implement information technologies to enhance the
dissemination of information for sustainable development.
Means of implementation
(a) Financing and cost evaluation
31.5. The Conferense secretariat has estimated the average total annual
cost (1993-2000) of implementing the activities of this programme to be
about $15 million from the international community on grant or concessional
terms. These are indicative and order-of-magnitude estimates only and have
not been reviewed by Governments. Actual costs and financial terms,
including any that are non-concessional, will depend upon, inter alia, the
specific strategies and programmes Governments decide upon for
implementation.
(b) Capacity-building
31.6. Intergovernmental panels on development and environmental issues
should be organized, with emphasis on their scientific and technical
aspects, and studies of responsiveness and adaptability included in
subsequent programmes of action.
B. Promoting codes of practice and guidelines related to
science and technology
Basis for action
31.7. Scientists and technologists have a special set of responsibilities
which belong to them both as inheritors of a tradition and as professionals
and members of disciplines devoted to the search for knowledge and to the
need to protect the biosphere in the context of sustainable development.
31.8. Increased ethical awareness in environmental and developmental
decision-making should help to place appropriate priorities for the
maintenance and enhancement of life-support systems for their own sake, and
in so doing ensure that the functioning of viable natural processes is
properly valued by present and future societies. Therefore, a strengthening
of the codes of practice and guidelines for the scientific and technological
community would increase environmental awareness and contribute to
sustainable development. It would build up the level of esteem and regard
for the scientific and technological community and facilitate the
"accountability" of science and technology.
Objectives
31.9. The objective should be to develop, improve and promote international
acceptance of codes of practice and guidelines relating to science and
technology in which the integrity of life-support systems is comprehensively
accounted for and where the important role of science and technology in
reconciling the needs of environment and development is accepted. To be
effective in the decision-making process, such principles, codes of practice
and guidelines must not only be agreed upon by the scientific and
technological community, but also recognized by the society as a whole.
Activities
31.10. The following activities could be undertaken:
(a) Strengthening national and international cooperation, including
the non-governmental sector, to develop codes of practice and guidelines
regarding environmentally sound and sustainable development, taking into
account the Rio Declaration and existing codes of practice and guidelines;
(b) Strengthening and establishing national advisory groups on
environmental and developmental ethics, in order to develop a common value
framework between the scientific and technological community and society as
a whole, and promote continuous dialogue;
(c) Extending education and training in developmental and
environmental ethical issues to integrate such objectives into education
curricula and research priorities;
(d) Reviewing and amending relevant national and international
environment and development legal instruments to ensure appropriate codes of
practice and guidelines are incorporated into such regulatory machinery.
Means of implementation
(a) Financing and cost evaluation
31.11. The Conferense secretariat has estimated the average total annual
cost (1993-2000) of implementing the activities of this programme to be
about $5 million from the international community on grant or concessional
terms. These are indicative and order-of-magnitude estimates only and have
not been reviewed by Governments. Actual costs and financial terms,
including any that are non-concessional, will depend upon, inter alia, the
specific strategies and programmes Governments decide upon for
implementation.
(b) Capacity-building
31.12. Codes of practice and guidelines, including on appropriate
principles, should be developed for and by the scientific and technological
community in the pursuit of its research activities and implementation of
programmes aimed at sustainable development.
Chapter 32
STRENGTHENING THE ROLE OF FARMERS*
PROGRAMME AREA
Basis for action
32.1. Agriculture occupies one third of the land surface of the Earth, and
is the central activity for much of the world's population. Rural
activities take place in close contact with nature, adding value to it by
producing renewable resources, while at the same time becoming vulnerable to
overexploitation and improper management.
32.2. The rural household, indigenous people and their communities, and the
family farmer, a substantial number of whom are women, have been the
stewards of much of the Earth's resources. Farmers must conserve their
physical environment as they depend on it for their sustenance. Over the
past 20 years there has been impressive increase in aggregate agricultural
production. Yet, in some regions, this increase has been outstripped by
population growth or international debt or falling commodity prices.
Further, the natural resources that sustain farming activity need proper
care, and there is a growing concern about the sustainability of
agricultural production systems.
32.3. A farmer-centred approach is the key to the attainment of
sustainability in both developed and developing countries and many of the
programme areas in Agenda 21 address this objective. A significant number
of the rural population in developing countries depend primarily upon
small-scale, subsistence-oriented agriculture based on family labour.
However, they have limited access to resources, technology, alternative
livelihood and means of production. As a result, they are engaged in the
overexploitation of natural resources, including marginal lands.
32.4. The sustainable development of people in marginal and fragile
ecosystems is also addressed in Agenda 21. The key to the successful
implementation of these programmes lies in the motivation and attitudes of
individual farmers and government policies that would provide incentives to
farmers to manage their natural resources efficiently and in a sustainable
way. Farmers, particularly women, face a high degree of economic, legal and
institutional uncertainties when investing in their land and other
resources. The decentralization of decision-making towards local and
community organizations is the key in changing people's behaviour and
implementing
* In this chapter, all references to "farmers" include all rural
people who derive their livelihood from activities such as farming, fishing
and forest harvesting. The term "farming" also includes fishing and forest
harvesting.
sustainable farming strategies. This programme area deals with activities
which can contribute to this end.
Objectives
32.5. The following objectives are proposed:
(a) To encourage a decentralized decision-making process through the
creation and strengthening of local and village organizations that would
delegate power and responsibility to primary users of natural resources;
(b) To support and enhance the legal capacity of women and vulnerable
groups with regard to access, use and tenure of land;
(c) To promote and encourage sustainable farming practices and
technologies;
(d) To introduce or strengthen policies that would encourage
self-sufficiency in low-input and low-energy technologies, including
indigenous practices, and pricing mechanisms that internalize environmental
costs;
(e) To develop a policy framework that provides incentives and
motivation among farmers for sustainable and efficient farming practices;
(f) To enhance the participation of farmers, men and women, in the
design and implementation of policies directed towards these ends, through
their representative organizations.
Activities
(a) Management-related activities
32.6. National Governments should:
(a) Ensure the implementation of the programmes on sustainable
livelihoods, agriculture and rural development, managing fragile ecosystems,
water use in agriculture, and integrated management of natural resources;
(b) Promote pricing mechanisms, trade policies, fiscal incentives and
other policy instruments that positively affect individual farmer's
decisions about an efficient and sustainable use of natural resources, and
take full account of the impact of these decisions on household food
security, farm incomes, employment and the environment;
(c) Involve farmers and their representative organizations in the
formulation of policy;
(d) Protect, recognize and formalize women's access to tenure and use
of land, as well as rights to land, access to credit, technology, inputs and
training;
(e) Support the formation of farmers' organizations by providing
adequate legal and social conditions.
32.7. Support for farmers' organizations could be arranged as follows:
(a) National and international research centres should cooperate with
farmers' organizations in developing location-specific environment-friendly
farming techniques;
(b) National Governments, multilateral and bilateral development
agencies and non-governmental organizations should collaborate with farmers'
organizations in formulating agricultural development projects to specific
agro-ecological zones.
(b) Data and information
32.8. Governments and farmers' organizations should:
(a) Initiate mechanisms to document, synthesize and disseminate local
knowledge, practices and project experiences so that they will make use of
the lessons of the past when formulating and implementing policies affecting
farming, forest and fishing populations;
(b) Establish networks for the exchange of experiences with regard to
farming that help to conserve land, water and forest resources, minimize the
use of chemicals and reduce or reutilize farm wastes;
(c) Develop pilot projects and extension services that would seek to
build on the needs and knowledge base of women farmers.
(c) International and regional cooperation
32.9. FAO, IFAD, WFP, the World Bank, the regional development banks and
other international organizations involved in rural development should
involve farmers and their representatives in their deliberations, as
appropriate.
32.10. Representative organizations of farmers should establish programmes
for the development and support of farmers' organizations, particularly in
developing countries.
Means of implementation
(a) Financing and cost evaluation
32.11. The financing needed for this programme area is estimated in
chapter 14 (Promoting sustainable agriculture and rural development),
particularly in the programme area entitled "Ensuring people's participation
and promoting human resource development for sustainable agriculture". The
costs shown under chapters 3 (Combating poverty), 12 (Managing fragile
ecosystems: combating desertification and drought), and 13 (Managing
fragileecosystems: sustainable mountain development) are also relevant to this
programme area.
(b) Scientific and technological means
32.12. Governments and appropriate international organizations, in
collaboration with national research organizations and non-governmental
organizations should, as appropriate:
(a) Develop environmentally sound farming technologies that enhance
crop yields, maintain land quality, recycle nutrients, conserve water and
energy and control pests and weeds;
(b) Conduct studies of high-resource and low-resource agriculture to
compare their productivity and sustainability. The research should
preferably be conducted under various environmental and sociological
settings;
(c) Support research on mechanization that would optimize human labour
and animal power and hand-held and animal-drawn equipment that can be easily
operated and maintained. The development of farm technologies should take
into account farmers' available resources and the role of animals in farming
households and the ecology.
(c) Human resource development
32.13. Governments, with the support of multilateral and bilateral
development agencies and scientific organizations, should develop curricula
for agricultural colleges and training institutions that would integrate
ecology into agricultural science. Interdisciplinary programmes in
agricultural ecology are essential to the training of a new generation of
agricultural scientists and field-level extension agents.
(d) Capacity-building
32.14. Governments should, in the light of each country's specific
situation:
(a) Create the institutional and legal mechanisms to ensure effective
land tenure to farmers. The absence of legislation indicating land rights
has been an obstacle in taking action against land degradation in many
farming communities in developing countries;
(b) Strengthen rural institutions that would enhance sustainability
through locally managed credit systems and technical assistance, local
production and distribution facilities for inputs, appropriate equipment and
small-scale processing units, and marketing and distribution systems;
(c) Establish mechanisms to increase access of farmers, in particular
women and farmers from indigenous groups, to agricultural training, credit
and use of improved technology for ensuring food security.
SECTION IV. MEANS OF IMPLEMENTATION
Chapter 33
FINANCIAL RESOURCES AND MECHANISMS
INTRODUCTION
33.1. The General Assembly, in resolution 44/228 of 22 December 1989,
inter alia, decided that the United Nations Conference on Environment and
Development should:
Identify ways and means of providing new and additional financial
resources, particularly to developing countries, for environmentally
sound development programmes and projects in accordance with national
development objectives, priorities and plans and to consider ways of
effectively monitoring the provision of such new and additional
financial resources, particularly to developing countries, so as to
enable the international community to take further appropriate action
on the basis of accurate and reliable data;
Identify ways and means of providing additional financial resources for
measures directed towards solving major environmental problems of
global concern and especially of supporting those countries, in
particular developing countries, for which the implementation of such
measures would entail a special or abnormal burden, owing, in
particular, to their lack of financial resources, expertise or
technical capacity;
Consider various funding mechanisms, including voluntary ones, and
examine the possibility of a special international fund and other
innovative approaches, with a view to ensuring, on a favourable basis,
the most effective and expeditious transfer of environmentally sound
technologies to developing countries;
Quantify the financial requirements for the successful implementation
of Conference decisions and recommendations and identify possible
sources, including innovative ones, of additional resources.
33.2. This chapter deals with the financing of the implementation of
Agenda 21, which reflects a global consensus integrating environmental
considerations into an accelerated development process. For each of the
other chapters, the secretariat of the Conference has provided indicative
estimates of the total costs of implementation for developing countries and
the requirements for grant or other concessional financing needed from the
international community. These reflect the need for a substantially
increased effort, both by countries themselves and by the international
community.
BASIS FOR ACTION
33.3. Economic growth, social development and poverty eradication are the
first and overriding priorities in developing countries and are themselves
essential to meeting national and global sustainability objectives. In the
light of the global benefits to be realized by the implementation of
Agenda 21 as a whole, the provision to developing countries of effective
means, inter alia, financial resources and technology, without which it will
be difficult for them to fully implement their commitments, will serve the
common interests of developed and developing countries and of humankind in
general, including future generations.
33.4. The cost of inaction could outweigh the financial costs of
implementing Agenda 21. Inaction will narrow the choices of future
generations.
33.5. For dealing with environmental issues, special efforts will be
required. Global and local environmental issues are interrelated. The
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Convention on
Biological Diversity address two of the most important global issues.
33.6. Economic conditions, both domestic and international, that encourage
free trade and access to markets will help make economic growth and
environmental protection mutually supportive for all countries, particularly
for developing countries and countries undergoing the process of transition
to a market economy (see chapter 2 for a fuller discussion of these issues).
33.7. International cooperation for sustainable development should also be
strengthened in order to support and complement the efforts of developing
countries, particularly the least developed countries.
33.8. All countries should assess how to translate Agenda 21 into national
policies and programmes through a process that will integrate environment
and development considerations. National and local priorities should be
established by means that include public participation and community
involvement, promoting equal opportunity for men and women.
33.9. For an evolving partnership among all countries of the world,
including, in particular, between developed and developing countries,
sustainable development strategies and enhanced and predictable levels of
funding in support of longer term objectives are required. For that
purpose, developing countries should articulate their own priority actions
and needs for support and developed countries should commit themselves to
addressing these priorities. In this respect, consultative groups and round
tables and other nationally based mechanisms can play a facilitative role.
33.10. The implementation of the huge sustainable development programmes of
Agenda 21 will require the provision to developing countries of substantial
new and additional financial resources. Grant or concessional financing
should be provided according to sound and equitable criteria and indicators.
The progressive implementation of Agenda 21 should be matched by the
provisionof such necessary financial resources. The initial phase will be
accelerated by substantial early commitments of concessional funding.
OBJECTIVES
33.11. The objectives are as follows:
(a) To establish measures concerning financial resources and
mechanisms for the implementation of Agenda 21;
(b) To provide new and additional financial resources that are both
adequate and predictable;
(c) To seek full use and continuing qualitative improvement of funding
mechanisms to be utilized for the implementation of Agenda 21.
ACTIVITIES
33.12. Fundamentally, the activities of this chapter are related to the
implementation of all the other chapters of Agenda 21.
MEANS OF IMPLEMENTATION
33.13. In general, the financing for the implementation of Agenda 21 will
come from a country's own public and private sectors. For developing
countries, particularly the least developed countries, ODA is a main source
of external funding, and substantial new and additional funding for
sustainable development and implementation of Agenda 21 will be required.
Developed countries reaffirm their commitments to reach the accepted United
Nations target of 0.7 per cent of GNP for ODA and, to the extent that they
have not yet achieved that target, agree to augment their aid programmes in
order to reach that target as soon as possible and to ensure prompt and
effective implementation of Agenda 21. Some countries have agreed to reach
the target by the year 2000. It was decided that the Commission on
Sustainable Development would regularly review and monitor progress towards
this target. This review process should systematically combine the
monitoring of the implementation of Agenda 21 with a review of the financial
resources available. Those countries that have already reached the target
are to be commended and encouraged to continue to contribute to the common
effort to make available the substantial additional resources that have to
be mobilized. Other developed countries, in line with their support for
reform efforts in developing countries, agree to make their best efforts to
increase their level of ODA. In this context, the importance of equitable
burden-sharing among developed countries is recognized. Other countries,
including those undergoing the process of transition to a market economy,
may voluntarily augment the contributions of the developed countries.
33.14. Funding for Agenda 21 and other outcomes of the Conference should be
provided in a way that maximizes the availability of new and additional
resources and uses all available funding sources and mechanisms. These
include, among others:
(a) The multilateral development banks and funds:
(i) The International Development Association (IDA). Among the
various issues and options that IDA deputies will examine in
connection with the forthcoming tenth replenishment of IDA, the
statement made by the President of the World Bank at the United
Nations Conference on Environment and Development should be given
special consideration in order to help the poorest countries meet
their sustainable development objectives as contained in Agenda
21;
(ii) Regional and subregional development banks. The regional and
subregional development banks and funds should play an increased
and more effective role in providing resources on concessional or
other favourable terms needed to implement Agenda 21;
(iii) The Global Environment Facility, managed jointly by the World
Bank, UNDP and UNEP, whose additional grant and concessional
funding is designed to achieve global environmental benefits,
should cover the agreed incremental costs of relevant activities
under Agenda 21, in particular for developing countries.
Therefore, it should be restructured so as to, inter alia:
Encourage universal participation;
Have sufficient flexibility to expand its scope and coverage
to relevant programme areas of Agenda 21, with global
environmental benefits, as agreed;
Ensure a governance that is transparent and democratic in
nature, including in terms of decision-making and operations,
by guaranteeing a balanced and equitable representation of
the interests of developing countries and giving due weight
to the funding efforts of donor countries;
Ensure new and additional financial resources on grant and
concessional terms, in particular to developing countries;
Ensure predictability in the flow of funds by contributions
from developed countries, taking into account the importance
of equitable burden-sharing;
Ensure access to and disbursement of the funds under mutually
agreed criteria without introducing new forms of
conditionality;
(b) The relevant specialized agencies, other United Nations bodies and
other international organizations, which have designated roles to play in
supporting national Governments in implementing Agenda 21;
(c) Multilateral institutions for capacity-building and technical
cooperation. Necessary financial resources should be provided to UNDP to
use its network of field offices and its broad mandate and experience in the
field of technical cooperation for facilitating capacity-building at the
country level, making full use of the expertise of the specialized agencies
and other United Nations bodies within their respective areas of competence,
in particular UNEP and including the multilateral and regional development
banks;
(d) Bilateral assistance programmes. These programmes will need to be
strengthened in order to promote sustainable development;
(e) Debt relief. It is important to achieve durable solutions to the
debt problems of low- and middle-income developing countries in order to
provide them with the needed means for sustainable development. Measures to
address the continuing debt problems of low- and middle-income countries
should be kept under review. All creditors in the Paris Club should
promptly implement the agreement of December 1991 to provide debt relief for
the poorest heavily indebted countries pursuing structural adjustment; debt
relief measures should be kept under review so as to address the continuing
difficulties of those countries;
(f) Private funding. Voluntary contributions through non-governmental
channels, which have been running at about 10 per cent of ODA, might be
increased.
33.15. Investment. Mobilization of higher levels of foreign direct
investment and technology transfers should be encouraged through national
policies that promote investment and through joint ventures and other
modalities.
33.16. Innovative financing. New ways of generating new public and private
financial resources should be explored, in particular:
(a) Various forms of debt relief, apart from official or Paris Club
debt, including greater use of debt swaps;
(b) The use of economic and fiscal incentives and mechanisms;
(c) The feasibility of tradeable permits;
(d) New schemes for fund-raising and voluntary contributions through
private channels, including non-governmental organizations;
(e) The reallocation of resources at present committed to military
purposes.
33.17. A supportive international and domestic economic climate conducive
to sustained economic growth and development is important, particularly for
developing countries, in order to achieve sustainability.
33.18. The secretariat of the Conference has estimated the average annual
costs (1993-2000) of implementing in developing countries the activities in
Agenda 21 to be over $600 billion, including about $125 billion on grant or
concessional terms from the international community. These are indicative
and order-of-magnitude estimates only, and have not been reviewed by
Governments. Actual costs will depend upon, inter alia, the specific
strategies and programmes Governments decide upon for implementation.
33.19. Developed countries and others in a position to do so should make
initial financial commitments to give effect to the decisions of the
Conference. They should report on such plans and commitments to the United
Nations General Assembly at its forty-seventh session, in 1992.
33.20. Developing countries should also begin to draw up national plans for
sustainable development to give effect to the decisions of the Conference.
33.21. Review and monitoring of the financing of Agenda 21 is essential.
Questions related to the effective follow-up of the Conference are discussed
in chapter 38 (International institutional arrangements). It will be
important to review on a regular basis the adequacy of funding and
mechanisms, including efforts to reach agreed objectives of the present
chapter, including targets where applicable.
Chapter 34
TRANSFER OF ENVIRONMENTALLY SOUND TECHNOLOGY, COOPERATION
AND CAPACITY-BUILDING
INTRODUCTION
34.1. Environmentally sound technologies protect the environment, are less
polluting, use all resources in a more sustainable manner, recycle more of
their wastes and products, and handle residual wastes in a more acceptable
manner than the technologies for which they were substitutes.
34.2. Environmentally sound technologies in the context of pollution are
"process and product technologies" that generate low or no waste, for the
prevention of pollution. They also cover "end of the pipe" technologies for
treatment of pollution after it has been generated.
34.3. Environmentally sound technologies are not just individual
technologies, but total systems which include know-how, procedures, goods
and services, and equipment as well as organizational and managerial
procedures. This implies that when discussing transfer of technologies, the
human resource development and local capacity-building aspects of technology
choices, including gender-relevant aspects, should also be addressed.
Environmentally sound technologies should be compatible with nationally
determined socio-economic, cultural and environmental priorities.
34.4. There is a need for favourable access to and transfer of
environmentally sound technologies, in particular to developing countries,
through supportive measures that promote technology cooperation and that
should enable transfer of necessary technological know-how as well as
building up of economic, technical, and managerial capabilities for the
efficient use and further development of transferred technology. Technology
cooperation involves joint efforts by enterprises and Governments, both
suppliers of technology and its recipients. Therefore, such cooperation
entails an iterative process involving government, the private sector, and
research and development facilities to ensure the best possible results from
transfer of technology. Successful long-term partnerships in technology
cooperation necessarily require continuing systematic training and
capacity-building at all levels over an extended period of time.
34.5. The activities proposed in this chapter aim at improving conditions
and processes on information, access to and transfer of technology
(including the state-of-the-art technology and related know-how), in
particular to developing countries, as well as on capacity-building and
cooperative arrangements and partnerships in the field of technology, in
order to promote sustainable development. New and efficient technologies
will be essential to increase the capabilities, in particular of developing
countries, to achieve sustainable development, sustain the world's economy,
protect the environment, andalleviate poverty and human suffering. Inherent in these activities is the
need to address the improvement of technology currently used and its
replacement, when appropriate, with more accessible and more environmentally
sound technology.
BASIS FOR ACTION
34.6. This chapter of Agenda 21 is without prejudice to specific
commitments and arrangements on transfer of technology to be adopted in
specific international instruments.
34.7. The availability of scientific and technological information and
access to and transfer of environmentally sound technology are essential
requirements for sustainable development. Providing adequate information on
the environmental aspects of present technologies consists of two
interrelated components: upgrading information on present and
state-of-the-art technologies, including their environmental risks, and
improving access to environmentally sound technologies.
34.8. The primary goal of improved access to technology information is to
enable informed choices, leading to access to and transfer of such
technologies and the strengthening of countries' own technological
capabilities.
34.9. A large body of useful technological knowledge lies in the public
domain. There is a need for the access of developing countries to such
technologies as are not covered by patents or lie in the public domain.
Developing countries would also need to have access to the know-how and
expertise required for the effective utilization of the aforesaid
technologies.
34.10. Consideration must be given to the role of patent protection and
intellectual property rights along with an examination of their impact on
the access to and transfer of environmentally sound technology, in
particular to developing countries, as well as to further exploring
efficiently the concept of assured access for developing countries to
environmentally sound technology in its relation to proprietary rights with
a view to developing effective responses to the needs of developing
countries in this area.
34.11. Proprietary technology is available through commercial channels, and
international business is an important vehicle for technology transfer.
Tapping this pool of knowledge and recombining it with local innovations to
generate alternative technologies should be pursued. At the same time that
concepts and modalities for assured access to environmentally sound
technologies, including state-of-the-art technologies, in particular by
developing countries, continued to be explored, enhanced access to
environmentally sound technologies should be promoted, facilitated and
financed as appropriate, while providing fair incentives to innovators that
promote research and development of new environmentally sound technologies.
34.12. Recipient countries require technology and strengthened support to
help further develop their scientific, technological, professional and
related capacities, taking into account existing technologies and
capacities. This support would enable countries, in particular developing
countries, to make more rational technology choices. These countries could
then better assess environmentally sound technologies prior to their
transfer and properly apply and manage them, as well as improve upon already
existing technologies and adapt them to suit their specific development
needs and priorities.
34.13. A critical mass of research and development capacity is crucial to
the effective dissemination and use of environmentally sound technologies
and their generation locally. Education and training programmes should
reflect the needs of specific goal-oriented research activities and should
work to produce specialists literate in environmentally sound technology and
with an interdisciplinary outlook. Achieving this critical mass involves
building the capabilities of craftspersons, technicians and middle-level
managers, scientists, engineers and educators, as well as developing their
corresponding social or managerial support systems. Transferring
environmentally sound technologies also involves innovatively adapting and
incorporating them into the local or national culture.
OBJECTIVES
34.14. The following objectives are proposed:
(a) To help to ensure the access, in particular of developing
countries, to scientific and technological information, including
information on state-of-the-art technologies;
(b) To promote, facilitate, and finance, as appropriate, the access to
and the transfer of environmentally sound technologies and corresponding
know-how, in particular to developing countries, on favourable terms,
including on concessional and preferential terms, as mutually agreed, taking
into account the need to protect intellectual property rights as well as the
special needs of developing countries for the implementation of Agenda 21;
(c) To facilitate the maintenance and promotion of environmentally
sound indigenous technologies that may have been neglected or displaced, in
particular in developing countries, paying particular attention to their
priority needs and taking into account the complementary roles of men and
women;
(d) To support endogenous capacity-building, in particular in
developing countries, so they can assess, adopt, manage and apply
environmentally sound technologies. This could be achieved through
inter alia:
(i) Human resource development;
(ii) Strengthening of institutional capacities for research and
development and programme implementation;
(iii) Integrated sector assessments of technology needs, in accordance
with countries' plans, objectives and priorities as foreseen in
the implementation of Agenda 21 at the national level;
(e) To promote long-term technological partnerships between holders of
environmentally sound technologies and potential users.
ACTIVITIES
(a) Development of international information networks which link national,
subregional, regional and international systems
34.15. Existing national, subregional, regional and international
information systems should be developed and linked through regional
clearing-houses covering broad-based sectors of the economy such as
agriculture, industry and energy. Such a network might, inter alia, include
national, subregional and regional patent offices that are equipped to
produce reports on state-of-the-art technology. The clearing-house networks
would disseminate information on available technologies, their sources,
their environmental risks, and the broad terms under which they may be
acquired. They would operate on an information-demand basis and focus on
the information needs of the end-users. They would take into account the
positive roles and contributions of international, regional and subregional
organizations, business communities, trade associations, non-governmental
organizations, national Governments, and newly established or strengthened
national networks.
34.16. The international and regional clearing-houses would take the
initiative, where necessary, in helping users to identify their needs and in
disseminating information that meets those needs, including the use of
existing news, public information, and communication systems. The
disseminated information would highlight and detail concrete cases where
environmentally sound technologies were successfully developed and
implemented. In order to be effective, the clearing-houses need to provide
not only information, but also referrals to other services, including
sources of advice, training, technologies and technology assessment. The
clearing-houses would thus facilitate the establishment of joint ventures
and partnerships of various kinds.
34.17. An inventory of existing and international or regional
clearing-houses or information exchange systems should be undertaken by the
relevant United Nations bodies. The existing structure should be
strengthened and improved when necessary. Additional information systems
should be developed, if necessary, in order to fill identified gaps in this
international network.
(b) Support of and promotion of access to transfer of technology
34.18. Governments and international organizations should promote, and
encourage the private sector to promote, effective modalities for the access
and transfer, in particular to developing countries, of environmentally
sound technologies by means of activities, including the following:
(a) Formulation of policies and programmes for the effective transfer
of environmentally sound technologies that are publicly owned or in the
public domain;
(b) Creation of favourable conditions to encourage the private and
public sectors to innovate, market and use environmentally sound
technologies;
(c) Examination by Governments and, where appropriate, by relevant
organizations of existing policies, including subsidies and tax policies,
and regulations to determine whether they encourage or impede the access to,
transfer of and introduction of environmentally sound technologies;
(d) Addressing, in a framework which fully integrates environment and
development, barriers to the transfer of privately owned environmentally
sound technologies and adoption of appropriate general measures to reduce
such barriers while creating specific incentives, fiscal or otherwise, for
the transfer of such technologies;
(e) In the case of privately owned technologies, the adoption of the
following measures, in particular for developing countries:
(i) Creation and enhancement by developed countries, as well as other
countries which might be in a position to do so, of appropriate
incentives, fiscal or otherwise, to stimulate the transfer of
environmentally sound technology by companies, in particular to
developing countries, as integral to sustainable development;
(ii) Enhancement of the access to and transfer of patent protected
environmentally sound technologies, in particular to developing
countries;
(iii) Purchase of patents and licences on commercial terms for their
transfer to developing countries on non-commercial terms as part
of development cooperation for sustainable development, taking
into account the need to protect intellectual property rights;
(iv) In compliance with and under the specific circumstances recognized
by the relevant international conventions adhered to by States,
the undertaking of measures to prevent the abuse of intellectual
property rights, including rules with respect to their acquisition
through compulsory licensing, with the provision of equitable and
adequate compensation;
(v) Provision of financial resources to acquire environmentally sound
technologies in order to enable in particular developing countries
to implement measures to promote sustainable development that
would entail a special or abnormal burden to them;
(f) Development of mechanisms for the access to and transfer of
environmentally sound technologies, in particular to developing countries,while taking into account development in the process of negotiating an
international code of conduct on transfer of technology, as decided by
UNCTAD at its eighth session, held at Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, in
February 1992.
(c) Improvement of the capacity to develop and manage environmentally sound
technologies
34.19. Frameworks at subregional, regional and international levels should
be established and/or strengthened for the development, transfer and
application of environmentally sound technologies and corresponding
technical know-how with a special focus on developing countries' needs, by
adding such functions to already existing bodies. Such frameworks would
facilitate initiatives from both developing and developed countries to
stimulate the research, development and transfer of environmentally sound
technologies, often through partnerships within and among countries and
between the scientific and technological community, industry and
Governments.
34.20. National capacities to assess, develop, manage and apply new
technologies should be developed. This will require strengthening existing
institutions, training of personnel at all levels, and education of the
end-user of the technology.
(d) Establishment of a collaborative network of research centres
34.21. A collaborative network of national, subregional, regional and
international research centres on environmentally sound technology should be
established to enhance the access to and development, management and
transfer of environmentally sound technologies, including transfer and
cooperation among developing countries and between developed and developing
countries, primarily based on existing subregional or regional research,
development and demonstration centres which are linked with the national
institutions, in close cooperation with the private sector.
(e) Support for programmes of cooperation and assistance
34.22. Support should be provided for programmes of cooperation and
assistance, including those provided by United Nations agencies,
international organizations, and other appropriate public and private
organizations, in particular to developing countries, in the areas of
research and development, technological and human resources
capacity-building in the fields of training, maintenance, national
technology needs assessments, environmental impact assessments, and
sustainable development planning.
34.23. Support should also be provided for national, subregional, regional,
multilateral and bilateral programmes of scientific research, dissemination
of information and technology development among developing countries,
including through the involvement of both public and private enterprises and
research facilities, as well as funding for technical cooperation among
developing countries' programmes in this area. This should include
developing links among these facilities to maximize their efficiency in
understanding, disseminating and implementing technologies for sustainable
development.
34.24. The development of global, regional and subregional programmes
should include identification and evaluation of regional, subregional and
national need-based priorities. Plans and studies supporting these
programmes should provide the basis for potential financing by multilateral
development banks, bilateral organizations, private sector interests and
non-governmental organizations.
34.25. Visits should be sponsored and, on a voluntary basis, the return of
qualified experts from developing countries in the field of environmentally
sound technologies who are currently working in developed country
institutions should be facilitated.
(f) Technology assessment in support of the management of environmentally
sound technology
34.26. The international community, in particular United Nations agencies,
international organizations, and other appropriate and private organizations
should help exchange experiences and develop capacity for technology needs
assessment, in particular in developing countries, to enable them to make
choices based on environmentally sound technologies. They should:
(a) Build up technology assessment capacity for the management of
environmentally sound technology, including environmental impact and risk
assessment, with due regard to appropriate safeguards on the transfer of
technologies subject to prohibition on environmental or health grounds;
(b) Strengthen the international network of regional, subregional or
national environmentally sound technology assessment centres, coupled with
clearing-houses, to tap the technology assessment sources mentioned above
for the benefit of all nations. These centres could, in principle, provide
advice and training for specific national situations and promote the
building up of national capacity in environmentally sound technology
assessment. The possibility of assigning this activity to already existing
regional organizations should be fully explored before creating entirely new
institutions, and funding of this activity through public-private
partnerships should also be explored, as appropriate.
(g) Collaborative arrangements and partnerships
34.27. Long-term collaborative arrangements should be promoted between
enterprises of developed and developing countries for the development of
environmentally sound technologies. Multinational companies, as
repositories of scarce technical skills needed for the protection and
enhancement of the environment, have a special role and interest in
promoting cooperation in and related to technology transfer, as they are
important channels for such transfer, and for building a trained human
resource pool and infrastructure.
34.28. Joint ventures should be promoted between suppliers and recipients
of technologies, taking into account developing countries' policy priorities
and objectives. Together with direct foreign investment, these ventures
couldconstitute important channels of transferring environmentally sound
technologies. Through such joint ventures and direct investment, sound
environmental management practices could be transferred and maintained.
MEANS OF IMPLEMENTATION
Financing and cost evaluation
34.29. The Conference secretariat has estimated the average total annual
cost (1993-2000) of implementing the activities of this chapter to be
between $450 million and $600 million from the international community on
grant or concessional terms. These are indicative and order-of-magnitude
estimates only and have not been reviewed by Governments. Actual costs and
financial terms, including any that are non-concessional, will depend upon,
inter alia, the specific strategies and programmes Governments decide upon
for implementation.
Chapter 35
SCIENCE FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
INTRODUCTION
35.1. This chapter focuses on the role and the use of the sciences in
supporting the prudent management of the environment and development for the
daily survival and future development of humanity. The programme areas
proposed herein are intended to be over-arching, in order to support the
specific scientific requirements identified in the other Agenda 21 chapters.
One role of the sciences should be to provide information to better enable
formulation and selection of environment and development policies in the
decision-making process. In order to fulfil this requirement, it will be
essential to enhance scientific understanding, improve long-term scientific
assessments, strengthen scientific capacities in all countries and ensure
that the sciences are responsive to emerging needs.
35.2. Scientists are improving their understanding in areas such as
climatic change, growth in rates of resource consumption, demographic
trends, and environmental degradation. Changes in those and other areas
need to be taken into account in working out long-term strategies for
development. A first step towards improving the scientific basis for these
strategies is a better understanding of land, oceans, atmosphere and their
interlocking water, nutrient and biogeochemical cycles and energy flows
which all form part of the Earth system. This is essential if a more
accurate estimate is to be provided of the carrying capacity of the planet
Earth and of its resilience under the many stresses placed upon it by human
activities. The sciences can provide this understanding through increased
research into the underlying ecological processes and through the
application of modern, effective and efficient tools that are now available,
such as remote-sensing devices, robotic monitoring instruments and computing
and modelling capabilities. The sciences are playing an important role in
linking the fundamental significance of the Earth system as life support to
appropriate strategies for development which build on its continued
functioning. The sciences should continue to play an increasing role in
providing for an improvement in the efficiency of resource utilization and
in finding new development practices, resources, and alternatives. There is
a need for the sciences constantly to reassess and promote less intensive
trends in resource utilization, including less intensive utilization of
energy in industry, agriculture, and transportation. Thus, the sciences are
increasingly being understood as an essential component in the search for
feasible pathways towards sustainable development.
35.3. Scientific knowledge should be applied to articulate and support the
goals of sustainable development, through scientific assessments of current
conditions and future prospects for the Earth system. Such assessments,
based on existing and emerging innovations within the sciences, should be
used in the decision-making process and in the interactive processes between
the sciences and policy-making. There needs to be an increased output from
thesciences in order to enhance understanding and facilitate interaction
between science and society. An increase in the scientific capacity and
capability to achieve these goals will also be required, particularly in
developing countries. Of crucial importance is the need for scientists in
developing countries to participate fully in international scientific
research programmes dealing with the global problems of environment and
development so as to allow all countries to participate on equal footing in
negotiations on global environmental and developmental issues. In the face
of threats of irreversible environmental damage, lack of full scientific
understanding should not be an excuse for postponing actions which are
justified in their own right. The precautionary approach could provide a
basis for policies relating to complex systems that are not yet fully
understood and whose consequences of disturbances cannot yet be predicted.
35.4. The programme areas, which are in harmony with the conclusions and
recommendations of the International Conference on an Agenda of Science for
Environment and Development into the 21st Century (ASCEND 21) are:
(a) Strengthening the scientific basis for sustainable management;
(b) Enhancing scientific understanding;
(c) Improving long-term scientific assessment;
(d) Building up scientific capacity and capability.
PROGRAMME AREAS
A. Strengthening the scientific basis for sustainable
management
Basis for action
35.5. Sustainable development requires taking longer-term perspectives,
integrating local and regional effects of global change into the development
process, and using the best scientific and traditional knowledge available.
The development process should be constantly re-evaluated, in light of the
findings of scientific research, to ensure that resource utilization has
reduced impacts on the Earth system. Even so, the future is uncertain, and
there will be surprises. Good environmental and developmental management
policies must therefore be scientifically robust, seeking to keep open a
range of options to ensure flexibility of response. The precautionary
approach is important. Often, there is a communication gap among
scientists, policy makers, and the public at large, whose interests are
articulated by both governmental and non-governmental organizations. Better
communication is required among scientists, decision makers, and the general
public.
Objectives
35.6. The primary objective is for each country with the support of
international organizations, as requested, to identify the state of its
scientific knowledge and its research needs and priorities in order to
achieve, as soon as possible, substantial improvements in:
(a) Large-scale widening of the scientific base and strengthening of
scientific and research capacities and capabilities - in particular, those
of developing countries - in areas relevant to environment and development;
(b) Environmental and developmental policy formulation, building upon
the best scientific knowledge and assessments, and taking into account the
need to enhance international cooperation and the relative uncertainties of
the various processes and options involved;
(c) The interaction between the sciences and decision-making, using
the precautionary approach, where appropriate, to change the existing
patterns of production and consumption and to gain time for reducing
uncertainty with respect to the selection of policy options;
(d) The generation and application of knowledge, especially indigenous
and local knowledge, to the capacities of different environments and
cultures, to achieve sustained levels of development, taking into account
interrelations at the national, regional and international levels;
(e) Improving cooperation between scientists by promoting
interdisciplinary research programmes and activities;
(f) Participation of people in setting priorities and in
decision-making relating to sustainable development.
Activities
35.7. Countries, with the assistance of international organizations, where
required, should:
(a) Prepare an inventory of their natural and social science data
holdings relevant to the promotion of sustainable development;
(b) Identify their research needs and priorities in the context of
international research efforts;
(c) Strengthen and design appropriate institutional mechanisms at the
highest appropriate local, national, subregional and regional levels and
within the United Nations system for developing a stronger scientific basis
for the improvement of environmental and developmental policy formulation
consistent with long-term goals of sustainable development. Current
research in this area should be broadened to include more involvement of the
public in establishing long-term societal goals for formulating the
sustainable development scenarios;
(d) Develop, apply and institute the necessary tools for sustainable
development, with regard to:
(i) Quality-of-life indicators covering, for example, health,
education, social welfare, state of the environment, and the
economy;
(ii) Economic approaches to environmentally sound development and new
and improved incentive structures for better resource management;
(iii) Long-term environmental policy formulation, risk management and
environmentally sound technology assessment;
(e) Collect, analyse and integrate data on the linkages between the
state of ecosystems and the health of human communities in order to improve
knowledge of the cost and benefit of different development policies and
strategies in relation to health and the environment, particularly in
developing countries;
(f) Conduct scientific studies of national and regional pathways to
sustainable development, using comparable and complementary methodologies.
Such studies, coordinated by an international science effort, should to a
large extent involve local expertise and be conducted by multidisciplinary
teams from regional networks and/or research centres, as appropriate and
according to national capacities and the available resources;
(g) Improve capabilities for determining scientific research
priorities at the national, regional and global levels to meet the needs of
sustainable development. This is a process that involves scientific
judgements regarding short-term and long-term benefits and possible
long-term costs and risks. It should be adaptive and responsive to
perceived needs and be carried out via transparent, "user-friendly",
risk-evaluation methodologies;
(h) Develop methods to link the findings of the established sciences
with the indigenous knowledge of different cultures. The methods should be
tested using pilot studies. They should be developed at the local level and
should concentrate on the links between the traditional knowledge of
indigenous groups and corresponding, current "advanced science", with
particular focus on disseminating and applying the results to environmental
protection and sustainable development.
Means of implementation
(a) Financing and cost evaluation
35.8. The Conference secretariat has estimated the average total annual
cost (1993-2000) of implementing the activities of this programme to be
about $150 million, including about $30 million from the international
community on grant or concessional terms. These are indicative and
order-of-magnitude estimates only and have not been reviewed by Governments.
Actual costs and financial terms, including any that are non-concessional,
will depend upon,inter alia, the specific strategies and programmes Governments decide upon
for implementation.
(b) Scientific and technological means
35.9. The scientific and technological means include the following:
(a) Supporting new scientific research programmes, including their
socio-economic and human aspects, at the community, national, subregional,
regional and global levels, to complement and encourage synergies between
traditional and conventional scientific knowledge and practices and
strengthening interdisciplinary research related to environmental
degradation and rehabilitation;
(b) Setting up demonstration models of different types (e.g.,
socio-economic, environmental conditions) to study methodologies and
formulate guidelines;
(c) Supporting research by developing relative-risk evaluation methods
to assist policy makers in ranking scientific research priorities.
B. Enhancing scientific understanding
Basis for action
35.10. In order to promote sustainable development, more extensive
knowledge is required of the Earth's carrying capacity, including the
processes that could either impair or enhance its ability to support life.
The global environment is changing more rapidly than at any time in recent
centuries; as a result, surprises may be expected, and the next century
could see significant environmental changes. At the same time, the human
consumption of energy, water and non-renewable resources is increasing, on
both a total and a per capita basis, and shortages may ensue in many parts
of the world even if environmental conditions were to remain unchanged.
Social processes are subject to multiple variations across time and space,
regions and culture. They both affect and are influenced by changing
environmental conditions. Human factors are key driving forces in these
intricate sets of relationships and exert their influence directly on global
change. Therefore, study of the human dimensions of the causes and
consequences of environmental change and of more sustainable development
paths is essential.
Objectives
35.11. One key objective is to improve and increase the fundamental
understanding of the linkages between human and natural environmental
systems and improve the analytical and predictive tools required to better
understand the environmental impacts of development options by:
(a) Carrying out research programmes in order better to understand the
carrying capacity of the Earth as conditioned by its natural systems, such
as the biogeochemical cycles, the
atmosphere/hydrosphere/lithosphere/cryosphere system, the biosphere and
biodiversity, the agro-ecosystem and other terrestrial and aquatic
ecosystems;
(b) Developing and applying new analytical and predictive tools in
order to assess more accurately the ways in which the Earth's natural
systems are being increasingly influenced by human actions, both deliberate
and inadvertent, and demographic trends, and the impact and consequences of
those actions and trends;
(c) Integrating physical, economic and social sciences in order better
to understand the impacts of economic and social behaviour on the
environment and of environmental degradation on local and global economies.
Activities
35.12. The following activities should be undertaken:
(a) Support development of an expanded monitoring network to describe
cycles (for example, global, biogeochemical and hydrological cycles) and
test hypotheses regarding their behaviour, and improve research into the
interactions among the various global cycles and their consequences at
national, subregional, regional and global levels as guides to tolerance and
vulnerability;
(b) Support national, subregional, regional and international
observation and research programmes in global atmospheric chemistry and the
sources and sinks of greenhouse gases, and ensure that the results are
presented in a publicly accessible and understandable form;
(c) Support national, subregional, regional and international research
programmes on marine and terrestrial systems, strengthen global terrestrial
databases of their components, expand corresponding systems for monitoring
their changing states and enhance predictive modelling of the Earth system
and its subsystems, including modelling of the functioning of these systems
assuming different intensities of human impact. The research programmes
should include the programmes mentioned in other Agenda 21 chapters which
support mechanisms for cooperation and coherence of research programmes on
global change;
(d) Encourage coordination of satellite missions, the networks,
systems and procedures for processing and disseminating their data; and
develop the interface with the research users of Earth observation data and
with the United Nations EARTHWATCH system;
(e) Develop the capacity for predicting the responses of terrestrial,
freshwater, coastal and marine ecosystems and biodiversity to short- and
long-term perturbations of the environment, and develop further restoration
ecology;
(f) Study the role of biodiversity and the loss of species in the
functioning of ecosystems and the global life-support system;
(g) Initiate a global observing system of parameters needed for the
rational management of coastal and mountain zones and significantly expand
freshwater quantity/quality monitoring systems, particularly in developing
countries;
(h) In order to understand the Earth as a system, develop Earth
observation systems from space which will provide integrated, continuous and
long-term measurements of the interactions of the atmosphere, hydrosphere
and lithosphere, and develop a distribution system for data which will
facilitate the utilization of data obtained through observation;
(i) Develop and apply systems and technology that automatically
collect, record and transmit data and information to data and analysis
centres, in order to monitor marine, terrestrial and atmospheric processes
and provide advance warning of natural disasters;
(j) Enhance the contribution of the engineering sciences to
multidisciplinary research programmes on the Earth system, in particular
with regard to increasing emergency preparedness and reducing the negative
effects of major natural disasters;
(k) Intensify research to integrate the physical, economic and social
sciences to better understand the impacts of economic and social behaviour
on the environment and of environmental degradation on local and global
economies and, in particular:
(i) Develop research on human attitudes and behaviour as driving
forces central to an understanding of the causes and consequences
of environmental change and resource use;
(ii) Promote research on human, economic and social responses to global
change;
(l) Support development of new user-friendly technologies and systems
that facilitate the integration of multidisciplinary, physical, chemical,
biological and social/human processes which, in turn, provide information
and knowledge for decision makers and the general public.
Means of implementation
(a) Financing and cost evaluation
35.13. The Conference secretariat has estimated the average total annual
cost (1993-2000) of implementing the activities of this programme to be
about $2 billion, including about $1.5 billion from the international
community on grant or concessional terms. These are indicative and
order-of-magnitude estimates only and have not been reviewed by Governments.
Actual costs andfinancial terms, including any that are non-concessional, will depend upon,
inter alia, the specific strategies and programmes Governments decide upon
for implementation.
(b) Scientific and technological means
35.14. The scientific and technological means include the following:
(a) Supporting and using the relevant national research activities of
academia, research institutes and governmental and non-governmental
organizations, and promoting their active participation in regional and
global programmes, particularly in developing countries;
(b) Increasing the use of appropriate enabling systems and
technologies, such as supercomputers, space-based observational technology,
Earth- and ocean-based observational technologies, data management and
database technologies and, in particular, developing and expanding the
Global Climate Observing System.
C. Improving long-term scientific assessment
Basis for action
35.15. Meeting scientific research needs in the environment/development
field is only the first step in the support that the sciences can provide
for the sustainable development process. The knowledge acquired may then be
used to provide scientific assessments (audits) of the current status and
for a range of possible future conditions. This implies that the biosphere
must be maintained in a healthy state and that losses in biodiversity must
be slowed down. Although many of the long-term environmental changes that
are likely to affect people and the biosphere are global in scale, key
changes can often be made at the national and local levels. At the same
time, human activities at the local and regional levels often contribute to
global threats - e.g., stratospheric ozone depletion. Thus scientific
assessments and projections are required at the global, regional and local
levels. Many countries and organizations already prepare reports on the
environment and development which review current conditions and indicate
future trends. Regional and global assessments could make full use of such
reports but should be broader in scope and include the results of detailed
studies of future conditions for a range of assumptions about possible
future human responses, using the best available models. Such assessments
should be designed to map out manageable development pathways within the
environmental and socio-economic carrying capacity of each region. Full use
should be made of traditional knowledge of the local environment.
Objectives
35.16. The primary objective is to provide assessments of the current
status and trends in major developmental and environmental issues at the
national,subregional, regional and global levels on the basis of the best available
scientific knowledge in order to develop alternative strategies, including
indigenous approaches, for the different scales of time and space required
for long-term policy formulation.
Activities
35.17. The following activities should be undertaken:
(a) Coordinate existing data- and statistics-gathering systems
relevant to developmental and environmental issues so as to support
preparation of long-term scientific assessments - for example, data on
resource depletion, import/export flows, energy use, health impacts and
demographic trends; apply the data obtained through the activities
identified in programme area B to environment/development assessments at the
global, regional and local levels; and promote the wide distribution of the
assessments in a form that is responsive to public needs and can be widely
understood;
(b) Develop a methodology to carry out national and regional audits
and a five-year global audit on an integrated basis. The standardized
audits should help to refine the pattern and character of development,
examining in particular the capacities of global and regional
life-supporting systems to meet the needs of human and non-human life forms
and identifying areas and resources vulnerable to further degradation. This
task would involve the integration of all relevant sciences at the national,
regional, and global levels, and would be organized by governmental
agencies, non-governmental organizations, universities and research
institutions, assisted by international governmental and non-governmental
organizations and United Nations bodies, when necessary and as appropriate.
These audits should then be made available to the general public.
Means of implementation
Financing and cost evaluation
35.18. The Conference secretariat has estimated the average total annual
cost (1993-2000) of implementing the activities of this programme to be
about $35 million, including about $18 million from the international
community on grant or concessional terms. These are indicative and
order-of-magnitude estimates only and have not been reviewed by Governments.
Actual costs and financial terms, including any that are non-concessional,
will depend upon, inter alia, the specific strategies and programmes
Governments decide upon for implementation.
35.19. With regard to the existing data requirements under programme
area A, support should be provided for national data collection and warning
systems. This would involve setting up database, information and reporting
systems, including data assessment and information dissemination in each
region.
D. Building up scientific capacity and capability
Basis for action
35.20. In view of the increasing role the sciences have to play in dealing
with the issues of environment and development, it is necessary to build up
scientific capacity and strengthen such capacity in all countries -
particularly in developing countries - to enable them to participate fully
in the generation and application of the results of scientific research and
development concerning sustainable development. There are many ways to
build up scientific and technological capacity. Some of the most important
of them are the following: education and training in science and
technology; assistance to developing countries to improve infrastructures
for research and development which could enable scientists to work more
productively; development of incentives to encourage research and
development; and greater utilization of their results in the productive
sectors of the economy. Such capacity-building would also form the basis
for improving public awareness and understanding of the sciences. Special
emphasis must be put on the need to assist developing countries to
strengthen their capacities to study their own resource bases and ecological
systems and manage them better in order to meet national, regional and
global challenges. Furthermore, in view of the size and complexity of
global environmental problems, a need for more specialists in several
disciplines has become evident world wide.
Objectives
35.21. The primary objective is to improve the scientific capacities of all
countries - in particular, those of developing countries - with specific
regard to:
(a) Education, training and facilities for local research and
development and human resource development in basic scientific disciplines
and in environment-related sciences, utilizing where appropriate traditional
and local knowledge of sustainability;
(b) A substantial increase by the year 2000 in the number of
scientists - particularly women scientists - in those developing countries
where their number is at present insufficient;
(c) Reducing significantly the exodus of scientists from developing
countries and encouraging those who have left to return;
(d) Improving access to relevant information for scientists and
decision makers, with the aim of improving public awareness and
participation in decision-making;
(e) Involvement of scientists in national, regional and global
environmental and developmental research programmes, including
multidisciplinary research;
(f) Periodic academic update of scientists from developing countries
in their respective fields of knowledge.
Activities
35.22. The following activities should be undertaken:
(a) Promote the education and training of scientists, not only in
their disciplines but also in their ability to identify, manage and
incorporate environmental considerations into research and development
projects; ensure that a sound base in natural systems, ecology and resource
management is provided; and develop specialists capable of working in
interdisciplinary programmes related to environment and development,
including the field of applied social sciences;
(b) Strengthen the scientific infrastructure in schools, universities
and research institutions - particularly those in developing countries - by
the provision of adequate scientific equipment and access to current
scientific literature, for the purpose of achieving and sustaining a
critical mass of highly qualified scientists in these countries;
(c) Develop and expand national scientific and technological
databases, processing data in unified formats and systems, and allowing full
and open access to the depository libraries of regional scientific and
technological information networks. Promote submission of scientific and
technological information and databases to global or regional data centres
and network systems;
(d) Develop and expand regional and global scientific and
technological information networks which are based on and linked to national
scientific and technological databases; collect, process and disseminate
information from regional and global scientific programmes; expand
activities to reduce information barriers due to language differences.
Increase the applications - particularly in developing countries - of
computer-based retrieval systems in order to cope with the growth of
scientific literature;
(e) Develop, strengthen and forge new partnerships among national,
regional and global capacities to promote the full and open exchange of
scientific and technological data and information and to facilitate
technical assistance related to environmentally sound and sustainable
development. This should be done through the development of mechanisms for
the sharing of basic research, data and information, and the improvement and
development of international networks and centres, including regional
linking with national scientific databases, for research, training and
monitoring. Such mechanisms should be designed so as to enhance
professional cooperation among scientists in all countries and to establish
strong national and regional alliances between industry and research
institutions;
(f) Improve and develop new links between existing networks of natural
and social scientists and universities at the international level in order
tostrengthen national capacities in the formulation of policy options in the
field of environment and development;
(g) Compile, analyse and publish information on indigenous
environmental and developmental knowledge, and assist the communities that
possess such knowledge to benefit from them.
Means of implementation
(a) Financing and cost evaluation
35.23. The Conference secretariat has estimated the average total annual
cost (1993-2000) of implementing the activities of this programme to be
about $750 million, including about $470 million from the international
community on grant or concessional terms. These are indicative and
order-of-magnitude estimates only and have not been reviewed by Governments.
Actual costs and financial terms, including any that are non-concessional,
will depend upon, inter alia, the specific strategies and programmes
Governments decide upon for implementation.
(b) Scientific and technological means
35.24. Such means include increasing and strengthening regional
multidisciplinary research and training networks and centres making optimal
use of existing facilities and associated sustainable development and
technology support systems in developing regions. Promote and use the
potential of independent initiatives and indigenous innovations and
entrepreneurship. The function of such networks and centres could include,
for example:
(a) Support and coordination of scientific cooperation among all
nations in the region;
(b) Linking with monitoring centres and carrying out assessment of
environmental and developmental conditions;
(c) Support and coordination of national studies of pathways towards
sustainable development;
(d) Organization of science education and training;
(e) Establishment and maintenance of information, monitoring and
assessment systems and databases.
(c) Capacity-building
35.25. Capacity-building includes the following:
(a) Creating conditions (e.g., salaries, equipment, libraries) to
ensure that the scientists will work effectively in their home countries;
(b) Enhancing national, regional and global capacities for carrying
out scientific research and applying scientific and technological
information to environmentally sound and sustainable development. This
includes a need to increase financial resources for global and regional
scientific and technological information networks, as may be appropriate, so
that they will be able to function effectively and efficiently in satisfying
the scientific needs of developing countries. Ensure the capacity-building
of women by recruiting more women in research and research training.
Chapter 36
PROMOTING EDUCATION, PUBLIC AWARENESS AND TRAINING
INTRODUCTION
36.1. Education, raising of public awareness and training are linked to
virtually all areas in Agenda 21, and even more closely to the ones on
meeting basic needs, capacity-building, data and information, science, and
the role of major groups. This chapter sets out broad proposals, while
specific suggestions related to sectoral issues are contained in other
chapters. The Declaration and Recommendations of the Tbilisi
Intergovernmental Conference on Environmental Education 1/ organized by
UNESCO and UNEP and held in 1977, have provided the fundamental principles
for the proposals in this document.
36.2. Programme areas described in the present chapter are:
(a) Reorienting education towards sustainable development;
(b) Increasing public awareness;
(c) Promoting training.
PROGRAMME AREAS
A. Reorienting education towards sustainable development
Basis for action
36.3. Education, including formal education, public awareness and training
should be recognized as a process by which human beings and societies can
reach their fullest potential. Education is critical for promoting
sustainable development and improving the capacity of the people to address
environment and development issues. While basic education provides the
underpinning for any environmental and development education, the latter
needs to be incorporated as an essential part of learning. Both formal and
non-formal education are indispensable to changing people's attitudes so
that they have the capacity to assess and address their sustainable
development concerns. It is also critical for achieving environmental and
ethical awareness, values and attitudes, skills and behaviour consistent
with sustainable development and for effective public participation in
decision-making. To be effective, environment and development education
should deal with the dynamics of both the physical/biological and
socio-economic environment and human (which may include spiritual)
development, should be integrated in all disciplines, and should employ
formal and non-formal methods and effective means of communication.
Objectives
36.4. Recognizing that countries, regional and international organizations
will develop their own priorities and schedules for implementation in
accordance with their needs, policies and programmes, the following
objectives are proposed:
(a) To endorse the recommendations arising from the World Conference
on Education for All: Meeting Basic Learning Needs 2/ (Jomtien, Thailand,
5-9 March 1990) and to strive to ensure universal access to basic education,
and to achieve primary education for at least 80 per cent of girls and
80 per cent of boys of primary school age through formal schooling or
non-formal education and to reduce the adult illiteracy rate to at least
half of its 1990 level. Efforts should focus on reducing the high
illiteracy levels and redressing the lack of basic education among women and
should bring their literacy levels into line with those of men;
(b) To achieve environmental and development awareness in all sectors
of society on a world-wide scale as soon as possible;
(c) To strive to achieve the accessibility of environmental and
development education, linked to social education, from primary school age
through adulthood to all groups of people;
(d) To promote integration of environment and development concepts,
including demography, in all educational programmes, in particular the
analysis of the causes of major environment and development issues in a
local context, drawing on the best available scientific evidence and other
appropriate sources of knowledge, and giving special emphasis to the further
training of decision makers at all levels.
Activities
36.5. Recognizing that countries and regional and international
organizations will develop their own priorities and schedules for
implementation in accordance with their needs, policies and programmes, the
following activities are proposed:
(a) All countries are encouraged to endorse the recommendations of the
Jomtien Conference and strive to ensure its Framework for Action. This
would encompass the preparation of national strategies and actions for
meeting basic learning needs, universalizing access and promoting equity,
broadening the means and scope of education, developing a supporting policy
context, mobilizing resources and strengthening international cooperation to
redress existing economic, social and gender disparities which interfere
with these aims. Non-governmental organizations can make an important
contribution in designing and implementing educational programmes and should
be recognized;
(b) Governments should strive to update or prepare strategies aimed at
integrating environment and development as a cross-cutting issue into
education at all levels within the next three years. This should be done in
cooperation with all sectors of society. The strategies should set out
policies and activities, and identify needs, cost, means and schedules for
their implementation, evaluation and review. A thorough review of curricula
should be undertaken to ensure a multidisciplinary approach, with
environment and development issues and their socio-cultural and demographic
aspects and linkages. Due respect should be given to community-defined
needs and diverse knowledge systems, including science, cultural and social
sensitivities;
(c) Countries are encouraged to set up national advisory environmental
education coordinating bodies or round tables representative of various
environmental, developmental, educational, gender and other interests,
including non-governmental organizations, to encourage partnerships, help
mobilize resources, and provide a source of information and focal point for
international ties. These bodies would help mobilize and facilitate
different population groups and communities to assess their own needs and to
develop the necessary skills to create and implement their own environment
and development initiatives;
(d) Educational authorities, with the appropriate assistance from
community groups or non-governmental organizations, are recommended to
assist or set up pre-service and in-service training programmes for all
teachers, administrators, and educational planners, as well as non-formal
educators in all sectors, addressing the nature and methods of environmental
and development education and making use of relevant experience of
non-governmental organizations;
(e) Relevant authorities should ensure that every school is assisted
in designing environmental activity work plans, with the participation of
students and staff. Schools should involve schoolchildren in local and
regional studies on environmental health, including safe drinking water,
sanitation and food and ecosystems and in relevant activities, linking these
studies with services and research in national parks, wildlife reserves,
ecological heritage sites etc.;
(f) Educational authorities should promote proven educational methods
and the development of innovative teaching methods for educational settings.
They should also recognize appropriate traditional education systems in
local communities;
(g) Within two years the United Nations system should undertake a
comprehensive review of its educational programmes, encompassing training
and public awareness, to reassess priorities and reallocate resources. The
UNESCO/UNEP International Environmental Education Programme should, in
cooperation with the appropriate bodies of the United Nations system,
Governments, non-governmental organizations and others, establish a
programme within two years to integrate the decisions of the Conference into
the existing United Nations framework adapted to the needs of educators atdifferent levels and circumstances. Regional organizations and national
authorities should be encouraged to elaborate similar parallel programmes
and opportunities by conducting an analysis of how to mobilize different
sectors of the population in order to assess and address their environmental
and development education needs;
(h) There is a need to strengthen, within five years, information
exchange by enhancing technologies and capacities necessary to promote
environment and development education and public awareness. Countries
should cooperate with each other and with the various social sectors and
population groups to prepare educational tools that include regional
environment and development issues and initiatives, using learning materials
and resources suited to their own requirements;
(i) Countries could support university and other tertiary activities
and networks for environmental and development education.
Cross-disciplinary courses could be made available to all students.
Existing regional networks and activities and national university actions
which promote research and common teaching approaches on sustainable
development should be built upon, and new partnerships and bridges created
with the business and other independent sectors, as well as with all
countries for technology, know-how, and knowledge exchange;
(j) Countries, assisted by international organizations,
non-governmental organizations and other sectors, could strengthen or
establish national or regional centres of excellence in interdisciplinary
research and education in environmental and developmental sciences, law and
the management of specific environmental problems. Such centres could be
universities or existing networks in each country or region, promoting
cooperative research and information sharing and dissemination. At the
global level these functions should be performed by appropriate
institutions;
(k) Countries should facilitate and promote non-formal education
activities at the local, regional and national levels by cooperating with
and supporting the efforts of non-formal educators and other community-based
organizations. The appropriate bodies of the United Nations system in
cooperation with non-governmental organizations should encourage the
development of an international network for the achievement of global
educational aims. At the national and local levels, public and scholastic
forums should discuss environmental and development issues, and suggest
sustainable alternatives to policy makers;
(l) Educational authorities, with appropriate assistance of
non-governmental organizations, including women's and indigenous peoples'
organizations, should promote all kinds of adult education programmes for
continuing education in environment and development, basing activities
around elementary/secondary schools and local problems. These authorities
and industry should encourage business, industrial and agricultural schools
to include such topics in their curricula. The corporate sector could
include sustainable development in their education and training programmes. Programmes at a post-graduate level should include specific courses aiming
at the further training of decision makers;
(m) Governments and educational authorities should foster
opportunities for women in non-traditional fields and eliminate gender
stereotyping in curricula. This could be done by improving enrolment
opportunities, including females in advanced programmes as students and
instructors, reforming entrance and teacher staffing policies and providing
incentives for establishing child-care facilities, as appropriate. Priority
should be given to education of young females and to programmes promoting
literacy among women;
(n) Governments should affirm the rights of indigenous peoples, by
legislation if necessary, to use their experience and understanding of
sustainable development to play a part in education and training;
(o) The United Nations could maintain a monitoring and evaluative role
regarding decisions of the United Nations Conference on Environment and
Development on education and awareness, through the relevant United Nations
agencies. With Governments and non-governmental organizations, as
appropriate, it should present and disseminate decisions in a variety of
forms, and should ensure the continuous implementation and review of the
educational implications of Conference decisions, in particular through
relevant events and conferences.
Means of implementation
Financing and cost evaluation
36.6. The Conference secretariat has estimated the average total annual
cost (1993-2000) of implementing the activities of this programme to be
about $8 billion to $9 billion, including about $3.5 billion to $4.5 billion
from the international community on grant or concessional terms. These are
indicative and order-of-magnitude estimates only and have not been reviewed
by Governments. Actual costs and financial terms, including any that are
non-concessional, will depend upon, inter alia, the specific strategies and
programmes Governments decide upon for implementation.
36.7. In the light of country-specific situations, more support for
education, training and public awareness activities related to environment
and development could be provided, in appropriate cases, through measures
such as the following:
(a) Giving higher priority to those sectors in budget allocations,
protecting them from structural cutting requirements;
(b) Shifting allocations within existing education budgets in favour
of primary education, with focus on environment and development;
(c) Promoting conditions where a larger share of the cost is borne by
local communities, with rich communities assisting poorer ones;
(d) Obtaining additional funds from private donors concentrating on
the poorest countries, and those with rates of literacy below 40 per cent;
(e) Encouraging debt for education swaps;
(f) Lifting restrictions on private schooling and increasing the flow
of funds from and to non-governmental organizations, including small-scale
grass-roots organizations;
(g) Promoting the effective use of existing facilities, for example,
multiple school shifts, fuller development of open universities and other
long-distance teaching;
(h) Facilitating low-cost or no-cost use of mass media for the
purposes of education;
(i) Encouraging twinning of universities in developed and developing
countries.
B. Increasing public awareness
Basis for action
36.8. There is still a considerable lack of awareness of the interrelated
nature of all human activities and the environment, due to inaccurate or
insufficient information. Developing countries in particular lack relevant
technologies and expertise. There is a need to increase public sensitivity
to environment and development problems and involvement in their solutions
and foster a sense of personal environmental responsibility and greater
motivation and commitment towards sustainable development.
Objective
36.9. The objective is to promote broad public awareness as an essential
part of a global education effort to strengthen attitudes, values and
actions which are compatible with sustainable development. It is important
to stress the principle of devolving authority, accountability and resources
to the most appropriate level with preference given to local responsibility
and control over awareness-building activities.
Activities
36.10. Recognizing that countries, regional and international organizations
will develop their own priorities and schedules for implementation in
accordance with their needs, policies and programmes, the following
activities are proposed:
(a) Countries should strengthen existing advisory bodies or establish
new ones for public environment and development information, and shouldcoordinate activities with, among others, the United Nations,
non-governmental organizations and important media. They should encourage
public participation in discussions of environmental policies and
assessments. Governments should also facilitate and support national to
local networking of information through existing networks;
(b) The United Nations system should improve its outreach in the
course of a review of its education and public awareness activities to
promote greater involvement and coordination of all parts of the system,
especially its information bodies and regional and country operations.
Systematic surveys of the impact of awareness programmes should be
conducted, recognizing the needs and contributions of specific community
groups;
(c) Countries and regional organizations should be encouraged, as
appropriate, to provide public environmental and development information
services for raising the awareness of all groups, the private sector and
particularly decision makers;
(d) Countries should stimulate educational establishments in all
sectors, especially the tertiary sector, to contribute more to awareness
building. Educational materials of all kinds and for all audiences should
be based on the best available scientific information, including the
natural, behavioural and social sciences, and taking into account aesthetic
and ethical dimensions;
(e) Countries and the United Nations system should promote a
cooperative relationship with the media, popular theatre groups, and
entertainment and advertising industries by initiating discussions to
mobilize their experience in shaping public behaviour and consumption
patterns and making wide use of their methods. Such cooperation would also
increase the active public participation in the debate on the environment.
UNICEF should make child-oriented material available to media as an
educational tool, ensuring close cooperation between the out-of-school
public information sector and the school curriculum, for the primary level.
UNESCO, UNEP and universities should enrich pre-service curricula for
journalists on environment and development topics;
(f) Countries, in cooperation with the scientific community, should
establish ways of employing modern communication technologies for effective
public outreach. National and local educational authorities and relevant
United Nations agencies should expand, as appropriate, the use of
audio-visual methods, especially in rural areas in mobile units, by
producing television and radio programmes for developing countries,
involving local participation, employing interactive multimedia methods and
integrating advanced methods with folk media;
(g) Countries should promote, as appropriate, environmentally sound
leisure and tourism activities, building on The Hague Declaration of Tourism
(1989) and the current programmes of the World Tourism Organization and
UNEP, making suitable use of museums, heritage sites, zoos, botanical
gardens, national parks, and other protected areas;
(h) Countries should encourage non-governmental organizations to
increase their involvement in environmental and development problems,
through joint awareness initiatives and improved interchange with other
constituencies in society;
(i) Countries and the United Nations system should increase their
interaction with and include, as appropriate, indigenous people in the
management, planning and development of their local environment, and should
promote dissemination of traditional and socially learned knowledge through
means based on local customs, especially in rural areas, integrating these
efforts with the electronic media, whenever appropriate;
(j) UNICEF, UNESCO, UNDP and non-governmental organizations should
develop support programmes to involve young people and children in
environment and development issues, such as children's and youth hearings
and building on decisions of the World Summit for Children (A/45/625,
annex);
(k) Countries, the United Nations and non-governmental organizations
should encourage mobilization of both men and women in awareness campaigns,
stressing the role of the family in environmental activities, women's
contribution to transmission of knowledge and social values and the
development of human resources;
(l) Public awareness should be heightened regarding the impacts of
violence in society.
Means of implementation
Financing and cost evaluation
36.11. The Conference secretariat has estimated the average total annual
cost (1993-2000) of implementing the activities of this programme to be
about $1.2 billion, including about $110 million from the international
community on grant or concessional terms. These are indicative and
order-of-magnitude estimates only and have not been reviewed by Governments.
Actual costs and financial terms, including any that are non-concessional,
will depend upon, inter alia, the specific strategies and programmes
Governments decide upon for implementation.
C. Promoting training
Basis for action
36.12. Training is one of the most important tools to develop human
resources and facilitate the transition to a more sustainable world. It
should have a job-specific focus, aimed at filling gaps in knowledge and
skill that would help individuals find employment and be involved in
environmental and development work. At the same time, training programmes
should promote a greater awareness of environment and development issues as
a two-way learning process.
Objectives
36.13. The following objectives are proposed:
(a) To establish or strengthen vocational training programmes that
meet the needs of environment and development with ensured access to
training opportunities, regardless of social status, age, gender, race or
religion;
(b) To promote a flexible and adaptable workforce of various ages
equipped to meet growing environment and development problems and changes
arising from the transition to a sustainable society;
(c) To strengthen national capacities, particularly in scientific
education and training, to enable Governments, employers and workers to meet
their environmental and development objectives and to facilitate the
transfer and assimilation of new environmentally sound, socially acceptable
and appropriate technology and know-how;
(d) To ensure that environmental and human ecological considerations
are integrated at all managerial levels and in all functional management
areas, such as marketing, production and finance.
Activities
36.14. Countries with the support of the United Nations system should
identify workforce training needs and assess measures to be taken to meet
those needs. A review of progress in this area could be undertaken by the
United Nations system in 1995.
36.15. National professional associations are encouraged to develop and
review their codes of ethics and conduct to strengthen environmental
connections and commitment. The training and personal development
components of programmes sponsored by professional bodies should ensure
incorporation of skills and information on the implementation of sustainable
development at all points of policy- and decision-making.
36.16. Countries and educational institutions should integrate
environmental and developmental issues into existing training curricula and
promote the exchange of their methodologies and evaluations.
36.17. Countries should encourage all sectors of society, such as industry,
universities, government officials and employees, non-governmental
organizations and community organizations, to include an environmental
management component in all relevant training activities, with emphasis on
meeting immediate skill requirements through short-term formal and in-plant
vocational and management training. Environmental management training
capacities should be strengthened, and specialized "training of trainers"
programmes should be established to support training at the national and
enterprise levels. New training approaches for existing environmentally
sound practices should be developed that create employment opportunities and
make maximum use of local resource-based methods.
36.18. Countries should strengthen or establish practical training
programmes for graduates from vocational schools, high schools and
universities, in all countries, to enable them to meet labour market
requirements and to achieve sustainable livelihoods. Training and
retraining programmes should be established to meet structural adjustments
which have an impact on employment and skill qualifications.
36.19. Governments are encouraged to consult with people in isolated
situations, whether geographically, culturally or socially, to ascertain
their needs for training to enable them to contribute more fully to
developing sustainable work practices and lifestyles.
36.20. Governments, industry, trade unions, and consumers should promote an
understanding of the interrelationship between good environment and good
business practices.
36.21. Countries should develop a service of locally trained and recruited
environmental technicians able to provide local people and communities,
particularly in deprived urban and rural areas, with the services they
require, starting from primary environmental care.
36.22. Countries should enhance the ability to gain access to, analyse and
effectively use information and knowledge available on environment and
development. Existing or established special training programmes should be
strengthened to support information needs of special groups. The impact of
these programmes on productivity, health, safety and employment should be
evaluated. National and regional environmental labour-market information
systems should be developed that would supply, on a continuing basis, data
on environmental job and training opportunities. Environment and
development training resource-guides should be prepared and updated, with
information on training programmes, curricula, methodologies and evaluation
results at the local, national, regional and international levels.
36.23. Aid agencies should strengthen the training component in all
development projects, emphasizing a multidisciplinary approach, promoting
awareness and providing the necessary skills for transition to a sustainable
society. The environmental management guidelines of UNDP for operational
activities of the United Nations system may contribute to this end.
36.24. Existing networks of employers' and workers' organizations, industry
associations and non-governmental organizations should facilitate the
exchange of experience concerning training and awareness programmes.
36.25. Governments, in cooperation with relevant international
organizations, should develop and implement strategies to deal with
national, regional and local environmental threats and emergencies,
emphasizing urgent practical training and awareness programmes for
increasing public preparedness.
36.26. The United Nations system, as appropriate, should extend its
training programmes, particularly its environmental training and support
activities for employers' and workers' organizations.
Means of implementation
Financing and cost evaluation
36.27. The Conference secretariat has estimated the average total annual
cost (1993-2000) of implementing the activities of this programme to be
about $5 billion, including about $2 billion from the international
community on grant or concessional terms. These are indicative and
order-of-magnitude estimates only and have not been reviewed by Governments.
Actual costs and financial terms, including any that are non-concessional,
will depend upon, inter alia, the specific strategies and programmes
Governments decide upon for implementation.
Notes
1/ Intergovernmental Conference on Environmental Education: Final
Report (Paris, UNESCO, 1978), chap. III.
2/ Final Report of the World Conference on Education for All:
Meeting Basic Learning Needs, Jomtien, Thailand, 5-9 March 1990 (New York,
Inter-Agency Commission (UNDP, UNESCO, UNICEF, World Bank) for the World
Conference on Education for All, 1990).
Chapter 37
NATIONAL MECHANISMS AND INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION
FOR CAPACITY-BUILDING IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
PROGRAMME AREA
Basis for action
37.1. The ability of a country to follow sustainable development paths is
determined to a large extent by the capacity of its people and its
institutions as well as by its ecological and geographical conditions.
Specifically, capacity-building encompasses the country's human, scientific,
technological, organizational, institutional and resource capabilities. A
fundamental goal of capacity-building is to enhance the ability to evaluate
and address the crucial questions related to policy choices and modes of
implementation among development options, based on an understanding of
environmental potentials and limits and of needs as perceived by the people
of the country concerned. As a result, the need to strengthen national
capacities is shared by all countries.
37.2. Building endogenous capacity to implement Agenda 21 will require the
efforts of the countries themselves in partnership with relevant United
Nations organizations, as well as with developed countries. The
international community at the national, subregional and regional levels,
municipalities, non-governmental organizations, universities and research
centres, and business and other private institutions and organizations could
also assist in these efforts. It is essential for individual countries to
identify priorities and determine the means for building the capacity and
capability to implement Agenda 21, taking into account their environmental
and economic needs. Skills, knowledge and technical know-how at the
individual and institutional levels are necessary for institution-building,
policy analysis and development management, including the assessment of
alternative courses of action with a view to enhancing access to and tranfer
of technology and promoting economic development. Technical cooperation,
including that related to technology transfer and know-how, encompasses the
whole range of activities to develop or strengthen individual and group
capacities and capabilities. It should serve the purpose of long-term
capacity-building and needs to be managed and coordinated by the countries
themselves. Technical cooperation, including that related to technology
transfer and know-how, is effective only when it is derived from and related
to a country's own strategies and priorities on environment and development
and when development agencies and Governments define improved and consistent
policies and procedures to support this process.
Objectives
37.3. The overall objectives of endogenous capacity-building in this
programme area are to develop and improve national and related subregional
andregional capacities and capabilities for sustainable development, with the
involvement of the non-governmental sectors. The programme should assist
by:
(a) Promoting an ongoing participatory process to define country needs
and priorities in promoting Agenda 21 and to give importance to technical
and professional human resource development and development of institutional
capacities and capabilities on the agenda of countries, with due recognition
of the potential for optimum use of existing human resources as well as
enhancement of the efficiency of existing institutions and non-governmental
organizations, including scientific and technological institutions;
(b) Reorienting technical cooperation and, in that process, setting
new priorities in the field, including that related to transfer of
technology and know-how processes, while giving due attention to the
specific conditions and individual needs of recipients, and improving
coordination among providers of assistance for support to countries' own
programmes of action. This coordination should also include
non-governmental organizations and scientific and technological
institutions, as well as business and industry whenever appropriate;
(c) Shifting time horizons in programme planning and implementation
for the development and strengthening of institutional structures to permit
an enhancement of their ability to respond to new longer-term challenges
rather than concentrating only on immediate problems;
(d) Improving and reorienting existing international multilateral
institutions with responsibilities for environment and/or development
matters to ensure that those institutions have the capability and capacity
to integrate environment and development;
(e) Improving institutional capacity and capability, both public and
private, in order to evaluate the environmental impact of all development
projects.
37.4. Specific objectives include the following:
(a) Each country should aim to complete, as soon as practicable, if
possible by 1994, a review of capacity- and capability-building requirements
for devising national sustainable development strategies, including those
for generating and implementing its own Agenda 21 action programme;
(b) By 1997, the Secretary-General should submit to the General
Assembly a report on the achievement of improved policies, coordination
systems and procedures for strengthening the implementation of technical
cooperation programmes for sustainable development, as well as on additional
measures required to strengthen such cooperation. That report should be
prepared on the basis of information provided by countries, international
organizations, environment and development institutions, donor agencies and
non-governmental partners.
Activities
(a) Building a national consensus and formulating capacity-building
strategies for implementing Agenda 21
37.5. As an important aspect of overall planning, each country should seek
internal consensus at all levels of society on policies and programmes
needed for short- and long-term capacity-building to implement its Agenda 21
programme. This consensus should result from a participatory dialogue of
relevant interest groups and lead to an identification of skill gaps,
institutional capacities and capabilities, technological and scientific
requirements and resource needs to enhance environmental knowledge and
administration to integrate environment and development. UNDP in
partnership with relevant specialized agencies and other international
intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations could assist, upon
request of Governments, in the identification of the requirements for
technical cooperation, including those related to technology transfer and
know-how and development assistance for the implementation of Agenda 21.
The national planning process together, where appropriate, with national
sustainable development action plans or strategies should provide the
framework for such cooperation and assistance. UNDP should use and further
improve its network of field offices and its broad mandate to provide
assistance, using its experience in the field of technical cooperation for
facilitating capacity-building at the country and regional levels and making
full use of the expertise of other bodies, in particular UNEP, the World
Bank and regional commissions and development banks, as well as relevant
international intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations.
(b) Identification of national sources and presentation of requests for
technical cooperation, including that related to technology transfer
and know-how in the framework of sector strategies
37.6. Countries desiring arrangements for technical cooperation, including
that related to transfer of technology and know-how, with international
organizations and donor institutions should formulate requests in the
framework of long-term sector or subsector capacity-building strategies.
Strategies should, as appropriate, address policy adjustments to be
implemented, budgetary issues, cooperation and coordination among
institutions, human resource requirements, and technology and scientific
equipment requirements. They should cover public and private sector needs
and consider strengthening scientific training and educational and research
programmes, including such training in the developed countries and the
strengthening of centres of excellence in developing countries. Countries
could designate and strengthen a central unit to organize and coordinate
technical cooperation, linking it with the priority-setting and the resource
allocation process.
(c) Establishment of a review mechanism of technical cooperation in and
related to technology transfer and know-how
37.7. Donors and recipients, the organizations and institutions of the
United Nations system, and international public and private organizations
should review the development of the cooperation process as it relates to
technical cooperation, including that related to activities for the transfer
of technology and know-how linked to sustainable development. To facilitate
this process the Secretary-General could undertake, taking into account work
carried out by UNDP and other organizations in preparation for the United
Nations Conference on Environment and Development, consultations with
developing countries, regional organizations, organizations and institutions
of the United Nations system, including regional commissions, and
multilateral and bilateral aid and environment agencies, with a view to
further strengthening the endogenous capacities of countries and improving
technical cooperation, including that related to the technology transfer and
know-how process. The following aspects should be reviewed:
(a) Evaluation of existing capacity and capability for the integrated
management of environment and development, including technical,
technological and institutional capacities and capabilities, and facilities
to assess the environmental impact of development projects; and evaluation
of abilities to respond to and link up with needs for technical cooperation,
including that related to technology transfer and know-how, of Agenda 21 and
the global conventions on climate change and biological diversity;
(b) Assessment of the contribution of existing activities in technical
cooperation, including that related to transfer of technology and know-how,
towards strengthening and building national capacity and capability for
integrated environment and development management and an assessment of the
means of improving the quality of international technical cooperation,
including that related to transfer of technolgy and know-how;
(c) A strategy for shifting to a capacity- and capability-building
thrust that recognizes the need for the operational integration of
environment and development with longer-term commitments, having as a basis
the set of national programmes established by each country, through a
participatory process;
(d) Consideration of greater use of long-term cooperative arrangements
between municipalities, non-governmental organizations, universities,
training and research centres and business, public and private institutions
with counterparts in other countries or within countries or regions.
Programmes such as the Sustainable Development Networks of UNDP should be
assessed in this regard;
(e) Strengthening of the sustainability of projects by including in
the original project design consideration of environmental impacts, the
costs of institution-building, human resource development and technology
needs, as well as financial and organizational requirements for operation
and maintenance;
(f) Improvement of technical cooperation, including that related to
transfer of technology and know-how and management processes, by giving
greater attention to capacity- and capability-building as an integral part
of sustainable development strategies for environment and development
programmes both in country-related coordination processes, such as
consultative groups and round tables, and in sectoral coordination
mechanisms to enable developing countries to participate actively in
obtaining assistance from different sources.
(d) Enhancement of the expertise and collective contribution of the United
Nations system for capacity- and capability-building initiatives
37.8. Organizations, organs, bodies and institutions of the United Nations
system, together with other international and regional organizations and the
public and private sectors, could, as appropriate, strengthen their joint
activities in technical cooperation, including that related to transfer of
technology and know-how, in order to address linked environment and
development issues and to promote coherence and consistency of action.
Organizations could assist and reinforce countries, particularly least
developed countries, upon request, on matters relating to national
environmental and developmental policies, human resource development and
fielding of experts, legislation, natural resources and environmental data.
37.9. UNDP, the World Bank and regional multilateral development banks, as
part of their participation in national and regional coordination
mechanisms, should assist in facilitating capacity- and capability-building
at the country level, drawing upon the special expertise and operational
capacity of UNEP in the environmental field as well as of the specialized
agencies, organizations of the United Nations system and regional and
subregional organizations in their respective areas of competence. For this
purpose UNDP should mobilize funding for capacity- and capability-building,
utilizing its network of field offices and its broad mandate and experience
in the field of technical cooperation, including that related to transfer of
technology and know-how. UNDP, together with these international
organizations, should at the same time continue to develop consultative
processes to enhance the mobilization and coordination of funds from the
international community for capacity- and capability-building, including the
establishment of an appropriate database. These responsibilities may need
to be accompanied by strengthening of the capacities of UNDP.
37.10. The national entity in charge of technical cooperation, with the
assistance of the UNDP resident representatives and the UNEP
representatives, should establish a small group of key actors to steer the
process, giving priority to the country's own strategies and priorities.
The experience gained through existing planning exercises such as the
national reports for the United Nations Conference on Environment and
Development, national conservation strategies and environment action plans
should be fully used and incorporated into a country-driven, participatory
and sustainable development strategy. This should be complemented with
information networks and consultations with donor organizations in order to
improve coordination, aswell as access to the existing body of scientific and technical knowledge
and information available in institutions elsewhere.
(e) Harmonization of the delivery of assistance at the regional level
37.11. At the regional level, existing organizations should consider the
desirability of improved regional and subregional consultative processes and
round-table meetings to facilitate the exchange of data, information and
experience in the implementation of Agenda 21. UNDP, building on the
results of the regional surveys on capacity-building that those regional
organizations carried out on the United Nations Conference on Environment
and Development initiative, and in collaboration with existing regional,
subregional or national organizations with potential for regional
coordination, should provide a significant input for this purpose. The
relevant national unit should establish a steering mechanism. A periodic
review mechanism should be established among the countries of the region
with the assistance of the appropriate relevant regional organizations and
the participation of development banks, bilateral aid agencies and
non-governmental organizations. Other possibilities are to develop national
and regional research and training facilities building on existing regional
and subregional institutions.
Means of implementation
Financing and cost evaluation
37.12. The cost of bilateral expenditures to developing countries for
technical cooperation, including that related to transfer of technology and
know-how, is about $15 billion or about 25 per cent of total official
development assistance. The implementation of Agenda 21 will require a more
effective use of these funds and additional funding in key areas.
37.13. The Conference secretariat has estimated the average total annual
cost (1993-2000) of implementing the activities of this chapter to be
between $300 million and $1 billion from the international community on
grant or concessional terms. These are indicative and order-of-magnitude
estimates only and have not been reviewed by Governments. Actual costs and
financial terms, including any that are non-concessional, will depend upon,
inter alia, the specific strategies and programmes Governments decide upon
for implementation.
Chapter 38
INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENTS
BASIS FOR ACTION
38.1. The mandate of the United Nations Conference on Environment and
Development emanates from General Assembly resolution 44/228, in which the
Assembly, inter alia, affirmed that the Conference should elaborate
strategies and measures to halt and reverse the effects of environmental
degradation in the context of increased national and international efforts
to promote sustainable and environmentally sound development in all
countries and that the promotion of economic growth in developing countries
is essential to address problems of environmental degradation. The
intergovernmental follow-up to the Conference process shall be within the
framework of the United Nations system, with the General Assembly being the
supreme policy-making forum that would provide overall guidance to
Governments, the United Nations system and relevant treaty bodies. At the
same time, Governments, as well as regional economic and technical
cooperation organizations, have a responsibility to play an important role
in the follow-up to the Conference. Their commitments and actions should be
adequately supported by the United Nations system and multilateral financial
institutions. Thus, national and international efforts would mutually
benefit from one another.
38.2. In fulfilling the mandate of the Conference, there is a need for
institutional arrangements within the United Nations system in conformity
with, and providing input into, the restructuring and revitalization of the
United Nations in the economic, social and related fields, and the overall
reform of the United Nations, including ongoing changes in the Secretariat.
In the spirit of reform and revitalization of the United Nations system,
implementation of Agenda 21 and other conclusions of the Conference shall be
based on an action- and result-oriented approach and consistent with the
principles of universality, democracy, transparency, cost-effectiveness and
accountability.
38.3. The United Nations system, with its multisectoral capacity and the
extensive experience of a number of specialized agencies in various spheres
of international cooperation in the field of environment and development, is
uniquely positioned to assist Governments to establish more effective
patterns of economic and social development with a view to achieving the
objectives of Agenda 21 and sustainable development.
38.4. All agencies of the United Nations system have a key role to play in
the implementation of Agenda 21 within their respective competence. To
ensure proper coordination and avoid duplication in the implementation of
Agenda 21, there should be an effective division of labour between various
parts of the United Nations system based on their terms of reference and
comparative advantages. Member States, through relevant governing bodies,
are in aposition to ensure that these tasks are carried out properly. In order to
facilitate evaluation of agencies' performance and promote knowledge of
their activities, all bodies of the United Nations system should be required
to elaborate and publish reports of their activities concerning the
implementation of Agenda 21 on a regular basis. Serious and continuous
reviews of their policies, programmes, budgets and activities will also be
required.
38.5. The continued active and effective participation of non-governmental
organizations, the scientific community and the private sector, as well as
local groups and communities, are important in the implementation of
Agenda 21.
38.6. The institutional structure envisaged below will be based on
agreement on financial resources and mechanisms, technology transfer, the
Rio Declaration and Agenda 21. In addition, there has to be an effective
link between substantive action and financial support, and this requires
close and effective cooperation and exchange of information between the
United Nations system and the multilateral financial institutions for the
follow-up of Agenda 21 within the institutional arrangement.
OBJECTIVES
38.7. The overall objective is the integration of environment and
development issues at national, subregional, regional and international
levels, including in the United Nations system institutional arrangements.
38.8. Specific objectives shall be:
(a) To ensure and review the implementation of Agenda 21 so as to
achieve sustainable development in all countries;
(b) To enhance the role and functioning of the United Nations system
in the field of environment and development. All relevant agencies,
organizations and programmes of the United Nations system should adopt
concrete programmes for the implementation of Agenda 21 and also provide
policy guidance for United Nations activities or advice to Governments, upon
request, within their areas of competence;
(c) To strengthen cooperation and coordination on environment and
development in the United Nations system;
(d) To encourage interaction and cooperation between the United
Nations system and other intergovernmental and non-governmental subregional,
regional and global institutions and non-governmental organizations in the
field of environment and development;
(e) To strengthen institutional capabilities and arrangements required
for the effective implementation, follow-up and review of Agenda 21;
(f) To assist in the strengthening and coordination of national,
subregional and regional capacities and actions in the areas of environment
and development;
(g) To establish effective cooperation and exchange of information
between United Nations organs, organizations, programmes and the
multilateral financial bodies, within the institutional arrangements for the
follow-up of Agenda 21;
(h) To respond to continuing and emerging issues relating to
environment and development;
(i) To ensure that any new institutional arrangements would support
revitalization, clear division of responsibilities and the avoidance of
duplication in the United Nations system and depend to the maximum extent
possible upon existing resources.
INSTITUTIONAL STRUCTURE
A. General Assembly
38.9. The General Assembly, as the highest intergovernmental mechanism, is
the principal policy-making and appraisal organ on matters relating to the
follow-up of the Conference. The Assembly would organize a regular review
of the implementation of Agenda 21. In fulfilling this task, the Assembly
could consider the timing, format and organizational aspects of such a
review. In particular, the Assembly could consider holding a special
session not later than 1997 for the overall review and appraisal of
Agenda 21, with adequate preparations at a high level.
B. Economic and Social Council
38.10. The Economic and Social Council, in the context of its role under
the Charter vis-…-vis the General Assembly and the ongoing restructuring and
revitalization of the United Nations in the economic, social and related
fields, would assist the General Assembly by overseeing system-wide
coordination in the implementation of Agenda 21 and making recommendations
in this regard. In addition, the Council would undertake the task of
directing system-wide coordination and integration of environmental and
developmental aspects of United Nations policies and programmes and would
make appropriate recommendations to the General Assembly, specialized
agencies concerned and Member States. Appropriate steps should be taken to
obtain regular reports from specialized agencies on their plans and
programmes related to the implementation of Agenda 21, pursuant to Article
64 of the Charter of the United Nations. The Economic and Social Council
should organize a periodic review of the work of the Commission on
Sustainable Development envisaged in paragraph 38.11, as well as of
system-wide activities to integrate environment and development, making full
use of its high-level and coordination segments.
C. Commission on Sustainable Development
38.11. In order to ensure the effective follow-up of the Conference, as
well as to enhance international cooperation and rationalize the
intergovernmental decision-making capacity for the integration of
environment and development issues and to examine the progress in the
implementation of Agenda 21 at the national, regional and international
levels, a high-level Commission on Sustainable Development should be
established in accordance with Article 68 of the Charter of the United
Nations. This Commission would report to the Economic and Social Council in
the context of the Council's role under the Charter vis-…-vis the General
Assembly. It would consist of representatives of States elected as members
with due regard to equitable geographical distribution. Representatives of
non-member States of the Commission would have observer status. The
Commission should provide for the active involvement of organs, programmes
and organizations of the United Nations system, international financial
institutions and other relevant intergovernmental organizations, and
encourage the participation of non-governmental organizations, including
industry and the business and scientific communities. The first meeting of
the Commission should be convened no later than 1993. The Commission should
be supported by the secretariat envisaged in paragraph 38.19. Meanwhile the
Secretary-General of the United Nations is requested to ensure adequate
interim administrative secretariat arrangements.
38.12. The General Assembly, at its forty-seventh session, should determine
specific organizational modalities for the work of this Commission, such as
its membership, its relationship with other intergovernmental United Nations
bodies dealing with matters related to environment and development, and the
frequency, duration and venue of its meetings. These modalities should take
into account the ongoing process of revitalization and restructuring of the
work of the United Nations in the economic, social and related fields, in
particular measures recommended by the General Assembly in resolutions
45/264 of 13 May 1991 and 46/235 of 13 April 1992 and other relevant
Assembly resolutions. In this respect, the Secretary-General of the United
Nations, with the assistance of the Secretary-General of the United Nations
Conference on Environment and Development, is requested to prepare for the
Assembly a report with appropriate recommendations and proposals.
38.13. The Commission on Sustainable Development should have the following
functions:
(a) To monitor progress in the implementation of Agenda 21 and
activities related to the integration of environmental and developmental
goals throughout the United Nations system through analysis and evaluation
of reports from all relevant organs, organizations, programmes and
institutions of the United Nations system dealing with various issues of
environment and development, including those related to finance;
(b) To consider information provided by Governments, including, for
example, information in the form of periodic communications or nationalreports regarding the activities they undertake to implement Agenda 21, the
problems they face, such as problems related to financial resources and
technology transfer, and other environment and development issues they find
relevant;
(c) To review the progress in the implementation of the commitments
contained in Agenda 21, including those related to provision of financial
resources and transfer of technology;
(d) To receive and analyse relevant input from competent
non-governmental organizations, including the scientific and private
sectors, in the context of the overall implementation of Agenda 21;
(e) To enhance the dialogue, within the framework of the United
Nations, with non-governmental organizations and the independent sector, as
well as other entities outside the United Nations system;
(f) To consider, where appropriate, information regarding the progress
made in the implementation of environmental conventions, which could be made
available by the relevant Conferences of Parties;
(g) To provide appropriate recommendations to the General Assembly
through the Economic and Social Council on the basis of an integrated
consideration of the reports and issues related to the implementation of
Agenda 21;
(h) To consider, at an appropriate time, the results of the review to
be conducted expeditiously by the Secretary-General of all recommendations
of the Conference for capacity-building programmes, information networks,
task forces and other mechanisms to support the integration of environment
and development at regional and subregional levels.
38.14. Within the intergovernmental framework, consideration should be
given to allowing non-governmental organizations, including those related to
major groups, particularly women's groups, committed to the implementation
of Agenda 21 to have relevant information available to them, including
information, reports and other data produced within the United Nations
system.
D. The Secretary-General
38.15. Strong and effective leadership on the part of the Secretary-General
is crucial, since he/she would be the focal point of the institutional
arrangements within the United Nations system for the successful follow-up
to the Conference and for the implementation of Agenda 21.
E. High-level inter-agency coordination mechanism
38.16. Agenda 21, as the basis for action by the international community to
integrate environment and development, should provide the principal
framework for coordination of relevant activities within the United Nations
system. To ensure effective monitoring, coordination and supervision of the
involvement of the United Nations system in the follow-up to the Conference,
there is a need for a coordination mechanism under the direct leadership of
the Secretary-General.
38.17. This task should be given to the Administrative Committee on
Coordination (ACC), headed by the Secretary-General. ACC would thus provide
a vital link and interface between the multilateral financial institutions
and other United Nations bodies at the highest administrative level. The
Secretary-General should continue to revitalize the functioning of the
Committee. All heads of agencies and institutions of the United Nations
system shall be expected to cooperate with the Secretary-General fully in
order to make ACC work effectively in fulfilling its crucial role and ensure
successful implementation of Agenda 21. ACC should consider establishing a
special task force, subcommittee or sustainable development board, taking
into account the experience of the Designated Officials for Environmental
Matters (DOEM) and the Committee of International Development Institutions
on Environment (CIDIE), as well as the respective roles of UNEP and UNDP.
Its report should be submitted to the relevant intergovernmental bodies.
F. High-level advisory body
38.18. Intergovernmental bodies, the Secretary-General and the United
Nations system as a whole may also benefit from the expertise of a
high-level advisory board consisting of eminent persons knowledgeable about
environment and development, including relevant sciences, appointed by the
Secretary-General in their personal capacity. In this regard, the
Secretary-General should make appropriate recommendations to the General
Assembly at its forty-seventh session.
G. Secretariat support structure
38.19. A highly qualified and competent secretariat support structure
within the United Nations Secretariat, drawing, inter alia, on the expertise
gained in the Conference preparatory process is essential for the follow-up
to the Conference and the implementation of Agenda 21. This secretariat
support structure should provide support to the work of both
intergovernmental and inter-agency coordination mechanisms. Concrete
organizational decisions fall within the competence of the Secretary-General
as the chief administrative officer of the Organization, who is requested to
report on the provisions to be made, covering staffing implications, as soon
as practicable, taking into account gender balance as defined in Article 8
of the Charter of the United Nations and the need for the best use of
existing resources in the context of the current and ongoing restructuring
of the United Nations Secretariat.
H. Organs, programmes and organizations of the
United Nations system
38.20. In the follow-up to the Conference, in particular the implementation
of Agenda 21, all relevant organs, programmes and organizations of the
United Nations system will have an important role within their respective
areas of expertise and mandates in supporting and supplementing national
efforts. Coordination and mutual complementarity of their efforts to
promote integration of environment and development can be enhanced by
encouraging countries to maintain consistent positions in the various
governing bodies.
1. United Nations Environment Programme
38.21. In the follow-up to the Conference, there will be a need for an
enhanced and strengthened role for UNEP and its Governing Council. The
Governing Council should, within its mandate, continue to play its role with
regard to policy guidance and coordination in the field of the environment,
taking into account the development perspective.
38.22. Priority areas on which UNEP should concentrate include the
following:
(a) Strengthening its catalytic role in stimulating and promoting
environmental activities and considerations throughout the United Nations
system;
(b) Promoting international cooperation in the field of environment
and recommending, as appropriate, policies to this end;
(c) Developing and promoting the use of such techniques as natural
resource accounting and environmental economics;
(d) Environmental monitoring and assessment, both through improved
participation by the United Nations system agencies in the Earthwatch
programme and expanded relations with private scientific and
non-governmental research institutes; strengthening and making operational
its early-warning function;
(e) Coordination and promotion of relevant scientific research with a
view to providing a consolidated basis for decision-making;
(f) Dissemination of environmental information and data to Governments
and to organs, programmes and organizations of the United Nations system;
(g) Raising general awareness and action in the area of environmental
protection through collaboration with the general public, non-governmental
entities and intergovernmental institutions;
(h) 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;
(i) Further development and promotion of the widest possible use of
environmental impact assessments, including activities carried out under the
auspices of specialized agencies of the United Nations system, and in
connection with every significant economic development project or activity;
(j) Facilitation of information exchange on environmentally sound
technologies, including legal aspects, and provision of training;
(k) Promotion of subregional and regional cooperation and support to
relevant initiatives and programmes for environmental protection, including
playing a major contributing and coordinating role in the regional
mechanisms in the field of environment identified for the follow-up to the
Conference;
(l) Provision of technical, legal and institutional advice to
Governments, upon request, in establishing and enhancing their national
legal and institutional frameworks, in particular, in cooperation with UNDP
capacity-building efforts;
(m) Support to Governments, upon request, and development agencies and
organs in the integration of environmental aspects into their development
policies and programmes, in particular through provision of environmental,
technical and policy advice during programme formulation and implementation;
(n) Further developing assessment and assistance in cases of
environmental emergencies.
38.23. In order to perform all of these functions, while retaining its role
as the principal body within the United Nations system in the field of
environment and taking into account the development aspects of environmental
questions, UNEP would require access to greater expertise and provision of
adequate financial resources and it would require closer cooperation and
collaboration with development organs and other relevant organs of the
United Nations system. Furthermore, the regional offices of UNEP should be
strengthened without weakening its headquarters in Nairobi, and UNEP should
take steps to reinforce and intensify its liaison and interaction with UNDP
and the World Bank.
2. United Nations Development Programme
38.24. UNDP, like UNEP, also has a crucial role in the follow-up to the
United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. Through its
network of field offices it would foster the United Nations system's
collective thrust in support of the implementation of Agenda 21, at the
country, regional, interregional and global levels, drawing on the expertise
of the specialized agencies and other United Nations organizations and
bodies involved in operational activities. The role of the resident
representative/resident coordinator of UNDP needs to be strengthened in
order to coordinate the field-level activities of the United Nations
operational activities.
38.25. Its role should include the following:
(a) Acting as the lead agency in organizing United Nations system
efforts towards capacity-building at the local, national and regional
levels;
(b) Mobilizing donor resources on behalf of Governments for
capacity-building in recipient countries and, where appropriate, through the
use of the UNDP donor round-table mechanisms;
(c) Strengthening its own programmes in support of follow-up to the
Conference without prejudice to the fifth programming cycle;
(d) Assisting recipient countries, upon request, in the establishment
and strengthening of national coordination mechanisms and networks related
to activities for the follow-up to the Conference;
(e) Assisting recipient countries, upon request, in coordinating the
mobilization of domestic financial resources;
(f) Promoting and strengthening the role and involvement of women,
youth and other major groups in recipient countries in the implementation of
Agenda 21.
3. United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
38.26. UNCTAD should play an important role in the implementation of
Agenda 21 as extended at its eighth session, taking into account the
importance of the interrelationships between development, international
trade and the environment and in accordance with its mandate in the area of
sustainable development.
4. United Nations Sudano-Sahelian Office
38.27. The role of the United Nations Sudano-Sahelian Office (UNSO), with
added resources that may become available, operating under the umbrella of
UNDP and with the support of UNEP, should be strengthened so that it canassume an appropriate major advisory role and participate effectively in the
implementation of Agenda 21 provisions related to combating drought and
desertification and to land resource management. In this context, the
experience gained could be used by all other countries affected by drought
and desertification, in particular those in Africa, with special attention
to countries most affected or classified as least developed countries.
5. Specialized agencies of the United Nations system
and related organizations and other relevant
intergovernmental organizations
38.28. All specialized agencies of the United Nations system, related
organizations and other relevant intergovernmental organizations within
their respective fields of competence have an important role to play in the
implementation of relevant parts of Agenda 21 and other decisions of the
Conference. Their governing bodies may consider ways of strengthening and
adjusting activities and programmes in line with Agenda 21, in particular,
regarding projects for promoting sustainable development. Furthermore, they
may consider establishing special arrangements with donors and financial
institutions for project implementation that may require additional
resources.
I. Regional and subregional cooperation and implementation
38.29. Regional and subregional cooperation will be an important part of
the outcome of the Conference. The regional commissions, regional
development banks and regional economic and technical cooperation
organizations, within their respective agreed mandates, can contribute to
this process by:
(a) Promoting regional and subregional capacity-building;
(b) Promoting the integration of environmental concerns in regional
and subregional development policies;
(c) Promoting regional and subregional cooperation, where appropriate,
regarding transboundary issues related to sustainable development.
38.30. The regional commissions, as appropriate, should play a leading role
in coordinating regional and subregional activities by sectoral and other
United Nations bodies and shall assist countries in achieving sustainable
development. The commissions and regional programmes within the United
Nations system, as well as other regional organizations, should review the
need for modification of ongoing activities, as appropriate, in light of
Agenda 21.
38.31. There must be active cooperation and collaboration among the
regional commissions and other relevant organizations, regional development
banks, non-governmental organizations and other institutions at the regional
level. UNEP and UNDP, together with the regional commissions, would have a
crucialrole to play, especially in providing the necessary assistance, with
particular emphasis on building and strengthening the national capacity of
Member States.
38.32. There is a need for closer cooperation between UNEP and UNDP,
together with other relevant institutions, in the implementation of projects
to halt environmental degradation or its impact and to support training
programmes in environmental planning and management for sustainable
development at the regional level.
38.33. Regional intergovernmental technical and economic organizations have
an important role to play in helping Governments to take coordinated action
in solving environment issues of regional significance.
38.34. Regional and subregional organizations should play a major role in
the implementation of the provisions of Agenda 21 related to combating
drought and desertification. UNEP, UNDP and UNSO should assist and
cooperate with those relevant organizations.
38.35. Cooperation between regional and subregional organizations and
relevant organizations of the United Nations system should be encouraged,
where appropriate, in other sectoral areas.
J. National implementation
38.36. States have an important role to play in the follow-up of the
Conference and the implementation of Agenda 21. National level efforts
should be undertaken by all countries in an integrated manner so that both
environment and development concerns can be dealt with in a coherent manner.
38.37. Policy decisions and activities at the national level, tailored to
support and implement Agenda 21, should be supported by the United Nations
system upon request.
38.38. Furthermore, States could consider the preparation of national
reports. In this context, the organs of the United Nations system should,
upon request, assist countries, in particular developing countries.
Countries could also consider the preparation of national action plans for
the implementation of Agenda 21.
38.39. Existing assistance consortia, consultative groups and round tables
should make greater efforts to integrate environmental considerations and
related development objectives into their development assistance strategies
and should consider reorienting and appropriately adjusting their
memberships and operations to facilitate this process and better support
national efforts to integrate environment and development.
38.40. States may wish to consider setting up a national coordination
structure responsible for the follow-up of Agenda 21. Within this
structure, which would benefit from the expertise of non-governmental
organizations, submissions and other relevant information could be made to
the United Nations.
K. Cooperation between United Nations bodies and
international financial organizations
38.41. The success of the follow-up to the Conference is dependent upon an
effective link between substantive action and financial support, and this
requires close and effective cooperation between United Nations bodies and
the multilateral financial organizations. The Secretary-General and heads
of United Nations programmes, organizations and the multilateral financial
organizations have a special responsibility in forging such cooperation, not
only through the United Nations high-level coordination mechanism
(Administrative Committee on Coordination) but also at regional and national
levels. In particular, representatives of multilateral financial
institutions and mechanisms, as well as IFAD, should actively be associated
with deliberations of the intergovernmental structure responsible for the
follow-up to Agenda 21.
L. Non-governmental organizations
38.42. Non-governmental organizations and major groups are important
partners in the implementation of Agenda 21. Relevant non-governmental
organizations, including the scientific community, the private sector and
women's groups, should be given opportunities to make their contributions
and establish appropriate relationships with the United Nations system.
Support should be provided for developing countries' non-governmental
organizations and their self-organized networks.
38.43. The United Nations system, including international finance and
development agencies, and all intergovernmental organizations and forums
should, in consultation with non-governmental organizations, take measures
to:
(a) Design open and effective means to achieve the participation of
non-governmental organizations, including those related to major groups, in
the process established to review and evaluate the implementation of
Agenda 21 at all levels and promote their contribution to it;
(b) Take into account the findings of review systems and evaluation
processes of non-governmental organizations in relevant reports of the
Secretary-General to the General Assembly and all pertinent United Nations
agencies and intergovernmental organizations and forums concerning
implementation of Agenda 21 in accordance with the review process.
38.44. Procedures should be established for an expanded role for
non-governmental organizations, including those related to major groups,
with accreditation based on the procedures used in the Conference. Such
organizations should have access to reports and other information produced
by the United Nations system. The General Assembly, at an early stage,
should examine ways of enhancing the involvement of non-governmental
organizations within the United Nations system in relation to the follow-up
process of the Conference.
38.45. The Conference takes note of other institutional initiatives for the
implementation of Agenda 21, such as the proposal to establish a
non-governmental Earth Council and the proposal to appoint a guardian for
future generations, as well as other initiatives taken by local governments
and business sectors.
Chapter 39
INTERNATIONAL LEGAL INSTRUMENTS AND MECHANISMS
Basis for action
39.1. The recognition that the following vital aspects of the universal,
multilateral and bilateral treaty-making process should be taken into
account:
(a) The further development of international law on sustainable
development, giving special attention to the delicate balance between
environmental and developmental concerns;
(b) The need to clarify and strengthen the relationship between
existing international instruments or agreements in the field of environment
and relevant social and economic agreements or instruments, taking into
account the special needs of developing countries;
(c) At the global level, the essential importance of the participation
in and the contribution of all countries, including the developing
countries, to treaty making in the field of international law on sustainable
development. Many of the existing international legal instruments and
agreements in the field of environment have been developed without adequate
participation and contribution of developing countries, and thus may require
review in order to reflect the concerns and interests of developing
countries and to ensure a balanced governance of such instruments and
agreements;
(d) Developing countries should also be provided with technical
assistance in their attempts to enhance their national legislative
capabilities in the field of environmental law;
(e) Future projects for the progressive development and codification
of international law on sustainable development should take into account the
ongoing work of the International Law Commission;
(f) Any negotiations for the progressive development and codification
of international law concerning sustainable development should, in general,
be conducted on a universal basis, taking into account special circumstances
in the various regions.
Objectives
39.2. The overall objective of the review and development of international
environmental law should be to evaluate and to promote the efficacy of that
law and to promote the integration of environment and development policies
through effective international agreements or instruments taking into
account both universal principles and the particular and differentiated
needs and concerns of all countries.
39.3. Specific objectives are:
(a) To identify and address difficulties which prevent some States, in
particular developing countries, from participating in or duly implementing
international agreements or instruments and, where appropriate, to review
and revise them with the purposes of integrating environmental and
developmental concerns and laying down a sound basis for the implementation
of these agreements or instruments;
(b) To set priorities for future law-making on sustainable development
at the global, regional or subregional level, with a view to enhancing the
efficacy of international law in this field through, in particular, the
integration of environmental and developmental concerns;
(c) To promote and support the effective participation of all
countries concerned, in particular developing countries, in the negotiation,
implementation, review and governance of international agreements or
instruments, including appropriate provision of technical and financial
assistance and other available mechanisms for this purpose, as well as the
use of differential obligations where appropriate;
(d) To promote, through the gradual development of universally and
multilaterally negotiated agreements or instruments, international standards
for the protection of the environment that take into account the different
situations and capabilities of countries. States recognize that
environmental policies should deal with the root causes of environmental
degradation, thus preventing environmental measures from resulting in
unnecessary restrictions to trade. Trade policy measures for environmental
purposes should not constitute a means of arbitrary or unjustifiable
discrimination or a disguised restriction on international trade.
Unilateral actions to deal with environmental challenges outside the
jurisdiction of the importing country should be avoided. Environmental
measures addressing international environmental problems should, as far as
possible, be based on an international consensus. Domestic measures
targeted to achieve certain environmental objectives may need trade measures
to render them effective. Should trade policy measures be found necessary
for the enforcement of environmental policies, certain principles and rules
should apply. These could include, inter alia, the principle of
non-discrimination; the principle that the trade measure chosen should be
the least trade-restrictive necessary to achieve the objectives; an
obligation to ensure transparency in the use of trade measures related to
the environment and to provide adequate notification of national
regulations; and the need to give consideration to the special conditions
and development requirements of developing countries as they move towards
internationally agreed environmental objectives;
(e) To ensure the effective, full and prompt implementation of legally
binding instruments and to facilitate timely review and adjustment of
agreements or instruments by the parties concerned, taking into account the
special needs and concerns of all countries, in particular developing
countries;
(f) To improve the effectiveness of institutions, mechanisms and
procedures for the administration of agreements and instruments;
(g) To identify and prevent actual or potential conflicts,
particularly between environmental and social/economic agreements or
instruments, with a view to ensuring that such agreements or instruments are
consistent. Where conflicts arise they should be appropriately resolved;
(h) To study and consider the broadening and strengthening of the
capacity of mechanisms, inter alia, in the United Nations system, to
facilitate, where appropriate and agreed to by the parties concerned, the
identification, avoidance and settlement of international disputes in the
field of sustainable development, duly taking into account existing
bilateral and multilateral agreements for the settlement of such disputes.
Activities
39.4. Activities and means of implementation should be considered in the
light of the above basis for action and objectives, without prejudice to the
right of every State to put forward suggestions in this regard in the
General Assembly. These suggestions could be reproduced in a separate
compilation on sustainable development.
A. Review, assessment and fields of action in international
law for sustainable development
39.5. While ensuring the effective participation of all countries
concerned, Parties should at periodic intervals review and assess both the
past performance and effectiveness of existing international agreements or
instruments as well as the priorities for future law making on sustainable
development. This may include an examination of the feasibility of
elaborating general rights and obligations of States, as appropriate, in the
field of sustainable development, as provided by General Assembly
resolution 44/228. In certain cases, attention should be given to the
possibility of taking into account varying circumstances through
differential obligations or gradual application. As an option for carrying
out this task, earlier UNEP practice may be followed whereby legal experts
designated by Governments could meet at suitable intervals, to be decided
later, with a broader environmental and developmental perspective.
39.6. Measures in accordance with international law should be considered to
address, in times of armed conflict, large-scale destruction of the
environment that cannot be justified under international law. The General
Assembly and its Sixth Committee are the appropriate forums to deal with
this subject. The specific competence and role of the International
Committee of the Red Cross should be taken into account.
39.7. In view of the vital necessity of ensuring safe and environmentally
sound nuclear power, and in order to strengthen international cooperation inthis field, efforts should be made to conclude the ongoing negotiations for
a nuclear safety convention in the framework of the International Atomic
Energy Agency.
B. Implementation mechanisms
39.8. The parties to international agreements should consider procedures
and mechanisms to promote and review their effective, full and prompt
implementation. To that effect, States could, inter alia:
(a) Establish efficient and practical reporting systems on the
effective, full and prompt implementation of international legal
instruments;
(b) Consider appropriate ways in which relevant international bodies,
such as UNEP, might contribute towards the further development of such
mechanisms.
C. Effective participation in international law making
39.9. In all these activities and others that may be pursued in the future,
based on the above basis for action and objectives, the effective
participation of all countries, in particular developing countries, should
be ensured through appropriate provision of technical assistance and/or
financial assistance. Developing countries should be given "headstart"
support not only in their national efforts to implement international
agreements or instruments, but also to participate effectively in the
negotiation of new or revised agreements or instruments and in the actual
international operation of such agreements or instruments. Support should
include assistance in building up expertise in international law
particularly in relation to sustainable development, and in assuring access
to the necessary reference information and scientific/technical expertise.
D. Disputes in the field of sustainable development
39.10. In the area of avoidance and settlement of disputes, States should
further study and consider methods to broaden and make more effective the
range of techniques available at present, taking into account, among others,
relevant experience under existing international agreements, instruments or
institutions and, where appropriate, their implementing mechanisms such as
modalities for dispute avoidance and settlement. This may include
mechanisms and procedures for the exchange of data and information,
notification and consultation regarding situations that might lead to
disputes with other States in the field of sustainable development and for
effective peaceful means of dispute settlement in accordance with the
Charter of the United Nations, including, where appropriate, recourse to the
International Court of Justice, and their inclusion in treaties relating to
sustainable development.
Chapter 40
INFORMATION FOR DECISION-MAKING
INTRODUCTION
40.1. In sustainable development, everyone is a user and provider of
information considered in the broad sense. That includes data, information,
appropriately packaged experience and knowledge. The need for information
arises at all levels, from that of senior decision makers at the national
and international levels to the grass-roots and individual levels. The
following two programme areas need to be implemented to ensure that
decisions are based increasingly on sound information:
(a) Bridging the data gap;
(b) Improving information availability.
PROGRAMME AREAS
A. Bridging the data gap
Basis for action
40.2. While considerable data already exist, as the various sectoral
chapters of Agenda 21 indicate, more and different types of data need to be
collected, at the local, provincial, national and international levels,
indicating the status and trends of the planet's ecosystem, natural
resource, pollution and socio-economic variables. The gap in the
availability, quality, coherence, standardization and accessibility of data
between the developed and the developing world has been increasing,
seriously impairing the capacities of countries to make informed decisions
concerning environment and development.
40.3. There is a general lack of capacity, particularly in developing
countries, and in many areas at the international level, for the collection
and assessment of data, for their transformation into useful information and
for their dissemination. There is also need for improved coordination among
environmental, demographic, social and developmental data and information activities.
40.4. Commonly used indicators such as the gross national product (GNP) and
measurements of individual resource or pollution flows do not provide
adequate indications of sustainability. Methods for assessing interactions
between different sectoral environmental, demographic, social and
developmental parameters are not sufficiently developed or applied.
Indicators of sustainable development need to be developed to provide solid
bases for decision-making at all levels and to contribute to a
self-regulating sustainability of integrated environment and development
systems.
Objectives
40.5. The following objectives are important:
(a) To achieve more cost-effective and relevant data collection and
assessment by better identification of users, in both the public and private
sectors, and of their information needs at the local, provincial, national
and international levels;
(b) To strengthen local, provincial, national and international
capacity to collect and use multisectoral information in decision-making
processes and to enhance capacities to collect and analyse data and
information for decision-making, particularly in developing countries;
(c) To develop or strengthen local, provincial, national and
international means of ensuring that planning for sustainable development in
all sectors is based on timely, reliable and usable information;
(d) To make relevant information accessible in the form and at the
time required to facilitate its use.
Activities
(a) Development of indicators of sustainable development
40.6. Countries at the national level and international governmental and
non-governmental organizations at the international level should develop the
concept of indicators of sustainable development in order to identify such
indicators. In order to promote the increasing use of some of those
indicators in satellite accounts, and eventually in national accounts, the
development of indicators needs to be pursued by the Statistical Office of
the United Nations Secretariat, as it draws upon evolving experience in this
regard.
(b) Promotion of global use of indicators of sustainable development
40.7. Relevant organs and organizations of the United Nations system, in
cooperation with other international governmental, intergovernmental and
non-governmental organizations, should use a suitable set of sustainable
development indicators and indicators related to areas outside of national
jurisdiction, such as the high seas, the upper atmosphere and outer space.
The organs and organizations of the United Nations system, in coordination
with other relevant international organizations, could provide
recommendations for harmonized development of indicators at the national,
regional and global levels, and for incorporation of a suitable set of these
indicators in common, regularly updated, and widely accessible reports and
databases, for use at the international level, subject to national
sovereignty considerations.
(c) Improvement of data collection and use
40.8. Countries and, upon request, international organizations should carry
out inventories of environmental, resource and developmental data, based on
national/global priorities for the management of sustainable development.
They should determine the gaps and organize activities to fill those gaps.
Within the organs and organizations of the United Nations system and
relevant international organizations, data-collection activities, including
those of Earthwatch and World Weather Watch, need to be strengthened,
especially in the areas of urban air, freshwater, land resources (including
forests and rangelands), desertification, other habitats, soil degradation,
biodiversity, the high seas and the upper atmosphere. Countries and
international organizations should make use of new techniques of data
collection, including satellite-based remote sensing. In addition to the
strengthening of existing development-related data collection, special
attention needs to be paid to such areas as demographic factors,
urbanization, poverty, health and rights of access to resources, as well as
special groups, including women, indigenous peoples, youth, children and the
disabled, and their relationships with environment issues.
(d) Improvement of methods of data assessment and analysis
40.9. Relevant international organizations should develop practical
recommendations for coordinated, harmonized collection and assessment of
data at the national and international levels. National and international
data and information centres should set up continuous and accurate
data-collection systems and make use of geographic information systems,
expert systems, models and a variety of other techniques for the assessment
and analysis of data. These steps will be particularly relevant, as large
quantities of data from satellite sources will need to be processed in the
future. Developed countries and international organizations, as well as the
private sector, should cooperate, in particular with developing countries,
upon request, to facilitate their acquiring these technologies and this
know-how.
(e) Establishment of a comprehensive information framework
40.10. Governments should consider undertaking the necessary institutional
changes at the national level to achieve the integration of environmental
and developmental information. At the international level, environmental
assessment activities need to be strengthened and coordinated with efforts
to assess development trends.
(f) Strengthening of the capacity for traditional information
40.11. Countries, with the cooperation of international organizations,
should establish supporting mechanisms to provide local communities and
resource users with the information and know-how they need to manage their
environment and resources sustainably, applying traditional and indigenous
knowledge and approaches when appropriate. This is particularly relevant
for rural and urban populations and indigenous, women's and youth groups.
Means of implementation
(a) Financing and cost evaluation
40.12. The secretariat of the Conference has estimated the average total
annual cost (1993-2000) of implementing the activities of this programme to
be about $1.9 billion from the international community on grant or
concessional terms. These are indicative and order-of-magnitude estimates
only and have not been reviewed by Governments. Actual costs and financial
terms, including any that are non-concessional, will depend upon,
inter alia, the specific strategies and programmes Governments decide upon
for implementation.
(b) Institutional means
40.13. Institutional capacity to integrate environment and development and
to develop relevant indicators is lacking at both the national and
international levels. Existing institutions and programmes such as the
Global Environmental Monitoring System (GEMS) and the Global Resource
Information Database (GRID) within UNEP and different entities within the
systemwide Earthwatch will need to be considerably strengthened. Earthwatch
has been an essential element for environment-related data. While
programmes related to development data exist in a number of agencies, there
is insufficient coordination between them. The activities related to
development data of agencies and institutions of the United Nations system
should be more effectively coordinated, perhaps through an equivalent and
complementary "Development Watch", which with the existing Earthwatch should
be coordinated through an appropriate office within the United Nations to
ensure the full integration of environment and development concerns.
(c) Scientific and technological means
40.14. Regarding transfer of technology, with the rapid evolution of
data-collection and information technologies it is necessary to develop
guidelines and mechanisms for the rapid and continuous transfer of those
technologies, particularly to developing countries, in conformity with
chapter 34 (Transfer of environmentally sound technology, cooperation and
capacity-building), and for the training of personnel in their utilization.
(d) Human resource development
40.15. International cooperation for training in all areas and at all
levels will be required, particularly in developing countries. That
training will have to include technical training of those involved in data
collection, assessment and transformation, as well as assistance to decision
makers concerning how to use such information.
(e) Capacity-building
40.16. All countries, particularly developing countries, with the support
of international cooperation, should strengthen their capacity to collect,
store, organize, assess and use data in decision-making more effectively.
B. Improving availability of information
Basis for action
40.17. There already exists a wealth of data and information that could be
used for the management of sustainable development. Finding the appropriate
information at the required time and at the relevant scale of aggregation is
a difficult task.
40.18. Information within many countries is not adequately managed, because
of shortages of financial resources and trained manpower, lack of awareness
of the value and availability of such information and other immediate or
pressing problems, especially in developing countries. Even where
information is available, it may not be easily accessible, either because of
the lack of technology for effective access or because of associated costs,
especially for information held outside the country and available
commercially.
Objectives
40.19. Existing national and international mechanisms of information
processing and exchange, and of related technical assistance, should be
strengthened to ensure effective and equitable availability of information
generated at the local, provincial, national and international levels,
subject to national sovereignty and relevant intellectual property rights.
40.20. National capacities should be strengthened, as should capacities
within Governments, non-governmental organizations and the private sector,
in information handling and communication, particularly within developing
countries.
40.21. Full participation of, in particular, developing countries should be
ensured in any international scheme under the organs and organizations of
the United Nations system for the collection, analysis and use of data and
information.
Activities
(a) Production of information usable for decision-making
40.22. Countries and international organizations should review and
strengthen information systems and services in sectors related to
sustainable development, at the local, provincial, national and
international levels. Special emphasis should be placed on the
transformation of existing information into forms more useful for
decision-making and on targeting information at different user groups.
Mechanisms should be strengthened or established for transforming scientific
and socio-economic assessments into information suitable for both planning
and public information. Electronic and non-electronic formats should be
used.
(b) Establishment of standards and methods for handling information
40.23. Governments should consider supporting the efforts of governmental
as well as non-governmental organizations to develop mechanisms for
efficient and harmonized exchange of information at the local, national,
provincial and international levels, including revision and establishment of
data, access and dissemination formats, and communication interfaces.
(c) Development of documentation about information
40.24. The organs and organizations of the United Nations system, as well
as other governmental and non-governmental organizations, should document
and share information about the sources of available information in their
respective organizations. Existing programmes, such as those of the
Advisory Committee for the Coordination of Information Systems (ACCIS) and
the International Environmental Information System (INFOTERRA), should be
reviewed and strengthened as required. Networking and coordinating
mechanisms should be encouraged between the wide variety of other actors,
including arrangements with non-governmental organizations for information
sharing and donor activities for sharing information on sustainable
development projects. The private sector should be encouraged to strengthen
the mechanisms of sharing its experience and information on sustainable
development.
(d) Establishment and strengthening of electronic networking capabilities
40.25. Countries, international organizations, including organs and
organizations of the United Nations system, and non-governmental
organizations should exploit various initiatives for electronic links to
support information sharing, to provide access to databases and other
information sources, to facilitate communication for meeting broader
objectives, such as the implementation of Agenda 21, to facilitate
intergovernmental negotiations, to monitor conventions and efforts for
sustainable development to transmit environmental alerts, and to transfer
technical data. These organizations should also facilitate the linkage of
different electronic networks and the use of appropriate standards and
communication protocols for the transparent interchange of electronic
communications. Where necessary, new technology should be developed and its
use encouraged to permit participation of those not served at present by
existing infrastructure and methods. Mechanisms should also be established
to carry out the necessary transfer of information to and from
non-electronic systems to ensure the involvement of those not able to
participate in this way.
(e) Making use of commercial information sources
40.26. Countries and international organizations should consider
undertaking surveys of information available in the private sector on
sustainable development and of present dissemination arrangements to
determine gaps and how those gaps could be filled by commercial or
quasi-commercial activity, particularly activities in and/or involving
developing countries where feasible. Whenever economic or other constraints
on supplying and accessinginformation arise, particularly in developing countries, innovative schemes
for subsidizing such information-related access or removing the non-economic
constraints should be considered.
Means of implementation
(a) Financing and cost evaluation
40.27. The secretariat of the Conference has estimated the average total
annual cost (1993-2000) of implementing the activities of this programme to
be about $165 million from the international community on grant or
concessional terms. These are indicative and order-of-magnitude estimates
only and have not been reviewed by Governments. Actual costs and financial
terms, including any that are non-concessional, will depend upon,
inter alia, the specific strategies and programmes Governments decide upon
for implementation.
(b) Institutional means
40.28. The institutional implications of this programme concern mostly the
strengthening of already existing institutions, as well as the strengthening
of cooperation with non-governmental organizations, and need to be
consistent with the overall decisions on institutions made by the United
Nations Conference on Environment and Development.
(c) Capacity-building
40.29. Developed countries and relevant international organizations should
cooperate, in particular with developing countries, to expand their capacity
to receive, store and retrieve, contribute, disseminate, use and provide
appropriate public access to relevant environmental and developmental
information, by providing technology and training to establish local
information services and by supporting partnership and cooperative
arrangements between countries and on the regional or subregional level.
(d) Scientific and technological means
40.30. Developed countries and relevant international organizations should
support research and development in hardware, software and other aspects of
information technology, in particular in developing countries, appropriate
to their operations, national needs and environmental contexts.
Annex III
NON-LEGALLY BINDING AUTHORITATIVE STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLES
FOR A GLOBAL CONSENSUS ON THE MANAGEMENT, CONSERVATION
AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF ALL TYPES OF FORESTS
PREAMBLE
(a) The subject of forests is related to the entire range of
environmental and development issues and opportunities, including the right
to socio-economic development on a sustainable basis.
(b) The guiding objective of these principles is to contribute to the
management, conservation and sustainable development of forests and to
provide for their multiple and complementary functions and uses.
(c) Forestry issues and opportunities should be examined in a holistic
and balanced manner within the overall context of environment and
development, taking into consideration the multiple functions and uses of
forests, including traditional uses, and the likely economic and social
stress when these uses are constrained or restricted, as well as the
potential for development that sustainable forest management can offer.
(d) These principles reflect a first global consensus on forests. In
committing themselves to the prompt implementation of these principles,
countries also decide to keep them under assessment for their adequacy with
regard to further international cooperation on forest issues.
(e) These principles should apply to all types of forests, both
natural and planted, in all geographical regions and climatic zones,
including austral, boreal, subtemperate, temperate, subtropical and
tropical.
(f) All types of forests embody complex and unique ecological
processes which are the basis for their present and potential capacity to
provide resources to satisfy human needs as well as environmental values,
and as such their sound management and conservation is of concern to the
Governments of the countries to which they belong and are of value to local
communities and to the environment as a whole.
(g) Forests are essential to economic development and the maintenance
of all forms of life.
(h) Recognizing that the responsibility for forest management,
conservation and sustainable development is in many States allocated among
federal/national, state/provincial and local levels of government, each
State, in accordance with its constitution and/or national legislation,
should pursue these principles at the appropriate level of government.
PRINCIPLES/ELEMENTS
1. (a) States have, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations
and the principles of international law, the sovereign right to exploit
their own resources pursuant to their own environmental policies and have
the responsibility to ensure that activities within their jurisdiction or
control do not cause damage to the environment of other States or of areas
beyond the limits of national jurisdiction.
(b) The agreed full incremental cost of achieving benefits associated
with forest conservation and sustainable development requires increased
international cooperation and should be equitably shared by the
international community.
2. (a) States have the sovereign and inalienable right to utilize, manage
and develop their forests in accordance with their development needs and
level of socio-economic development and on the basis of national policies
consistent with sustainable development and legislation, including the
conversion of such areas for other uses within the overall socio-economic
development plan and based on rational land-use policies.
(b) Forest resources and forest lands should be sustainably managed to
meet the social, economic, ecological, cultural and spiritual needs of
present and future generations. These needs are for forest products and
services, such as wood and wood products, water, food, fodder, medicine,
fuel, shelter, employment, recreation, habitats for wildlife, landscape
diversity, carbon sinks and reservoirs, and for other forest products.
Appropriate measures should be taken to protect forests against harmful
effects of pollution, including air-borne pollution, fires, pests and
diseases, in order to maintain their full multiple value.
(c) The provision of timely, reliable and accurate information on
forests and forest ecosystems is essential for public understanding and
informed decision-making and should be ensured.
(d) Governments should promote and provide opportunities for the
participation of interested parties, including local communities and
indigenous people, industries, labour, non-governmental organizations and
individuals, forest dwellers and women, in the development, implementation
and planning of national forest policies.
3. (a) National policies and strategies should provide a framework for
increased efforts, including the development and strengthening of
institutions and programmes for the management, conservation and sustainable
development of forests and forest lands.
(b) International institutional arrangements, building on those
organizations and mechanisms already in existence, as appropriate, should
facilitate international cooperation in the field of forests.
(c) All aspects of environmental protection and social and economic
development as they relate to forests and forest lands should be integrated
and comprehensive.
4. The vital role of all types of forests in maintaining the ecological
processes and balance at the local, national, regional and global levels
through, inter alia, their role in protecting fragile ecosystems, watersheds
and freshwater resources and as rich storehouses of biodiversity and
biological resources and sources of genetic material for biotechnology
products, as well as photosynthesis, should be recognized.
5. (a) National forest policies should recognize and duly support the
identity, culture and the rights of indigenous people, their communities and
other communities and forest dwellers. Appropriate conditions should be
promoted for these groups to enable them to have an economic stake in forest
use, perform economic activities, and achieve and maintain cultural identity
and social organization, as well as adequate levels of livelihood and
well-being, through, inter alia, those land tenure arrangements which serve
as incentives for the sustainable management of forests.
(b) The full participation of women in all aspects of the management,
conservation and sustainable development of forests should be actively
promoted.
6. (a) All types of forests play an important role in meeting energy
requirements through the provision of a renewable source of bio-energy,
particularly in developing countries, and the demands for fuelwood for
household and industrial needs should be met through sustainable forest
management, afforestation and reforestation. To this end, the potential
contribution of plantations of both indigenous and introduced species for
the provision of both fuel and industrial wood should be recognized.
(b) National policies and programmes should take into account the
relationship, where it exists, between the conservation, management and
sustainable development of forests and all aspects related to the
production, consumption, recycling and/or final disposal of forest products.
(c) Decisions taken on the management, conservation and sustainable
development of forest resources should benefit, to the extent practicable,
from a comprehensive assessment of economic and non-economic values of
forest goods and services and of the environmental costs and benefits. The
development and improvement of methodologies for such evaluations should be
promoted.
(d) The role of planted forests and permanent agricultural crops as
sustainable and environmentally sound sources of renewable energy and
industrial raw material should be recognized, enhanced and promoted. Their
contribution to the maintenance of ecological processes, to offsetting
pressure on primary/old-growth forest and to providing regional employment
and development with the adequate involvement of local inhabitants should be
recognized and enhanced.
(e) Natural forests also constitute a source of goods and services,
and their conservation, sustainable management and use should be promoted.
7. (a) Efforts should be made to promote a supportive international
economic climate conducive to sustained and environmentally sound
development of forests in all countries, which include, inter alia, the
promotion of sustainable patterns of production and consumption, the
eradication of poverty and the promotion of food security.
(b) Specific financial resources should be provided to developing
countries with significant forest areas which establish programmes for the
conservation of forests including protected natural forest areas. These
resources should be directed notably to economic sectors which would
stimulate economic and social substitution activities.
8. (a) Efforts should be undertaken towards the greening of the world.
All countries, notably developed countries, should take positive and
transparent action towards reforestation, afforestation and forest
conservation, as appropriate.
(b) Efforts to maintain and increase forest cover and forest
productivity should be undertaken in ecologically, economically and socially
sound ways through the rehabilitation, reforestation and re-establishment of
trees and forests on unproductive, degraded and deforested lands, as well as
through the management of existing forest resources.
(c) The implementation of national policies and programmes aimed at
forest management, conservation and sustainable development, particularly in
developing countries, should be supported by international financial and
technical cooperation, including through the private sector, where
appropriate.
(d) Sustainable forest management and use should be carried out in
accordance with national development policies and priorities and on the
basis of environmentally sound national guidelines. In the formulation of
such guidelines, account should be taken, as appropriate and if applicable,
of relevant internationally agreed methodologies and criteria.
(e) Forest management should be integrated with management of adjacent
areas so as to maintain ecological balance and sustainable productivity.
(f) National policies and/or legislation aimed at management,
conservation and sustainable development of forests should include the
protection of ecologically viable representative or unique examples of
forests, including primary/old-growth forests, cultural, spiritual,
historical, religious and other unique and valued forests of national
importance.
(g) Access to biological resources, including genetic material, shall
be with due regard to the sovereign rights of the countries where the
forests are located and to the sharing on mutually agreed terms of
technology and profits from biotechnology products that are derived from
these resources.
(h) National policies should ensure that environmental impact
assessments should be carried out where actions are likely to have
significant adverse impacts on important forest resources, and where such
actions are subject to a decision of a competent national authority.
9. (a) The efforts of developing countries to strengthen the management,
conservation and sustainable development of their forest resources should be
supported by the international community, taking into account the importance
of redressing external indebtedness, particularly where aggravated by the
net transfer of resources to developed countries, as well as the problem of
achieving at least the replacement value of forests through improved market
access for forest products, especially processed products. In this respect,
special attention should also be given to the countries undergoing the
process of transition to market economies.
(b) The problems that hinder efforts to attain the conservation and
sustainable use of forest resources and that stem from the lack of
alternative options available to local communities, in particular the urban
poor and poor rural populations who are economically and socially dependent
on forests and forest resources, should be addressed by Governments and the
international community.
(c) National policy formulation with respect to all types of forests
should take account of the pressures and demands imposed on forest
ecosystems and resources from influencing factors outside the forest sector,
and intersectoral means of dealing with these pressures and demands should
be sought.
10. New and additional financial resources should be provided to developing
countries to enable them to sustainably manage, conserve and develop their
forest resources, including through afforestation, reforestation and
combating deforestation and forest and land degradation.
11. In order to enable, in particular, developing countries to enhance
their endogenous capacity and to better manage, conserve and develop their
forest resources, the access to and transfer of environmentally sound
technologies and corresponding know-how on favourable terms, including on
concessional and preferential terms, as mutually agreed, in accordance with
the relevant provisions of Agenda 21, should be promoted, facilitated and
financed, as appropriate.
12. (a) Scientific research, forest inventories and assessments carried
out by national institutions which take into account, where relevant,
biological, physical, social and economic variables, as well as
technological development and its application in the field of sustainable
forest management, conservation and development, should be strengthened
through effective modalities, including international cooperation. In this
context, attention should also be given to research and development of
sustainably harvested non-wood products.
(b) National and, where appropriate, regional and international
institutional capabilities in education, training, science, technology,
economics, anthropology and social aspects of forests and forest management
are essential to the conservation and sustainable development of forests and
should be strengthened.
(c) International exchange of information on the results of forest and
forest management research and development should be enhanced and broadened,
as appropriate, making full use of education and training institutions,
including those in the private sector.
(d) Appropriate indigenous capacity and local knowledge regarding the
conservation and sustainable development of forests should, through
institutional and financial support and in collaboration with the people in
the local communities concerned, be recognized, respected, recorded,
developed and, as appropriate, introduced in the implementation of
programmes. Benefits arising from the utilization of indigenous knowledge
should therefore be equitably shared with such people.
13. (a) Trade in forest products should be based on non-discriminatory and
multilaterally agreed rules and procedures consistent with international
trade law and practices. In this context, open and free international trade
in forest products should be facilitated.
(b) Reduction or removal of tariff barriers and impediments to the
provision of better market access and better prices for higher value-added
forest products and their local processing should be encouraged to enable
producer countries to better conserve and manage their renewable forest
resources.
(c) Incorporation of environmental costs and benefits into market
forces and mechanisms, in order to achieve forest conservation and
sustainable development, should be encouraged both domestically and
internationally.
(d) Forest conservation and sustainable development policies should be
integrated with economic, trade and other relevant policies.
(e) Fiscal, trade, industrial, transportation and other policies and
practices that may lead to forest degradation should be avoided. Adequate
policies, aimed at management, conservation and sustainable development of
forests, including, where appropriate, incentives, should be encouraged.
14. Unilateral measures, incompatible with international obligations or
agreements, to restrict and/or ban international trade in timber or other
forest products should be removed or avoided, in order to attain long-term
sustainable forest management.
15. Pollutants, particularly air-borne pollutants, including those
responsible for acidic deposition, that are harmful to the health of forest
ecosystems at the local, national, regional and global levels should be
controlled.
RESOLUTION 2
Expression of thanks to the people and Government
of Brazil
The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development,
Having met in Rio de Janeiro at the invitation of the Government of
Brazil from 3 to 14 June 1992,
1. Expresses its deep appreciation to His Excellency the President of
Brazil, Mr. Fernando Collor, for his outstanding contribution as President
of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development to the
successful outcome of the Conference;
2. Expresses its profound gratitude to the Government of Brazil for
having made it possible for the Conference to be held in Rio de Janeiro and
for the excellent facilities, staff and services so graciously placed at its
disposal;
3. Requests the Government of Brazil to convey to the State and City
of Rio de Janeiro and to the people of Brazil the gratitude of the
Conference for the hospitality and warm welcome extended to the
participants;
4. Acknowledges with appreciation the continuing commitment of the
Government of Brazil to the objectives of the Conference and its decision to
establish in Rio de Janeiro an International Centre for Sustainable
Development.
RESOLUTION 3
Credentials of representatives to the Conference
The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development
Approves the report of the Credentials Committee. 1/
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1/ A/CONF.151/17.