788 Economic and social questions

Chapter XVI

Environment

S i g n s o f a g l o b a l e n v i r o n m e n t a l c r i s i s -

desertification, acid rain, depletion of the ozone

layer, destruction of tropical forests-formed the

background to the 1985 work of the United Na-

t ions Environment Programme ( U N E P ) , which

continued to co-ordinate efforts by the United Na-

tions system to protect the Earth’s environment.

The effects of that crisis were apparent in 1985.

D e s e r t i f i c a t i o n a n d d r o u g h t i n t h e S u d a n o -

Sahelian region of Africa created critical food shor-

tages in 21 countries and placed over 30 million

people at risk. Destruction of forests continued

unabated. The buildup of so-called greenhouse

gases in the atmosphere pointed to major climatic

changes. Risks of significant ozone layer depletion

were confirmed and environmental conditions in

many cities became worse.

But the year also brought positive signs. The

Vienna Convent ion for the Protect ion of the

Ozone Layer was adopted in March and a pro-

tocol to the 1979 Convention on Long-Range

Transboundary Air Pollution to reduce sulphur

emissions by 30 per cent was concluded. The

United Nations Sudano-Sahelian Office continued

to combat desertification, and allocated $12 million

for projects in the region. The f irs t African

Minis ter ia l Conference on the Environment

brought together African policy-makers to discuss

common problems and the first Global Meeting

on Environment and Development saw represen-

tatives of 109 non-governmental organizations ex-

amine sustainable development strategies.

The UNEP Governing Council approved further

measures to combat desertification and urged in-

tensified efforts in that regard. By resolution

40/198 A, the General Assembly called for increased

assistance to affected countries in their desertification

control programmes and urged those countries to

accord priority to long-term strategies against the

problem, and, by resolut ion 40/198 B, a lso

underscored the urgency of implementing the Plan

of Action to Combat Desertification in the Sudano-

Sahelian region. By resolution 40/175, the Assembly

recommended that the international community

continue to assist drought-stricken countries and

to provide all forms of support.

UNEP continued its action to protect the marine

environment, to conserve wildlife and protected

areas, to monitor various aspects of the environ-

ment (cl imate, global resources, t ransport of

pollutants), and to promote the development of en-

vironmental law and the establishment of national

conservation strategies. The Global Resource In-

formation Data Base became fully operational and

preparation of an Environmental Perspective to the

Year 2000 and Beyond progressed. Other activities

included management of tropical forests and soil

resources, protection against harmful products and

pollutants, research on genetic resources, and linkages

between environment and development, energy, in-

dustry, human settlements and education.

By resolution 40/200, the Assembly endorsed the

UNEP Council’s 1985 decisions and dealt with

various international environmental co-operation

questions. By resolution 40/197, it requested the

Secretary-General to continue his efforts with the

countries responsible for planting mines and the

affected developing countries to ensure the removal

of material remnants of war.

Sixty-three new projects were approved by the

Environment Fund in 1985; 62 were closed. The

Fund disbursed $23.53 million for programme ac-

tivities; government contributions totalled $28.26

million.

Comprehensive information covering all aspects

of UNEP 1985 activities was given in the UNEP Ex-

ecutive Director’s annual report.(1)

Topics related to this chapter . Africa: co-

operation with the Organization of African Unity.

Asia: Iran-Iraq armed confl ict . Middle East:

Mediterranean-Dead Sea canal project. Economic

assistance, disasters and emergency relief: drought-

stricken areas of Africa. Regional economic and

social activities: environment. Natural resources:

water resources. Energy resources: nuclear energy.

Health and human resources: health. Human set-

t lements . Human r ights : o ther human r ights

questions.

R E F E R E N C E

(1)UNEP/GC.14/2.

Programme and f inances of UNEP

At its thirteenth session, held at: UNEP head-

quarters, Nairobi, Kenya, from 14 to 24 May 1985,

the UNEP Governing Council adopted decisions on

environmental and administrative rnatters which

w e r e c o n t a i n e d i n i t s r e p o r t o n t h e s e s -

Environment 789

sion.( 1 )

That report was taken note of by the

Economic and Social Council on 25 July 1985

when i t adopted dec i s ion 1985 /172 .

P rog ramme po l i cy

On 23 May,(2)

the Council noted the UNEP Ex-

ecutive Director’s reports(3)

on the implementa-

tion of its 1984 policy decisions and noted the 1984

resolutions adopted by the General Assembly and

the Economic and Social Council calling for ac-

tion by UNEP. The Council also addressed itself

to new initiatives: various conferences organized

or supported by UNEP (see p. 796); the initiation

of the UNEP Global Resource Information Data

Base (GRID) (see p. 801); the Executive Director’s

suggestions on UNEP activities for International

Youth Year (1985) (see p. 976); and his proposals

on the UNEP role vis-à-vis the 1985 Conference to

review the achievements of the United Nations

Decade for Women (see p. 937). In addition, the

Council agreed to decide in 1987 on the method

by which to consider the proposed system-wide

medium-term environment programme for 1990-

1995. The Council also took action regarding the

UNEP clearing-house mechanism (see p. 795).

Also on 23 May,(4)

the Council requested the Ex-

ecutive Director, in presenting to the Council in

1987 the UNEP programme budget for 1988-1989,

to provide a statement of the programme strategy

for each area of activity, indicating the main goals

and the rationale for UNEP involvement. The state-

ment was to indicate the relationship of the area

of activity to at least one of the following criteria-

that it addressed an environmental issue: essential

to understand a major environmental problem or

to stimulate action to solve it; global in nature; likely

to cause serious damage to health or environment;

important to the environment of developing coun-

tries; and occurring at the regional or subregional

level or in many locations.

GENERAL ASSEMBLY ACTION

On 17 December, the General Assembly, on the

recommendation of the Second (Economic and

Financial) Committee, adopted resolution 40/200

by recorded vote.

International co-operation in the

field of the environment

The General Assembly,

Recognising the international dimension of en-vironmental problems, the role of environmental fac-tors in the broader economic and social context, andthe importance of taking environmental considerationsfully into account in the implementation of the Inter-national Development Strategy for the Third United Na-tions Development Decade.

Having considered the report of the Governing Councilof the United Nations Environment Programme on thework of its thirteenth session,

Having considered also the report of the Executive Direc-

tor of the United Nations Environment Programme oninternational conventions and protocols in the field ofthe environment,

Noting with deep concern that the harmful consequencesof the drought and desertification seriously affectingmany countries, in particular African countries, are ex-acerbated by the continued erosion of the resource basefor the development of those countries,

Reaffirming the importance of the interrelationships be-tween resources, environment, people and development,and the need to take those interrelationships into ac-count in development policies and strategies,

Stressing the importance of an international exchangeof experience and knowledge concerning the protectionof the environment,

Noting the activity of the United Nations Environment

Programme on the subject “The arms race and the en-

vironment”, in accordance with its programme of work

as adopted by the General Assembly, the Economic and

Social Council and the Governing Council of the United

Nations Environment Programme,

Mindful of the sovereign rights of States over their

natural resources, including their forests,

Noting also the activities of the United Nations and

other international organizations, as well as the inter-

national initiatives being taken that are directed towards

the important objective of rational management, pro-

tection and rehabilitation of the world’s forests,

Recalling its resolution 38/161 of 19 December 1983 on

the process of preparation of the Environmental Perspec-

tive to the Year 2000 and Beyond,

1. Takes note of the report of the Governing Council

of the United Nations Environment Programme on the

work of its thirteenth session and endorses the decisions

contained therein, as adopted;2. Welcomes the decision of the Governing Council

to change to a biennial cycle of sessions on an experimen-

tal basis and in this regard takes note of the establish-

ment of the open-ended Commit tee of Permanent

Representatives to facilitate this process;

3. Invites the Governing Council, when reviewing the

experiment with the organization of a biennial work pro-

gramme, to consider changes that may in consequence

be necessary in the functioning of the Council, including

the term of membership;

4. Welcomes section III of decision 13/1 of 23 May

1985, and decision 13/10 of 24 May 1985 by which the

Governing Council initiated steps towards the prepara-

tion of the system-wide medium-term environment pro-

gramme for the period 1990-1995 and invited the Ad-

ministrative Committee on Co-ordination to review and

further develop the methodology in the light of the ex-

perience gained in the system-wide medium-term en-

vironment programme for the period 1984-1989;

5. Takes note of the work done by the Special Com-

mission on the Environmental Perspective to the Year

2000 and Beyond, which has adopted the name World

Commission on Environment and Development, and by

the Intergovernmental Inter-sessional Preparatory Com-

mittee on the Environmental Perspective to the Year 2000

and Beyond in the preparation of their reports, and recalls

the relationship between the Commission and the Com-

mittee, as set out in General Assembly resolution 38/161:

6. Takes note of the progress on international conven-

tions and protocols in the field of the environment

790 Economic and social questions

during 1985, including the adoption of the Vienna Con-

vention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer and of

an international protocol to the 1979 Convention on

Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution, on sulphur

emissions and fluxes, and the organization of the first

meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Con-

vention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of

Wild Animals;

7. Considers that measures to deal with the erosion

of the natural resource base in countries affected by

drought and desertification should have as one of their

major aims the sustainable exploitation and increased

productivity of that natural resource base;

8. Welcomes the importance attached by the Gover-

ning Council to regional approaches and programmes

relating to international co-operation in the field of the

environment, and in this context stresses the relevance

of specific regional planning identified by the regions

themselves;

9. Notes with appreciation the convening of the first

African Ministerial Conference on the Environment at

Cairo from 16 to 18 December 1985;

10. Calls upon the Executive Director of the United

Nations Environment Programme to co-ordinate fur-

ther the activities of the Programme with those of other

organizations of the United Nations system, to co-

operate appropriately with the organizers of the inter-

national initiatives on the future of the forests, and to

report thereon to the Governing Council;

11. Reaffirms the need to strengthen the co-ordinating

role of the United Nations Environment Programme

and the need for additional resources to assist develop-

ing countries in dealing with serious environmental

problems, and urges the Executive Director of the Pro-

gramme, in consultation with Governments and the

international organizations concerned, to accelerate and

intensify his efforts in that field;

12. Expresses its appreciation to the Governments that

continue to contribute to the Fund of the United Na-

tions Environment Programme, particularly those that

have increased their contributions, and urges those

Governments that have not yet paid their pledged con-

tributions to the Fund for 1985 or made pledges for 1986

to do so in the near future.

General Assembly resolution 40/200

1 7 D e c e m b e r 1 9 8 5 M e e t i n g 1 1 9 1 4 9 - 0 - 6 ( r e c o r d e d v o t e )

Approved by Second Committee (A/40/989/Add.6) by recorded vote (126-0-7), 11

December (meeting 50): 16-nation draft (A/C.2/40/L.37/Rev.1), orally revised after

informal consultations; agenda item 84 (f).

Sponsors: Argentina, Australia, Canada. Congo. Denmark. Finland. Gambia, Iceland.

India, Indonesia. Kenya, Nepal, Netherlands, Norway, Senegal, Sweden.

Meeting numbers. GA 40th session: 2nd Committee 34, 36, 43, 47, 50;

planary 119.

Recorded vote in Assembly as follows:

In favour: Afghanistan, Algeria, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina,

Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belgium, Belize,

Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina

Faso, Burma, Burundi, Byelorussian SSR, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Cen-

tral African Republic, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Comoros, Congo, Costa

Rica, Cuba, Cyprus, Czechoslovakia, Democratic Kampuchea, Democratic

Yemen, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El

Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, Gabon, Gambia, German

Democratic Republic, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea

Bissau, Guyana;, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq,

Ireland, Italy, Ivory Coast, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lao People’s

Democratic Republic, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Lux-

embourg, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Mauritania,

Mauritius, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Nepal, Netherlands, New

Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Papua

New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Qatar, Romania, Rwanda, Saint

Christopher and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and tile Grenadines, Samoa,

Sao Tome and Principe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Somalia,

Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Syrian Arab Republic,

Thailand, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, Ukrainian SSR,

USSR, United Arab Emirates, United Republic of Tanzania, Uruguay, Vanuatu,

Venezuela, Viet Nam, Yemen, Yugoslavia, Zaire, Zambia. Zimbabwe.

Against: None.

Abstaining: France, Germany. Federal Republic of, Israel. Portugal, United

Kingdom, United States.

In the Second Committee, the USSR submit-

ted two amendments(5)

to the original draft

resolution; they were later withdrawn in the light

of their incorporation into the approved text.

France, which requested separate recorded votes

on the seventh preambular paragraph-relating

to U N E P a c t i v i t y o n t h e a r m s r a c e a n d t h e

environment—and on the draft as a whole, said

UNEP had no mandate with regard to the arms

race; it was improper, in a text designed to endorse

all UNEP’s activities, to single out one element on

which there had never been consensus.

The Committee approved the paragraph by 102

to 7, with 18 abstentions; the Assembly similarly

adopted it by 123 to 8, with 17 abstentions.

Opposing the paragraph in the Committee, the

United States said that the arms race was not animportant item for UNEP to consider, since it could

not do anything useful about it; inclusion of that

paragraph was an effor t to inject extraneous

political elements into the text-a view shared bythe Federal Republic of Germany, Israel and the

United Kingdom, which believed that disarma-m e n t s h o u l d b e d i s c u s s e d e l s e w h e r e i n t h eAssembly.

China, Japan and Spain, which abstained on

the paragraph, gave similar explanations.

B u l g a r i a , s p e a k i n g a l s o o n b e h a l f o f t h e

Byelorussian SSR, Czechoslovakia, the German

D e m o c r a t i c R e p u b l i c , H u n g a r y , M o n g o l i a ,

Poland, the Ukrainian SSR and the USSR, said

that the threat the arms race posed to nature and

human life was a grim reality, and the work of

U N E P o n t h e s u b j e c t s h o u l d b e i n t e n s i f i e d i n

accordance with its mandate and the Assembly’s

resolutions; it was understood that the Special

Commission on the Environmental Perspective

would follow its mandate as contained in a 1983

Assembly resolution,(6)

and that reports on disar-

mament would be made to the UNEP Council or

the Intergovernmental Inter-sessionad Preparatory

Committee. Peru said that the arms race was a

significant aspect of the historical responsibility of

States for the preservation of the environment, and

a broad approach was needed which embraced the

maintenance of international peace and security,

the establishment of a new international economic

order and détente. Norway, speaking on behalf of

the draft’s sponsors, stressed that it was the first

text on the environment to contain, for the sake

of precision, a blanket endorsement of all UNEP

Governing Council decisions. Canada agreed with

Environment 791

the reasons which had made a consensus impossi-

ble on the seventh preambular paragraph.

State of the environment

Monitoring the state of the environment con-

tinued throughout the year. Reports to the Gover-

ning Council examined emerging environmental

issues (see p. 792), and chemical accidents that oc-

curred in 1984 and early 1985,(7)

including the

serious 1984 accident at Bhopal, India, which

resulted in more than 1,400 deaths from a leakage

of methyl isocyanate from a pest icide plant .

Guidelines for national state-of-the-environment

reports were published and distributed to Govern-

ments (see p. 792). UNEP also began preparing

the first of a series of periodic environmental data

reports, in collaboration with three bodies deal-

ing with the environment-the Monitoring Assess-

ment and Research Centre, University of London;

the World Resources Institute, Washington, D.C.;

and the London-based International Institute for

Environment and Development. Efforts also con-

centrated on support to the initial phase of GRID

(see p. 801); a project on computerization of data

of selected environmental subjects within GRID

was helping to ensure quality control of data

related to the physical environment, pollution and

natural resources. The data were to be used to

prepare environmental assessments by the Global

Environmental Monitoring System (GEMS) (see

p. 800) and for the periodic review of key en-

vironmental indicators.

Population and the environment and the en-

vironmental aspects of emerging agricul tural

technologies were the 1985 themes examined in the

Executive Director’s annual report on the state of

UNEP Council.(9)

The report stated that there was no simple cor-

relation between population and environment.

Some patterns of development had improved en-

vironmental conditions, while others had degraded

them irreversibly. The capacity of a number of

developing countries to manage their environment

was under severe stress because of rapid popula-

tion growth, mass poverty, environmental degrada-

tion and slow development. Population policies

could have only limited success when poverty re-

mained widespread, environmental conditions

deteriorated and natural resource availability was

low; environmental programmes did not have the

intended impact when population continued to

grow rapidly.

The world had the natural resources, technology

and expertise to provide for a decent quality of life

for the projected high levels of global population,

but co-ordinated action on population, resources,

environment and development was urgent ly

needed. Population and environment policies were

coming to respond to the needs of social and

economic development, and their interface had

become clearer. Basic education, improvement in

the status of women, public works to improve in-

frastructure and natural resource availability, land

reform, provision of drinking-water supply and

sanitat ion, and spatial ly balanced industr ial ,

agricultural and settlements development were

areas needing urgent attention. Countries ex-

periencing environmental stress and high popula-

tion densities needed to pursue their population,

environment and development goals. Their efforts

had to be supported by greater internat ional

e c o n o m i c c o - o p e r a t i o n a n d d e v e l o p m e n t

assistance.

On the environmental aspects of emerging

agricultural technologies, the report pointed out

that abundant and cheap sources of fossil-fuel

energy during the previous 30 to 50 years had

enabled farmers to enjoy extraordinary output

growth, mostly in developed countries. But this

technical revolution was not wholly beneficial and,

pushed to the extreme, was detrimental to the en-

vironment. Moreover, it did not suit the needs of

hundreds of millions of poor third-world farmers,

and the wisdom of pursuing this agricultural

technology in the future would be called into ques-

tion in view of the world energy situation.

In many parts of the world the environmental

costs of agricultural technologies were high, but

there was no commonly accepted measure of these

costs, due to the difficulty of identifying and quan-

tifying all the impacts of damage to land, water

and ecosystems.

Long-term solutions leading to environmentally

s o u n d a g r i c u l t u r a l d e v e l o p m e n t i n c l u d e d

technologies generating lower environmental costs

than those currently used. Such technologies had

to suit local conditions and be acceptable to

farmers. They included integrated pest manage-

ment, minimum tillage, and the development of

new types of seeds tolerant of salt or disease, or

capable of enhancing biological nitrogen fixation

or increasing the efficiency of photosynthesis.

On 24 May the Governing Council en-(10)

dorsed the report’s recommendations. The Ex-

ecutive Director was requested to bring them to

the attention of Governments and United Nations

and other organizations. He was also requested to

provide assistance, experimentally, to six countries

(two from Africa, two from Asia and two from

Latin America) in implementing agricul tural

policies selected from among those listed in the

r e p o r t , i n c o - o p e r a t i o n w i t h t h e F o o d a n d

Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

(FAO) and other United Nations bodies and the

Governments concerned. Various United Nations

the environment,(8) as requested in 1984 by the

1985 report

792 Economic and social questions

bodies were also invited to consider the recommen-

dations and support their implementation.

Follow-up on the 1984 report

Referring to the 1984 state-of-the-environment

report,(11)

whose topic was environment in the

dialogue between and among developed and

developing countries, the Governing Council on

24 May(12)

urged Governments to continue ad-

dressing the major environmental issues to which

they had agreed in the 1984-1989 system-wide

medium-term environment programme.( 1 3 )

The

C o u n c i l e n d o r s e d t h e E x e c u t i v e D i r e c t o r ’ s

r e c o m m e n d a t i o n s - a n n e x e d t o t h e d e c i s i o n -

identifying some prerequisites for the success of

dialogue on such issues. It felt that no new institu-

tional arrangement was required to deal with the

subject of the 1984 report, and that action should

arise within current international or intergovern-

mental treatment of the individual issues. It re-

quested the Executive Director to monitor con-

cerns of Governments on those issues and to report

on the progress made.

Future reports

On 24 May ( 1 4 )

the Governing Council ex-

p r e s s e d t h e h o p e t h a t f u t u r e s t a t e - o f - t h e -

environment reports would increasingly become

basic documents for the Council’s deliberations,

especially when based on GRID statistical data,

and decided that future reports should examine,

in al ternate years , the economic and social

aspects of the environment, and environmental

data and assessment. It also decided that the

topic for the 1986 report would be health and the

environment, and that the 1987 report should

a t t e m p t , a s t h e f i r s t w o r l d s t a t e - o f - t h e -

environment report, to present a comprehensive

su rvey a l so u t i l i z i ng t he da t a and r e su l t s

available through GEMS.

Emerging environmental issues

An updated list of emerging environmental

issues(15)

was submitted to the 1985 Governing

Council session by the Executive Director. The list,

which was to be updated annually in line with the

Council’s 1984 request,(16)

included data on possi-

ble climatic change brought about by the increas-

ing concentration of carbon dioxide and other so-

called greenhouse gases in the atmosphere (see

p. 804); land and soil loss caused by urban and

industr ial development; environmental r isks

resulting from the increasing production and use

of chemicals (see p. 802); municipal solid wastes

in developing countries; aquaculture; and the ef-

fects of military activity (see p. 817).

On 24 May, ( 1 7 )

the Council requested the

report’s wider circulation, and decided that the

1987 state-of-the-environment report should ex-

amine municipal solid waste in developing coun-

tries and aquaculture.

National reports

On 23 May,( 1 8 )

the Governing Counci l re-

quested the Executive Director to assist develop-

ing countries in preparing their national state-of-

the-environment reports, which should include in-

formation on the implementation of previous deci-

sions and the results in terms of environmental im-

p r o v e m e n t . I t a l s o r e q u e s t e d h i m t o a s s i s t

Governments in preparing, by the Council’s 1987

session, examples of those reports for three coun-

tries from Africa, three from Asia and the Pacific

and three from Latin America, each representing

different eco-zones.

Following that decision, guidelines for prepar-

ing the reports were distributed to Governments

in 1985. Their purpose was to avoid existing wide

variations in the presentation of data and trends,

which made comparisons between countries ex-

tremely difficult. To facilitate understanding, the

guidelines suggested that the reports should be

produced regularly, and be organized on a sectoral

rather than on an ecosystem basis. Thirteen forms

were also designed, to collect the basic informa-

tion needed, taking into account the state of en-

vironmental information in developing countries.

Environmental Perspective

The UNEP Council addressed again in 1985 the

preparation of an Environmental Perspective to

the Year 2000 and Beyond, to be submitted to the

General Assembly in 1987. To assist in preparing

the Perspective, the Council had established in

1983(l9)

an open-ended Intergovernmental Inter-

sessional Preparatory Committee and a Special

C o m m i s s i o n , a n a c t i o n e n d o r s e d b y t h e

Assembly.( 6 )

In February 1985, the Executive

Director reported(20)

that the Commission, which

had adopted the name World Commission on En-

v i r o n m e n t a n d D e v e l o p m e n t , h a d s e t u p a

secretariat in Geneva, and a work plan which en-

visaged seven regular meetings between March

1985 and the end of 1986.

The Preparatory Committee had held its first

session in Nairobi in May 1984, and, in confor-

mity with its approved mandate,(6)

had produced

a document, annexed to the Executive Director’s

report,(20)

giving the expectations of the Council

for consideration by the Commission, which was

transmitted to the Commission in October 1984.

Discussions between Committee and Commission

representatives were held in May and November

1984 and March 1985.

At its second(21)

and third sessions (Nairobi, 22

and 23 May, 3 and 3 December 1985), the Com-

mittee examined the Commission’s work and

discussed the Perspective’s preparation.

Environment 793

The Governing Council, on 24 May,(22)

stated

that the Environmental Perspective should pro-

mote international co-operation and national ef-

forts to pursue environmentally sound develop-

ment, and invited Governments to contribute to

that end. The Council invited the Commission to

make known to the Committee its preliminary

conclusions, and hoped that the Commission’s

report would be available to the Committee at an

early stage.

Regional activit ies

Major regional initiatives in 1985 included the

organization of the first African Ministerial Con-

ference on the Environment, the hosting of the

Workshop on Youth for the Environment, and in-

formation activities (see below).

UNEP also continued providing support to staff

of its regional offices, including regional advisers;

individual experts from developing countr ies

wishing to participate in environment-related

meetings, symposia, workshops and seminars; the

Environment Co-ordinating Units in the United

Nations regional commissions, with the exception

of the Economic Commission for Europe (ECE);

and a few small technical co-operation projects.

Africa

Ministerial Conference

Suggested by the Governing Council in

1983, (23)

the first African Ministerial Conference

o n t h e E n v i r o n m e n t ( C a i r o , E g y p t , 1 6 - 1 8

December) , a t tended by 41 delegat ions from

African countries, reviewed national priorities,

identified common problems calling for regional

action, and adopted the Cairo Programme for

African Co-operation. The Programme included

a decision to select 150 villages (three per coun-

try) and 30 semi-arid stock-raising zones (one in

each of 30 countries) to help them to become self-

sufficient in food and energy within live years.

Another action was to institutionalize the Con-

ference, which would meet every two years. To im-

prove technical and scientific co-operation, the

Conference established eight regional networks on

environmental monitoring, climatology, soils and

resources, science and technology, and education

fer t i l izers , water resources, energy, genetic

and training.

On 23 May (24)

the Council had approved theExecutive Diretctor's proposal to convene the Con-

ference.

Workshop on Youth for the Environment

To encourage the interes t of youth in en-

vironmental issues, U N E P hosted an African

Workshop on Youth for the Environment (Nairobi,

25 and 26 November). Attended by youth leaders

from 24 International Youth Year African national

co-ordinating committees and from many non-

governmental organizations, the Workshop drew

up recommendations for youth action on the en-

vironment, and stressed the need to involve young

women and women’s groups in this action.

Latin America and the Caribbean

In spite of the current economic and financial

crisis, Governments of Latin America and the

Caribbean were requested to redouble their efforts

in applying environmental policies. That request

was made by the Fourth Intergovernmental

Regional Meeting on the Environment in Latin

America and the Caribbean (Cancun, Mexico, 18-

20 Apri1),( 2 5 )

attended by 12 countries of the

region and 10 international organizations. The

Meeting also urged Governments to consolidate

national institutional and legal provisions on the

environment, and to use natural resources as a

priority to generate long-term development. It fur-

ther considered environmental trends and pros-

pects for the year 2000, regional seas programmes,

the Environmental Training Network for Latin

America and the Caribbean (see below), other

regional programmes of common interest and in-

novative means of financing.

On 24 May 1985,(26)

the Governing Council

endorsed a number of the Meeting’s calls. The

Council called on Governments of the region and

UNEP to include in future meetings an item aimed

at strengthening dialogue on the relationship be-

tween economic and social issues and the applica-

tion of environmental policies. Those Govern-

ments were invited to conduct quantitative and

social cost-benefit environmental studies as a basis

for guiding national policies, and to prepare state-

of-the-environment reports. The Executive Direc-

tor was requested to support programmes of com-

mon interest and to assess their progress, com-

municating his views to the Governments. He was

also to conduct an inventory of the resources of

regional and internat ional organizat ions and

bilateral sources to support regional environmen-

tal programmes. In addition, he was to draw up

a roster of experts to support regional and

sub reg iona l p ro j ec t s t ha t had a l r eady been

allocated priority.

Considering the Latin American and Caribbean

Environmental Training Network,(27)

the Coun-

cil on 23 May endorsed the Meeting’s decision by

urging the region’s Governments to adopt formally

t h e N e t w o r k ’ s p r o g r a m m e a d o p t e d b y t h e

Meeting,(25)

and requested the Executive Direc-

tor to assist them in preparing proposals for finan-

cing and operating the Network in 1986-1987.

Governments were urged to furnish details of the

contributions they could commit for courses,

794 Economic and social questions

seminars, research and publications within the

framework of the regional strategy adopted for the

Network. The Executive Director was requested

to prepare, based on government contributions,

a regional co-operation project, and to convene at

the end of 1985 a meeting of Network focal points

to approve the regional project and establish

machinery to operate the Network programme.

T h a t m e e t i n g ( C a r a c a s , V e n e z u e l a , 2 - 6

December) identified measures for the Network’s

continued operation, including Governments’ con-

tributions in cash, fellowships and personnel, as

wel l as funding for courses , workshops and

seminars.

Regional information activities

Regional information act ivi t ies highlighted

e n v i r o n m e n t a l i s s u e s . I n t e r P r e s s S e r v i c e

disseminated 100 environmental news features in

Spanish in Latin America and the Caribbean. Co-

operation with the Press Foundation of Asia led

to the placement of many i tems which were

reported to have been well received by the targeted

media. In the Arab region, UNEP and the Egyp-

tian daily Al-Ahram co-operated to produce a

special supplement on the environment for Al-

Ahram’s Youth, Science and Future magazine, which

was distributed to 20,000 subscribers. Throughout

the year, UNEP continued to support the Africa

Press Service, and this led to the production of

three environmental features per month in English

and Kiswahili. With a world-wide distribution net-

work of 400 specialists, Earthscan, the media unit

of the UNEP-supported International Institute for

Environment and Development, continued its

feature service in English, French and Spanish;

press cuttings showed that considerable placement

was achieved.

Co-ordination

United Nations co-ordination

Co-ordination of environmental activities con-

tinued to be monitored by the Administrative

Committee on Co-ordination (ACC). In its report

to the 1985 session of the UNEP Governing Coun-

ci1,(28)

ACC welcomed the start of negotiations by

UNEP and other United Nations bodies on draw-

ing up the second (1986-1987) programme budget

of the system-wide medium-term environment

programme (184-1989), and expressed support to

United Nations organizations in concentrating

their environmental programmes on sustainable

development. ACC also considered that the sub-

j ec t o f i n t e r r e l a t i onsh ips be tween peop le ,

resources, environment and development (see also

p. 430) deserved support from all United Nations

bodies. On the Plan of Action to Combat Deser-

tification (see p. 807), ACC noted the seven

pledges to finance its implementation, and em-

phasized the need for additional contributions.

At its October 1985 session, ACC: approved its

1986 report to the UNEP Council(29)

and decided

to consider co-operation in environnnental matters

at its April 1986 session.(30)

On 24 May,( 3 1 )

the Governing Counci l ex-

pressed appreciation for ACC’s continued co-

operation with UNEP and for the co-operation

shown by the United Nations system in develop-

ing the methodology for preparing the system-wide

medium-term environment programme for 1984-

1989, and invited ACC to develop the methodology

as the first step towards preparing the 1990-1995

programme.

Regarding that programme, the Council on 23

May(2)

noted that in the United Nations system

the medium-term plan cycles had been aligned,

and that consequently the consideration and ap-

proval by the relevant intergovernmental forums

of such plans for 1990-1995, including the United

Nations medium-term plan, would in accordance

with past practice take place in 1988. It agreed to

decide in 1987 on the method by which the pro-

posed system-wide medium-term environment

programme for 1990-1995 would be considered.

In December, in resolution 40/200, the General

Assembly invited ACC to develop the methodology

in the light of the experience gained in the 1984-

1989 programme, and called on the UNEP Ex-

ecutive Director to co-ordinate further UNEP ac-

t i v i t i e s w i t h t h o s e o f o t h e r U n i t e d N a t i o n s

organizations, and to report to the Governing

Council.

During 1985, 90 UNEP Fund projects were

being implemented in co-ordination with other

United Nations organizations, including FAO (19

projects), UNESCO (18), WHO (12), WMO (8), UNSO

(6) and UNCHS (5). Out of a total expenditure of

$23.53 million for Fund programme activities in

1985, $6.6 million (28 per cent) was implemented

by co-operating agencies.

Cross-organizational programme analysis

Cross-organizational programme analyses were

carried out regularly in the United Nations system

to assess current activities of United Nations

organizations in a given sector as a basis for im-

proved co-ordinat ion. In March 1985,( 3 2 )

the

UNEP Executive Director recalled that in 1984 the

ACC Consul ta t ive Commit tee on Substant ive

Questions (Programme Matters) had indicated

that environment would be the most appropriate

subject for the 1987 analysis, as preparations for

the 1990-1995 system-wide medium-term environ-

ment programme would then be well under way,

as would work on the Environmental Perspective

(see p. 792). The Committee for Programme and

795Environment

Co-ordination (CPC) had confirmed in 1984 that

the analysis should be reviewed by the competent

intergovernmental body. There would be no ses-

sion of the Governing Council in 1986, the Ex-

ecutive Director recalled, and its 1987 session

would probably overlap with the CPC session ex-

pected to be considering the subject.

In May 1985, a paper( 3 3 )

prepared by the

United Nations and UNEP secretariats was for-

warded to the UNEP Council. The paper outlined

the background to the analyses, and suggested

some issues relating to the environment analysis

which required resolution.

Meeting in April and May 1985, CPC decided

to consider the cross-organizational programme

analysis on the environment at its 1988 session,(34)

and the President of the Economic and Social

Council was so informed on 16 May.(35)

On 24

May, he received a telegram from the President

of the UNEP Governing Council,(36)

stating that

the UNEP Council considered that in preparing the

1990-1995 system-wide environment programme

during 1987, for adoption by the Governing Coun-

cil in 1988, UNEP and the United Nations system

would benefit from consideration of the analysis.

Accordingly, the Council would appreciate its

preparation for consideration by CPC in 1987.

Meanwhile , the Governing Counci l on 24

May(37)

welcomed CPC's decision to consider the

analysis. Noting the joint paper,(33)

it requested

United Nations bodies to assist the secretariat in

preparing a description of mandates guiding the

United Nations environment-related work; sug-

gested that including activities in the system-wide

m e d i u m - t e r m e n v i r o n m e n t p r o g r a m m e c o n -

stituted a working definition of the scope of en-

vironmental act ivi t ies in the United Nations

system, for the purposes of the analysis; endorsed

the suggestion that that programme should be used

in formulating the structure of the analysis; and

r e q u e s t e d t h e D e s i g n a t e d O f f i c i a l s f o r E n -

v i r o n m e n t a l M a t t e r s t o p a r t i c i p a t e i n i t s

preparation.

Joint meetings with UNCHS

In 1985, the UNEP Council again considered the

subject of meetings between UNEP and the United

Nations Centre for Human Settlements (UNCHS).

A report(38)

on the seventh joint meeting, held in

November 1984, was submitted to the Council by

the UNEP Executive Director. On 23 May,( 3 )

noting an 8 May resolution of the Commission on

Human Settlements (see p. 833), the Council con-

curred with that resolution and adopted a text with

identical provisions.

On 17 December, by resolution 40/199, the

General Assembly, acting on a suggestion submit-

ted by the respective Executive Directors, decided

to discontinue those meetings.

Co-ordination with and among Governments

In view of its 1983 decision(40)

not to hold a ses-

sion in 1986, the UNEP Council on’ 23 May(41)

laid

down guidelines for providing information to

Governments between the 1985 and 1987 sessions.

It recommended that three annual reports be con-

tinued: that on the state of the environment, and

those of the Executive Director and ACC. The

Council specified various subjects to be examined

in those documents.

Desiring to institute a more formal and regular

system of consultation among Governments and

between Governments and the Executive Direc-

tor, particularly in view of the fact that there would

be no session in 1986, the Council, also on 23

May,(42)

established an open-ended Committee of

Permanent Representatives and/or Government-

designated officials, which was to meet quarterly

and whenever deemed necessary with the Ex-

ecutive Director to make recommendations to the

Council.

UNEP clearing-house mechanism

Established by the Governing Council in

1982,(43)

the clearing-house was meant to expand

UNEP's ability to assist developing countries in

specific environmental problems, while maintain-

ing its co-ordinating rather than operational role.

UNEP'S role was usually limited to project for-

mulation, monitoring and evaluation; financing

and implementation were negotiated with willing

donors. During 1985, four long-term programmes

designed in 1983-1984 through the clearing-house

mechanism commenced: in Botswana (manage-

ment of soil and water resources), Indonesia (en-

vironmental management of the Jakarta-Puncak

corridor region), Jordan (range rehabilitation

demonstration project in the low rainfall zone) and

Peru (environmental management of the upper

Selva region).

In 1985, the programme received support from

Argentina, the Federal Republic of Germany, the

Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom,

the United States and the European Economic Com-

munity (EEC). Two additional country programmes

were formulated for Papua New Guinea and Tunisia.

In addit ion, three mult i -country programmes

received financing, and short-term advisory ser-

vices were provided to: Bangladesh (designing a pilot

industrial waste-water treatment plant); Burundi

(national parks management and assessing the pollu-

tion of Lake Tanganyika); Rwanda (organizing a

national environment seminar); the Syrian Arab

Republic (air pollution assessment); and Togo

(preparing an environment code). A project for the

management of Andean ecosystems in Peru was also

initiated during the year.

On 23 May,(2)

the Council expressed its apprecia-

tion to Governments and institutions which had

796 Economic and social questions

supported the clearing-house, called on donor

countries and aid institutions to increase their sup-

port for projects presented through it, and called

on developing countries to make wider use of the

clearing-house, part icularly in technical co-

operation among them.

Relations with NGOs

Close co-operation with environmentally con-

cerned non-governmental organizations (NGOS)

was again given high priority in 1985, principally

through the Nairobi-based Environmental Liaison

Centre (ELC), co-ordinator of a network of over

6,000 such NGOs. ELC continued to disseminate

information on UNEP and played a leading role in

promoting NGO activities on World Environment

Day (5 June).

With financial and other assistance from UNEP,

ELC organized a Global Meeting on Environment

and Deve lopmen t f o r NGOs (Na i rob i , 4 - 8

February), the first of its kind in that it brought

together environmental and non-environmental

NGOs. Attended by 140 participants representing

109 NGOS from 48 countries, as well as 83 guests

and observers, the Meeting dealt with rural and

urban economy, northern development and North-

South relations. It adopted 119 action proposals

and recommendations(44)

on sustainable develop-

ment, environment action and NGO co-operation

and effectiveness. The Meeting established a com-

mon strategy among NGOs to work for sustainable

development and called on UNEP to support the

strategy and its extension to other NGOs around

the world.

Activities in Asia and the Pacific included

UNEP’S collaboration with the Asian Mass Com-

munication Research and Information Centre in

a research project on the use of traditional media

for environmental communication. UNEP also co-

operated with Wildlife Fund Thailand on the Bud-

dhist perception of nature. Other initiatives in-

cluded the production of reports on pesticide

poisoning in Asia and the Pacific and on the

lessons of the 1984 Bhopal accident, in collabora-

tion with the International Organization of Con-

sumers Unions; the organizat ion of several

workshops for journalists, in co-operation with the

Press Foundation of Asia and the Sukothai Tham-

mathirat Open University of Thailand; and the

co-ordination of tree-planting projects in India,

New Caledonia, Sri Lanka and Thailand, with

financial support from the National Federation of

UNESCO Associations in Japan.

In Kenya, assistance was provided to promo-

tional activities and seminars of the Greenbelt

Movement, the tree-planting NGO organized by

the National Council of Women.

UNEP continued its close partnership with the

major international environmental NGOS. Thus,

during 1985, the International Union for the Con-

servation of Nature and Natural Resources was

carrying out 15 activities with UNEP support, the

Scientific Committee on Problems on the Environ-

ment had six and the International Institute for

Environment and Development had three.

Underlining the unique role that NGOS could

play at all levels, the Governing Council on 23

May(45)

urged the Executive Director to improve

mechanisms by which UNEP, in consultation with

Governments, utilized the capacities of NGOS. He

was also urged to help develop the ability of NGOS,

especially those in developing countries, to become

more effect ive partners in development with

Governments, international agencies and develop-

ment institutions, and to report on progress in

these matters in 1987.

UNEP Fund

During 1985, expenditures of the UNEP Fund

on programme and programme reserve activities

totalled $23.53 million, broken down as follows:

environmental awareness, $3.94 million; Earth-

watch, $3.5 million; oceans, $3.02 million; ter-

restrial ecosystems, $2.61 million; health and

human settlements, $2.5 million; desertification.

$2.37 million; environment and development.

$2.27 million; water, $1.4 million; regional and

technical co-operation, $1.38 million; Fund pro-

gramme reserve, $0.43 million; arms race and the

environment, $0.11 million.

In 1985, 63 new projects were approved, com-

pared with 48 in 1984; 62 projects were closed. At

the end of the year, 295 projects were still open.

Geographical distribution of Fund expenditures

was as follows: global, $15,179,952; regional,

&6,313,823; and interregional, $2,038,135.

Contributions

On 23 May,( 4 6 )

the Governing Council ex-

pressed appreciation to Governments that had in-

creased their pledges to the Environment Fund,

appealed to those that had not done so to pledge

their 1985 contribution, and urged Governments

to contribute at the beginning of a year and to sup-

port Fund programme activities in which they

were particularly interested by making counter-

part contributions to individual projects. The Ex-

ecutive Director was requested to seek increased

contributions to implement projects at the agreed

expenditure level.

Making similar appeals to Governments, the

General Assembly in reso lu t ion 40/200 reaf -

firmed the need for additional resources to deal

w i t h d e v e l o p i n g c o u n t r i e s ’ e n v i r o n m e n t a l

problems.

Country Country(in US dollars)

Amount

Environment

c o u n t r y( in US dol lars)

Amount

CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE UNEP FUND, 1985

(as at 31 December 1985/

797

Algeria

Argentina

Australia

Austria

Bahamas

Bangladesh

Barbados

Botswana

Sweden

Brazil

Bulgaria

Byelorussian SSR

Cameroon

Canada

Chile

China

Colombia

Costa Rica

Cyprus

Czechoslovakia

Democratic Yemen

Denmark

Egypt

Finland

France

Gabon

German Democratic Republic

Germany. Federal Republic of

Ghana

11,000

70,000

320,310

300,000

500

5,224

1,000

561

20,000

10,152

14,338

11,660

848,900

5,000

64,925

35,243

103

2,000

25.316

2,000

358,887

24.340

600,000

751,222

6,000

118,936

1.418,216

9,570

Greece 10,000

Hungary 21,539

Iceland 4,500

India 104,004

Indonesia 12,000

Ireland 19.622

Italy 279,883

Japan 4.000.000

Jordan 10,000

Kenya 45,000

Kuwait 200,000

Lao People’s Democratic Republic 2,027

Luxembourg 5,200

Malawi 2,857

Malaysia 15,000

Malta 1,361

Mauritius 1,000

Mexico 21,169

Mongolia 791

Morocco 10,277

Nepal 1,000

Netherlands 481,105

New Zealand 55,755

Norway 736,937

Oman 15,000

Pakistan 5,000

Panama 4,000

Papua New Guinea 13,000

Accounts for 1984-1985

As at 31 December 1985, total income of the

Fund for 1984-1985 amounted to $61,448,423 and

the total expenditure to $60,713,714, leaving an

excess of income over expenditure of $734,709.

propriation of $22,811,000 for 1984-1985—a

recommendation shared by the Advisory Commit-

tee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions

(ACABQ).(49)

Comments and recommendations on the ac-

counts of the UNEP Fund were made by the Board

of Auditors.(47)

On 23 May(50)

the Governing Council ap-

proved the revised appropriation and requested

the Executive Director to reduce the proportion

of the costs as soon as possible.

Programme budgets 1986-1987

1984-1985

In February 1985,( 4 8 )

the Executive Director

reported on the implementation of the approved

programme and programme support costs budget

for 1984-1985, and indicated the revisions it re-

quired. He recalled the Governing Council’s re-

quest to keep those costs within 33 per cent of the

estimated contributions for any given year. To do

so in 1985, costs would have to be reduced to $9.9

million, but such a reduction was not possible.

Projected 1985 requirements amounted to $12.3

million, but the Executive Director would try to

limit expenditure to $11.5 million. It was essen-

tial for the Council to accept a situation, deplored

by him, of having the costs in question possibly

consuming 40 per cent of contributions, making

it impossible to have a meaningful programme im-

plementation. Such a situation would occur if most

Governments continued to hold stationary or

reduce their contributions to the Fund. He recom-

mended the approval of a revised, lower ap-

On 23 May,( 5 1 )

the Governing Council ap-

proved the proposed programme budget for 1986-

1987 and the activities contained therein. On the

same day,(46)

it approved an appropriation of $60

million for Fund programme activities and $2

million for Fund programme reserve activities for

1986-1987, and set out the apportionment for

them. The Executive Director was requested to

adjust the financial reserve of the Fund in 1986

to 7.5 per cent of the total programme approved

by the Council for 1986-1987.

Also on the same date,( 5 0 )

the Council ap-

proved the appropriation of $26,207,700 for the

programme and programme support costs budget

for 1986-1987—an amount recommended by

ACABQ.(52)

Resources available to the Fund in 1986 were

estimated at $53.07 million. Based on this, an ex-

penditure of $32.35 million was planned in 1986,

broken down as follows: programme and pro-

gramme support costs, $11 million, plus Fund

Philippines

Poland

Portugal

Qatar

Saudi Arabia

Seychelles

Singapore

Somalia

Spain

Sri Lanka

Swaziland

Amount

(in US dollars)

8,919

20.464

3,000

10,000

500,000

100

1,000

269

269,986

3,000

441

1,824,753

Switzerland 376,045

Thailand 10,000

Trinidad end Tobago 5,000

Tunisia 15,180

Turkey 6,000

Uganda 2,000

Ukrainian SSR 36,995

USSR 33,030,868

United Kingdom 1,063,125

United States 9,865,433

Venezuela 57,333

Yugoslavia 22,414

Zambia 6,522

Zimbabwe 4,017

Total 28,256,314

798 Economic and social questions

programme activities and reserve activities, $28.35

million, less underspending of $7 million. The

balance of $20.72 million was to be carried for-

ward to 1987.

The Executive Director allocated $45.2 million

for Fund programme activities in 1986-1987:

$27.85 million for 1986 and $17.35 million for

1987. He also allocated $1 million for reserve ac-

tivities covering both years.

1988- 1989

O n 2 3 m a y ,( 4 6 )

t h e G o v e r n i n g C o u n c i l

Authorized the Executive Director to enter into for-

ward commitments of up to $16 million for Fund

programme activities in 1988-1989, and requested

him to draw up a programme for Fund activities

and reserve activities in 1988-1989 which would

result in an estimated level of project expenditures

of approximately $50 million.

Also on that day,(50)

the Council requested him

to identify more clearly the real administrative

costs of UNEP and to present them in the 1988-

1989 budget.

The Executive Director stated that he did not

expect to incur a high level of commitments for

1988-1989 activities during 1986-1987, although

some forward commitments would be necessary.

Only $10,000 commitments for those years had

been incurred by 31 March 1986.

Trust funds

Three new technical assistance funds were

established after the 1984 session of the Govern-

ing Council: to provide short-term experts to

developing countries, and for a pilot project on

environmental management and protection of An-

dean ecosystems, both financed by the Federal

Republic of Germany; and to promote technical

co-operation and assistance in industrial, en-

vironmental and raw mater ia l management ,

financed by the Swedish International Develop-

ment Authority.(53)

In the same period, one other

trust fund, the Interim Special Account for the

Establishment of the Special Commission on the

Environmental Perspective to the Year 2000 and

Beyond, was closed. This brought the number of

trust funds administered by UNEP to 15.

On 23 May,( 5 4 )

the Counci l expressed ap-

preciation to Governments that had pledged to in-

crease their contributions to the various funds, and

urged Governments to pay promptly, at the begin-

ning of a calendar year, and to support Fund pro-

gramme activities in which they were particularly

interested by making counterpart contributions to

individual projects. The Council approved the ex-

tension of six trust funds established under the

rules of the Environment Fund and approved, on

a cont ingency basis , the establ ishment of a

Regional Seas Trust Fund for the Eastern African

Region. It also took note of the establishment of

the three technical assistance funds mentioned

above.

(For the Trust Fund for the Convention on the

Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild

Animals, see p. 813.)

Additional sources of funding

In accordance with a 1982 Governing Council

request,(43)

the Executive Director continued to

seek resources additional to those provided by con-

tributions to the Environment Fund. Additional

pledges tota l l ing $956,822 were secured as

counterpart contributions for 12 projects in 1985

and a further $81,932 for three projects in 1986.

Twelve Governments contributed $779,926 for

1985, while the European Atomic Energy Com-

munity, EEC, several industrial corporations and

NGOs contributed a total of $176,896.

Concerned at the decline in the Environment

Fund’s real resources, the Council on 23 May(55)

urged States to contribute or to increase their con-

tributions. The Executive Director was requested

to seek additional funds for specific activities; to

initiate cost-effective mechanisms to utilize na-

tional currencies and contributions. in kind; to in-

t ens i fy co -ope ra t i on be tween U N E P a n d t h e

U n i t e d N a t i o n s D e v e l o p m e n t P r o g r a m m e

( U N D P ) ; t o s e c u r e s u p p o r t t o s u p p l e m e n t

secretar iat s taff by direct recrui tment under

agreements with Governments; to consult with

United Nations Headquarters on the possibility

of issuing conservation stamps 10 finance en-

vironmental activities; to encourage the establish-

ment of national environmental committees; and

to explore other possibilities.

O t h e r a d m i n i s t r a t i v e a n d

o r g a n i z a t i o n a l q u e s t i o n s

UNEP public information

Information activities and special events helped

to increase environmental awareness during 1985.

On the tenth anniversary of GEMS (see p. 800)

and the launching of GRID (see p. 801), a visit to

U N E P b y a s t r o n a u t G e o r g e B . N e l s o n a n d

cosmonaut Anatoly Nicolaevich Berezovoy at-

tracted major media attention. Press coverage of

the visit of Pope John Paul II to the United Na-

t i o n s O f f i c e a t N a i r o b i ( 1 8 A u g u s t ) w a s

augmented by the distribution of speeches for the

occasion to church leaders. World Environment

Day (5 June) was observed in more than 70 coun-

tries and received global media attention.

An Information Advisory Committee of in-

dependent information experts to advise on pro-

moting environmental awareness held its first

meeting at Geneva in November. Under the first

Environment 799

UNEP Journalist Attachment Programme, represen-

tatives of major newspapers were invited for three

weeks in May to observe UNEP’s functioning and

the Governing Council’s session. Liaison with the

Nairobi-based media was reinforced with regular

monthly briefings and some 100 news releases,

features and background papers.

Six issues of UNEP News, in English, French and

Spanish, were produced. A new publications series

aimed at the general public was launched. The initial

titles were: Environment-A Dialogue among Nations,

Environmental Refugees and Radiation, Risks, Doses and

Effects. Other publications included five technical

papers, a series of eight thematic fact sheets (in four

languages) and six associated posters (in three

languages). In Thailand, Dr. Seuss’s children’s book

The Lorax was released in Thai and distributed free

of charge to all school libraries on World Environ-

ment Day.

The non-convertible-currency-funded publications

and information programmes with China and the

U S S R c o n t i n u e d . T h e U N E P / C h i n a p r o j e c t

published four issues of the Chinese-language

quarterly World Environment (circulation 25,000),

provided information support to a UNEP/FAO/China

seminar on pest control, and started preparing the

Chinese version of The Lorax. Various publications

were printed under the UNEP/USSR project. Its

audio-visual component selected Soviet entries for

the global environmental film/video catalogue, and

started work on a biosphere reserve slide show.

The audio-visual services produced three radio

programmes on behalf of all English-language radio

stations in Africa; dubbed into Spanish the film Pills

and Pesticides; translated into Arabic, French and

Spanish the slide show Harvest of Dust; and prepared

a photographic display on women in the en-

vi ronment

The UNEP-sponsored Television Trust for the

Environment (TVE) produced, in co-operation with

Thailand and the United Press International Televi-

sion Network, a five-minute news item and a 25-

minute film feature for World Environment Day.

TVE also produced a film on desertification con-

trol in China.

(For regional information activities, see p. 794.)

Reform of the information service

As part of the ongoing reform of the UNEP in-

formation programme, the Executive Director

reported(32)

that target audiences had been iden-

tified and objectives set. Information needs of

developing countries had been analysed, as had been

the opportunities for use of non-traditional media

in those countries. Staff and financial resources for

the information programme had been reviewed,

and an organizational structure drawn up. A 1985

information programme had been defined and

UNEP News issued every two months.

On 23 May,(56)

the Governing Council urged

the Executive Director to continue streamlining in-

formation activities, and requested him to provide

Governments, through the Committee of Perma-

nent Representatives, with information on the use

of funds for such activities.

Future Council sessions

Biennial cycle of sessions

In 1983, the U N E P Governing Counci l had

decided, experimentally, to hold no session in 1986

and decide in 1987 on the periodicity of its ses-

s i ons .( 4 0 )

I n r e s o l u t i o n 4 0 / 2 0 0 , t h e G e n e r a l

Assembly welcomed that decision and invited the

Council, when reviewing the experiment with the

organization of a biennial work programme, to con-

sider changes that might be necessary in the Coun-

cil’s functioning, including the term of membership.

1987 session

On 24 May,(1)

the Governing Council decided

to hold its 1987 session at Nairobi, in April-June,

at dates to be relayed to Governments after con-

sultations. It also approved a provisional agenda

for the session.

REFERENCES(1)

A/40/25. (2)

Ibid. (dec. 13/l). (3)

UNEP/GC.1312 & Corr.l,2;UNEP/GC.13/3 & Corr.1,2 & Add.l-6 & Add.6/Corr.1 & Add.7.(4)

.4/40/25 (dec. 13/15). (5)

A/C.2/40/L.93 & Corr.1 & L.94.( 6 )

YUN 1983 , p . 771 , GA r e s . 38 /161 , 19 Dec . 1983 .(7)

UNEP/GC.13/4/Add.2. (8)

UNEP/GC. 13/4. (9)

YUN 1984,743

( 1 0 )A/40/25 (dec. 13/9 A).

( 1 1 )YUN 1984. p. 744.

(12)A/40/25 (dec. 13/9C).

(13)YUN 1982. p. 1005.

(14)A/40/25

(dec. 13/9 D). (15)

UNEP/GC. 13/4/Add.l & Add.l/Corr. 1.( 1 6 )

YUN 1984, 743. (17)A/40/25 (dec. B). ( 1 8 )

1bid.13/9

dec 13/23). (19)

YUN 1983, p. 771. (20)

UNEP/GC. 13/3/Add.2.(21)

UNEP/GC/IIPC.2/2. (22)

A/40/25 (dec. 13/4 A & B). (23)

YUN1983, p, 773.

(24)A/40/25 (dec. 13/6).

(25)UNEP/IG.57/8.

( 2 6 )A/40/25 (dec . 13/32) . ( 2 7 )

I b i d . ( d e c . 1 3 / 2 1 ) .(28)

UNEP/GC. 13/5. (29)

ACC/1985/DEC/16-29 (dec. 1985/19).( 3 0 )

I b i d . ( d e c . 1 9 8 5 / 2 0 ) . ( 3 1 )

A / 4 0 / 2 5 ( d e c . 1 3 / 1 0 ) .(32)

UNEP/GC.13/3 & Corr.1.2. (33)

UNEP/GC.13/3/Add.6 &Add.6/Corr. 1.

(34)A/40/38.

(35)E/1985/86.

(36)E/1985/120.

(37)A/40/25 (dec. 13/11).

(38)UNEP/GC. 13/6.

(39)A/40/25

(dec 13/12). (dec. (40)

YUN 1983, p. 769.(41)

A/40/25 (des. 13/3 ).

( 42 ) Ib id . ( dec . 13 /2 ) . ( 43 )YUN 1982 , P . 999 .(44)

UNEP/GC. 13/3/Add.4. (45)

A/40/25 (dec. 13/13).(46)

Ibid.

(dec. 13/36). (47)

A/41/5/Add.6. (48)

UNEP/GC. 13/11.(49)

UNEP/GC.13/L.4. (50)

A/40/25 (dec. 13135). (51)Ibid.

(dec. 13/14). (52)

UNEP/GC.13/L.5. (53)

UNEP/GC.13/14 &Add. 1.

(54)A/40/25 (dec. 13/34).

(55)Ibid. (dec. 13/33).

(56)Ibid,

(Dec. 13/22).

Environmental act ivi t ies

Environmental moni tor ing

Environmental monitoring continued to be one

of UNEP’S main tasks throughout 1985. Its global

environment assessment programme, Earthwatch,

800 Economic and social questions

was conceived as a co-ordinated global system of

national facilities and services to study the interac-

tion between man and the environment and deter-

mine the status of selected natural resources.

Earthwatch had four functions: evaluation and

forecasting, monitoring, research, and informa-

tion exchange.

Since 1974, some 50 projects had been completed

within Earthwatch; 20 were ongoing, for a total

projected cost of $36 million, half provided by UNEP

and half by co-operating agencies. The corner-stone

of the programme was the Global Environmental

Monitoring System (GEMS), with nearly 150 coun-

tries participating in one or more of its six monitoring

networks which dealt with renewable resources;

climate; health; long-range transboundary pollu-

tion; integrated monitoring; and the Global Resource

Information Data Base (GRID).

The Environmental Law and Machinery Unit

continued to promote the development of en-

vironmental law by collating and disseminating

data, supporting the enforcement of international

agreements , promoting new agreements and

assisting States to enforce environmental law. In

1985, three years after the Governing Council had

approved(1)

the 1981 Montevideo (Uruguay) pro-

gramme for the Development and periodic review

of environmental law,(2)

the priority tasks of the

programme had been accomplished, with the

adoption in 1985 of the global Convention on pro-

tecting the ozone layer (see p. 804) and two sets

of international guidelines, prepared by a series

of ad hoc working groups of governmental experts

on the basis of drafts prepared by UNEP.

On 24 May, the Governing Council addressed

various issues concerning environmental law:(3)

pro-

tecting the ozone layer (see p. 804), protecting the

marine environment (see p. 815), management of

hazardous wastes (see p. 803), harmful products

(see p. 801), environmental impact assessment (see

below), offshore mining (see p. 816), international

conventions (see below), and the Convention on

conservation of migratory animals (see p. 813).

Environmental impact assessment

Taking note of progress made in developing

guidelines for environmental impact assessment by

the Working Group of Experts on Environmental

Law (first session, Washington, D. C., 26-29 June

1984),(4)

the Council, on 24 May 1985, requested

the Executive Director to provide for additional ses-

sions to complete the guidelines for submission to

the Council in 1987.

International conventions

The Vienna Convention for the Protection of the

Ozone Layer was adopted in March (see p. 804)

and a protocol to the 1979 Convention on Long-

Range Transboundary Air Pollution( 5 )

on the

reduction of sulphur emissions or their transboun-

dary fluxes by at least 30 per cent was concluded

at Helsinki, Finland, on 8 July 1985. As at 31

December 1985, 21 States had signed the protocol,

drawn up within the framework of ECE, while one

(Canada) had ratified it.(6)

In 1985 UNEP continued its work relating to

various aspects of other international conventions

relating to the environment. Revised and updated

versions of the Register of International Treaties and

Other Agreements in the Field of the Environment, the Direc-

tory of Principal Governmental Bodies Dealing with the

Environment and the survey of Environmental Law in

the United Nations Environment Programme were prepared

and distributed for use by Governments. In addi-

tion, all guidelines and principles on environmental

law adopted under UNEP auspices since 1972 were

reissued as a documentation series in all official

languages. A report(7)

on progress with regard to

environment co-operation by States concerning

shared natural resources, prepared on behalf of the

Governing Council for the General Assembly in

response to a 1982 request,(8)

indicated that the

1978 principles relating to such resources(9)

had

found wide international acceptance. The report

summarized the comments of 46 Governments and

11 international organizations on the question.

Information on developments regarding inter-

national conventions and protocols on the environ-

ment was submitted to the Council by the Executive

Director. His report listed new conventions and

gave changes in the status of existing ones.

By decision 40/441 of 17 December, the General

Assembly took note of a Secetariat note drawing

attention to the Executive Director‘s report.

Environment information networks

INFOTERRA

The International Referral System for sources

of environmental information ( I N FOT E R R A),

UNEP'S global information system linking national

and international institutions and experts, ex-

panded its activities in 1985. The number of

Government-designated INFOTERRA national

focal points reached 126, of which 103 were in

developing countries. The number of queries

reached 10,600, an increase over the 9,100 in

1984; over half were from developing countries.

In 1985, over 60 per cent of all queries processed

by I N F O T E R R A national focal points received

direct answers. INFOTERRA also provided infor-

mation and referral services to every user who con-

tacted it. About 70 per cent of all users contacted

were satisfied or very satisfied with the informa-

tion they received.

Work continued to identify leading institutions

in environmental subject areas and to engage them

to act as INFOTERRA special sectoral sources for

Environment 801

the provision of information. Four additional in-

stitutions were contracted to search their data

base s t o p roduce b ib l i og raph ic r e f e r ences ,

abstracts and documentation in answer to queries

from users, bringing the total to nine.

A training course on basic INFOTERRA opera-

tions was held (Nairobi, October) for 20 new na-

tional focal points, and three national seminars were

organized by Bulgaria, China and the Ukrainian

SSR, with UNEP assistance. The INFOTERRA Ad-

visory Committee held its second meeting (Sochi,

USSR, April) and discussed the system’s development.

The seventh edition of the INFOTERRA Interna-

tional Directory of Sources was published in January

in English, French, Russian and Spanish. It listed

5,213 information sources on nearly 1,000 en-

vironmental topics. Promotional material and the

bi-monthly INFOTERRA Bulletin were produced

and distributed to all national focal points.

Global Resource Information Data Base

The Global Resource Information Data Base

(GRID) was established in 1985 within GEMS to

p rov ide an ana ly t i c a l ba s i s f o r con t i nuous

geographically referenced assessment statements

on key global environmental issues. Designed as

a data management service for the United Nations

system, i t enabled environmental data to be

transformed into information useful to decision

make r s . I t i n t eg r a t ed da t a on t he ba s i s o f

geographical locat ion-an effect ive common

denominator in environmental planning and

management-making them available for national

and internat ional users . The G R I D processor

facility in Geneva was opened in September. By

year’s end, the tasks of compiling global resource

data sets and developing demonstration data sets

and models to test the applicability of national

geographic-information-system technology was

well under way.

On 23 May 1985,(11)

the Governing Council

welcomed the establishment of GRID, expressed

appreciation to Governments that had supported

it, invited others to do so, and invited developing

countries to consider how best they could use

GRID for their environmental and developmental

objectives. The Executive Director was requested

to report in 1987 on progress in its development.

Integrated monitoring

During 1985, a methodology for integrated

monitoring, developed by UNEP in conjunction with

WMO and UNESCO, was being tested in a pilot

project in comparable North and South American

temperate forests. Preliminary results, based on

a year’s data collection at each project site (Torres

de1 Paine National Park, Chile, and Olympic Na-

tional Park, Washington, United States), confirmed

that both locations were suitable for baseline data

collection and examination of pollutant fluxes

between and accumulations within environmen-

tal compartments. Consideration was given to how

this study might be linked to similar work carried

out in Council for Mutual Economic Assistance

(CMEA) countries in order to provide the basis for

a new GEMS global network.

National conservation strategies

On 23 May ,( 1 2 )

the Governing Council re-

quested the Execut ive Director to encourage

Governments that had not done so to prepare na-

tional conservation strategies, and to recommend

to the December African environmental con-

ference (see p. 793) that it consider such strategies

with a view to evolving a common approach.

P r o t e c t i o n a g a i n s t h a r m f u l

p r o d u c t s a n d p o l l u t a n t s

Activities regarding pollution assessment con-

tinued throughout 1985. With UNEP/GEMS sup-

port, the Monitoring and Assessment Research

Centre (MARC) of the University of London con-

tinued to assess environmental pollution. It pro-

duced reports on pathways analysis and exposure

c o m m i t m e n t a s s e s s m e n t s o f e n v i r o n m e n t a l

pollutants, in consultation with UNEP’S Interna-

tional Register of Potentially Toxic Chemicals (see

below); a report on polyaromatic hydrocarbons,

a luminium and z inc was publ ished in 1985.

M A R C a l so p repa red r ev iews o f b io log ica l

monitoring techniques, evaluating the usefulness

of the whole spectrum of living organisms as in-

tegrators of exposure and indicators of the effects

of environmental pollutants. In association with

WHO and with UNEP support, MARC produced a

report on historical monitoring which reviewed for

the first time global concentrations of metal,

organic and radioactive pollutants in both living

and non - l i v ing ma te r i a l s , ove r t ime , u s ing

retrospective data.

UNEP and the Scientific Committee on Prob-

lems of the Environment continued to collect and

analyse information on elements cycling in the en-

vironment through their joint Carbon Unit in the

Federal Republic of Germany and the Sulphur

Unit in the USSR. A project on the transport of

carbonaceous compounds from the land to the sea

by the major world rivers was under way, and the

Carbon Unit published the third part of its report

on transport of carbon and minerals in major

world rivers. A workshop (Tianjin, China, 13-17

May) discussed the use of modelling and remote

sensing to improve understanding of the carbon

cycle.

Action to promote environmental health con-

tinued. In 1985 UNEP reviewed eight demonstra-

tion projects in bilharzia control, established in

802 Economic and social questions

collaboration with the Egyptian Academy of Scien-

tific Research and Technology and the Theodor

Bilharz Research Institute in Cairo.

Under the UNEP-supported International Pro-

gramme on Chemical Safety (IPCS), new priority

chemicals were evaluated, on the basis of which

environmental health criteria documents were

published to provide national and international in-

stitutions with information on dangerous chemicals

and with data on their effects on man and the en-

vironment. Two training courses organized under

IPCS involved 39 participants from developing

countries. One on environmental toxicology and

ecotoxicology, held in the United Kingdom, dealt

with safe disposal of chemicals; the other on preven-

t ive toxicology, held in the USSR, upgraded

knowledge of agrochemicals to improve the formula-

tion of national standards and exposure limits and

the development of measures for hazard control.

In co-operation with FAO and the USSR Com-

mission for UNEP (UNEPCOM), a training course

was organized in the USSR on food contamina-

tion control with special reference to mycotoxins,

involving 16 participants from developing countries.

In collaboration with the International Agency

for Research on Cancer, UNEP published a manual

on environmental carcinogens which included

recommended analytical methods. In co-operation

with ECE, UNEP evaluated airborne sulphur pollu-

tion and transboundary air pollution, and published

two reports assessing air pollution effects on the

environment.

In the area of management of agr icul tural

chemicals and residues, the fourth International

Meeting on Perception and Management of Pests

and Pest ic ides (Chiang Mai , Thai land, 5-14

January) reviewed ongoing studies on the perceptions

of pest managers and farmers; updated national

profiles on pesticide production and distribution

and pest management practices in developing coun-

tries;, made recommendations on education and

traning; and reviewed information on the inter-

national flow of pesticides.

A meeting sponsored by UNEP, FAO and China

(Guangzhou, China, 16-22 June), attended by 48

participants, aimed at enhancing developing country

capabilities for biological control of agricultural

pests.

With UNEP support, a training course to create

self-reliance in ecological pest management in the

tropics was held at the Regional Centre for Train-

ing in Plant Protection at Yaoundé, Cameroon

(November/December). Its aim was to enable four

selected African countries to design programmes

for integrated crop pest and l ivestock vector

management, in order to minimize the negative

effects of indiscriminate pesticide use. The course

was attended by 25 participants.

The second session of the Ad Hoc Working

Group of Experts for the Exchange of Informa-

tion on Potentially Harmful Chemicals (in par-

ticular Pesticides) in International Trade was held

at Rome, Italy, in January/February. The Group

reviewed the provisional notification scheme for

banned and severely restricted chemicals;(13)

ap-

proved standard notification forms annexed to the

scheme; and revised the draft guidelines for the

exchange of information on potentially harmful

chemica l s i n i n t e rna t i ona l t r ade . S ix ty -one

Governments were participating in the notifica-

tion scheme.

On 24 May,( 3 )

the Governing Council noted

with appreciation an offer by the United Kingdom

to host the third session of the Ad Hoc Working

Group in early 1987. The Executive Director was

requested to convene the session before that of the

Governing Council in order to complete the draft

guidelines. He was also requested to facilitate,

through IPCS and in co-operat ion with the

organizations concerned, the provision of technical

assistance and training to developing countries to

establish and improve national institutions deal-

ing with the issue.

International Register of

Potentially Toxic Chemicals

The potential threat posed by the increasing

production, trade and use of chemicals became a

major issue in 1985 as a result of chemical-related

accidents such as the ones at Bhopal, India, and

at the Fly River estuary, Papua New Guinea,

where 2,700 sixty-litre barrels of sodium cyanide

spilled in 1984. UNEP’S International Register of

Potential ly Toxic Chemicals ( I R P T C) became

m o r e i n v o l v e d i n p r o v i d i n g i n f o r m a t i o n ,

assistance and advice on chemical safety and

hazard control. IRPTC expanded in 1985 its global

information exchange network involving national

institutions, international organizations, NGOs

and industry. Training in the establishment and

ope ra t i on o f na t i ona l chemica l i n fo rma t ion

systems, in particular in developing countries,

became a regular part of its work. With other

international bodies, IRPTC organized training

courses and seminars on the optimal use of data

for the protection of health and the environment.

In partnership with other parts of the United Na-

tions, IRPTC maintained a global data base on

prohibitions and restrictive regulatory measures

imposed on chemicals by Governments.

The Query-Response Service cont inued to

receive queries on chemicals at an increasing rate.

Over 330 came in during 1985 (43 per cent from

developing countries), most (44 per cent) on

agrochemicals.

The IRPTC Legal Fi le , containing data on

regulatory measures and recommendations for

Environment 803

hazard control on 400 chemicals, covering 12

countries and six international organizations: was

expanded in 1985 to contain occupational ex-

posure limits for 1,258 chemicals from 20 coun-

tries. The File was accessible on-line, world-wide,

from the Environmental Chemicals Data and In-

formation Network of the Commission of the

European Communities as a result of an agree-

ment between UNEP and the Commission.

IRPTC updated its loose-leaf manual on toxic

chemicals and continued to develop its data pro-

files of 500 chemicals of international significance

stored in its data bank.

Two issues of the IRPTC Bulletin were published

in English, French, Russian and Spanish and

distributed to 9,200 recipients. The Bulletin con-

tained information on activities by UNEP and

other organizations on chemicals; the results of

risk assessments of chemicals; and chemicals

which were the subject of controls or restrictive

measures. With USSR co-operation, publication

continued of the series Scientific Reviews of Soviet

Literature on Toxicity and Hazards of Chemicals, which

comprised 94 publications. The English edition of

Principles of Pesticide Toxicology was published.

An international expert consultation on tox-

icometric methodology, held jointly with rpcs

(Moscow, November), reviewed a draft document

on recommendations and methods of toxicometry,

providing basic information on the experiences of

CMEA countries in safety-testing of chemicals, and

made proposals for its finalization and use.

Close working links were maintained with the

new nat ional chemical information systems

established in Colombia, the Gambia, Malaysia,

Sri Lanka and the United Republic of Tanzania

d u r i n g 1 9 8 4 u n d e r U N E P ’ s c l e a r i n g - h o u s e

mechanism (see p. 795). Plans were developed for

a second phase, involving six more developing

countries.

In response to a 1984 Governing Council re-

quest,(14)

IRPTC continued to send to Govern-

ments, international organizations, NGOs and in-

dustry a report on environmentally dangerous

chemical substances and processes of global

significance. A revision of the report based on

government and other comments was begun.

Responding to another Council request,( 1 3 )

IRPTC continued to assist in implementing the

provisional notification scheme for banned and

severely restricted chemicals (see p. 802). By the

end of 1985, Governments had started issuing

notifications of control action for specific chemicals

for dissemination to others through IRPTC.

During 1985, IRPTC continued to collaborate

with IPCS, OECD, CMEA, the Commission of the

European Communities, IL0 and other United

Nations bodies.

On 23 May,(15)

the Governing Council, noting

that IRPTC had achieved specific successes,

recognized that the current international informa-

tion exchange systems on chemicals for the pro-

tection of human health and the environment, in

which IRPTC played an important role, were fail-

ing to keep abreast of the growing requirements

placed on them. The Council felt that it was

urgent to raise the effectiveness of IRPTC by in-

creasing the number of chemicals it covered, in-

tensifying information exchange, providing access

to addit ional organizat ions, inst i tut ions and

bodies, and expanding training programmes. The

C o u n c i l u r g e d G o v e r n m e n t s , i n t e r n a t i o n a l

organizations and industry to provide information

for inclusion in the IRPTC files, and called on the

Executive Director to continue giving high priority

to IRPTC’S work and to increase its financial

resources from non-convertible currency contribu-

tions to the Environment Fund.

Managing hazardous wastes

On 24 May,( 3 )

the Governing Counci l re-

quested the Executive Director to convene a third

session of the Ad Hoc Working Group of Experts

on the Environmentally Sound Management of

Hazardous Wastes, to enable i t to complete

guidelines and principles on that subject for the

Council’s consideration in 1987. The Group had

held its first two sessions in 1984.(19)

T h e W o r k i n g G r o u p m e t a t C a i r o ( 4 - 9

December), and adopted the Cairo Guidelines and

P r i n c i p l e s f o r t h e E n v i r o n m e n t a l l y S o u n d

Management of Hazardous Wastes,( 1 7 )

together

with several recommendations addressed to

Governments and the UNEP Executive Director.

Health-related monitoring

In the area of health-related monitoring, work

cont inued under the U N E P/WHO Human Ex-

p o s u r e A s s e s s m e n t L o c a t i o n s ( H E A L S ) p ro -

gramme, expected to lead to major advances in

assessing pollution-exposure risk to various sec-

tors of the populat ion in industr ial ized and

developing countries. During 1985, final discus-

sions were held with part icipat ing countr ies

(Japan, Sweden, United States and Yugoslavia)

on implementing the first stage of the programme.

In the next two stages, HEALS was to be extended

to advanced developing countries and then to less

developed countries.

At the end of 1985 GEMS had, in co-operation

with WHO, three operational networks monitor-

ing urban air, water and food contamination. On

urban air, 50 countries (27 developing) were par-

ticipating, with some 175 monitoring sites in 75

cities. Regarding water, 250,000 data points had

been returned from 448 stations in 59 countries

or territories. Concerning food contamination, 26

804 Economic and social questions

joint FAO/WHO monitoring centres and institutions

were operational. In addition, the health-related

monitoring programme had resulted in initiating

or s t rengthening nat ional moni tor ing in 25

developing countries.

Monitoring long-range transport of pollutants

The first phase of a project begun in 1984 with

ECE(13)

to assess the effects of acidifying deposition

on forests in ECE countries and to recommend

guidelines for a unified methodology for sampl-

ing, analysis and assessment of damage to forests

from air pollution continued in 1985. A planned

second phase was to monitor damage to forests by

applying methodology developed in the first phase.

E c o s y s t e m s

Atmosphere

Protection of the ozone layer

Seven years of efforts by the international com-

munity culminated in the adoption of the Vienna

Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer

on 22 March by a conference of plenipotentiaries

(Vienna, 18-22 March). Sponsored by UNEP with

the support of the Austrian Government, the con-

ference was attended by 43 States (including 14

developing countries) and seven international

organizations. As at 31 December 1985,( 6 )

the

Convention had been signed by 25 States and

EEC. It was to enter into force after 20 States had

ratified or accepted it.

The conference was preceded by a meeting of

the Ad Hoc Working Group of Legal and Technical

Experts for the Elaboration of a Global Framework

Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer

(Geneva, 21-25 January) and by an informal

negotiation meeting. In view of the urgent need

for a protocol on the control of chlorofluorocar-

bons, UNEP convened two ad hoc steering commit-

tee meetings (London, 17 and 18 September, and

Brussels, 16 December) to arrange for a 1986

workshop as a basis for elaborat ing such a

protocol.

Justification for the Convention was based

largely on the continuing process of assessment of

ozone layer modification and its impact carried out

through the UNEP Co-ordinating Committee on

the Ozone Layer. A December 1985 assessment

report, prepared by the United States National

Aeronautics and Space Administration based on

work by several bodies, including UNEP and WMO,

contained more refined data on the atmosphere

than ever before, and confirmed the risk of signifi-

cant ozone depletion should chlorine-containing

chemicals, particularly chlorofluorocarbons, be

emitted to the atmosphere at a higher rate than

was currently happening. Also stressed was the

possibility of climate change occurring as a result

of increasing levels of tropospheric ozone as well

as of the so-called greenhouse gas properties of

ozone-modifying substances.

To promote awareness of the ozone layer issue

in developing countries, a seminar for developing

country scientists on global environmental prob-

lems was held at UNEP headquarters in November,

with participants from Argentina, Brazil, China,

Egypt, India, Kenya, Malaysia and Nigeria.

On 24 May,( 3 )

the Governing Council urged

States which had not s igned and rat i f ied the

Vienna Convention to do so and requested the Ex-

ecutive Director to convene a working group on

a protocol on chlorofluorocarbons, authorizing

him, pending the Convention’s entry into force,

to convene a diplomatic conference to adopt such

a protocol. The Council urged States and regional

economic integration organizations, pending the

protocol’s entry into force, to control their emis-

sions of chlorofluorocarbons and urged interested

parties to sponsor a workshop on the subject under

UNEP auspices, and to set up a steering commit-

tee to prepare for it. The Council also set out the

committee’s terms of reference.

Climate-related monitoring

At the end of 1985, the WMO/UNEP Background

Air Pollution Monitoring Network involved 95

participating countries, 65 of which had opera-

tional stations and 55 were regularly reporting

data on the state of the atmosphere. During 1985,

five other stations became operational. Emphasis

continued to be on improving the quantity and

density of data, replacing outmoded instruments

by modern ones, and improving quality assurance

procedures.

The World Glacier Inventory was completed in

1985 and responsibility for its continuation passed

to the UNEP-supported World Glacier Monitoring

Service. A selection of key reference glaciers in

various regions was being made by the Service,

which would also provide annual data on the mass

balance changes of the glaciers. These data would

con t r i bu t e t o unde r s t and ing g loba l c l ima t i c

changes and variability, and provide an indication

of water availability from glaciers in areas where

they occurred.

Climate impact studies

In 1985 the World Climate Impact Studies pro-

gramme (WCIP)—the UNEP-led element of the

World Climate Programme (WCP) of WMO, which

had resulted from the 1979 World Climate Con-

ference( 1 8 )

—focused on reducing the r isks of

adverse climatic impact on food systems and

agriculture, developing methodologies for climate

impact assessment, and analysing greenhouse-

Environment 805

gas-induced climate changes. Mounting scientific

evidence indicated that the earth’s atmosphere

was gradually warming, because of excessive amounts

of gases (mainly the by-products of the burning of

fossil fuels) which trapped heat in the atmosphere,

much as glass traps heat in a greenhouse (leading

to the term “greenhouse effect”).

The highlight of WCIP was the second joint

UNEP/WMO/International Council of Scientific

Unions assessment of the role of carbon dioxide

and other greenhouse gases in climate variations

and their associated impacts. The assessment was

carried out at a conference (Villach, Austria, 7-15

October), attended by scientists from 29 countries,

which stated that, in the first half of the next cen-

tury, a rise of global mean temperature could occur

that would be greater than any in history. The in-

c r ea se i n g loba l mean equ i l i b r i um su r f ace

temperature due to increases in carbon dioxide

and other greenhouse gases was likely to be in the

range of 1.5-4.5° C. Further, the expected global

mean temperature due to a doubling of carbon

dioxide was about the same magnitude as the

change of global temperature from the last glacial

period to the current interglacial one. A global

warming of 1 .5 to 4 .5° C would lead to an

estimated sea-level rise of between 20 and 165 cen-

timetres. A future change of climate of such an

order could have profound effects on global

ecosystems. The conference drew attention to the

linkages between climate change and other major

environmental issues such as acidic deposition and

threats to the Earth’s ozone shield, and noted that

actions to limit one environmental threat could

have repercussions on other environmental areas.

The conference called on scientists and policy-

makers to explore jointly alternative policies.

Various WCIP projects were concluded during

1985. Under the project on integrated approaches

to climate impact assessment, a two-volume Assess-

ment of Climate Impacts on Agriculture was finalized

for publication in 1986. Under the project on im-

proving the science of climate impact studies, a

publication, Climate Impact Assessment, was issued

and distr ibuted free to developing countr ies .

Under a joint UNEP/UNRISD/Centre for Regional,

Ecological and Science Studies in Development

Alternatives project, on reducing the vulnerability

of food systems to climate in north-east India, the

Perception Study of Food Vulnerability to Climatic

Variability in the Region was published in October.

WCIP’s Scientific Advisory Committee held its

fourth meeting (Vienna, 4-8 February) to review

implementation of WCIP and recommend future

activities. Among these were: following up on the

Villach conference’s recommendations; encourag-

ing development of national climate programmes,

including impact studies; and urging national par-

ticipation in WCP.

UNEP and the United States National Centre

for Atmospheric Research held a workshop

(Lugano, Switzerland, 11-15 November) on El

Niño and Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events,

thought to be associated with climatic anomalies,

including drought, in many parts of the world. The

workshop considered impacts on socio-economic

systems, agriculture, fisheries and ecology at-

tributed to ENSO in 10 world regions.

During 1985, UNEP-supported experts began in-

vestigating the impact of climatic variations on

agriculture in the humid tropics of South America.

Three countries were involved in the investigation,

ca r r i ed ou t by t he In t e r -Agency Group on

Agricultural Biometeorology. Interim results were

discussed at an expert group meeting (Lima, Peru,

November).

Noting the progress in implementing WCP, par-

ticularly WCIP, the Governing Council on 23

May(l9)

invited the Executive Director, in co-

operation with WMO, to support WCP by en-

couraging the development of national climate

programmes in countries where none existed, and

by facilitating closer co-operation among such pro-

grammes and between them and WCP.

Terrestrial ecosystems

Desertification and drought control

In Africa, famine, malnutrition and deaths aris-

ing from drought and desertification remained for

most of 1985 the most visible sign of a broader

crisis. At its peak, in 1984-1985, chronic malnutri-

tion was affecting 150 million people with over 30

million at risk, of whom about 10 million were

displaced. Towards the end of 1985, in most of the

21 seriously affected countries, the food supply

seemed to move back to normal, after average to

above-average crop harvests. There was also an in-

creased awareness by Governments of the deser-

tification threat and the need for long-term solu-

tions. But poverty and lack of resources remained

acute.

In a June 1985 prel iminary repor t on the

stricken countries,(20)

submitted to the General

Assembly pursuant to its 1984 request,( 2 1 )

the

S e c r e t a r y - G e n e r a l s t a t e d t h a t 7 4 c o u n t r i e s

throughout the world had a substantial portion of

their territories affected. Most of the 37 least

developed countries (see p. 433) were stricken by

drought and desertification, and were in a state

of extreme deprivation. Many other countries were

also affected, including some industrialized ones.

The current African drought had persisted, with

certain variations, for the past 17 years. Despite

its length, there was no evidence of a long-term

change in the African climate. Computer simula-

tions indicated that the current drought, although

806 Economic and social questions

the worst in the century, was within a normal range

of variability. The disturbing conclusion was that

drought was a recurrent phenomenon that the af-

fected countries, especially in Africa, must learn

to live with.

The combination of drought and desertification

had had disastrous consequences, the report said.

In 1983-1984, more than 150 million Africans were

facing extreme hunger, malnutrition and shortages

of po tab le water . The Secre ta ry-Genera l s t ressed

t h a t , i n c o n c e r t w i t h t h e h e a d s o f c o n c e r n e d

Uni ted Nat ions organiza t ions , he was rev iewing

all aspects of the problem, and would present more

s p e c i f i c r e c o m m e n d a t i o n s o n f u t u r e a c t i o n i n

a c c o r d a n c e w i t h a n y f u r t h e r d e c i s i o n o f t h e

Economic and Socia l Counci l and the Assembly .

A f r i c a ’ s P r i o r i t y P r o g r a m m e f o r E c o n o m i c

Recovery 1986-1990, adopted by the Assembly of

Heads of S ta te and Government of the Organiza-

tion of African Unity (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 18-

2 0 J u l y ) , r e c o m m e n d e d n a t i o n a l s t r a t e g i e s ,

such as drought and desertification control plans;

a c t i o n a r e a s , s u c h a s v e g e t a t i o n c o n s e r v a t i o n ,

water resources, firewood substitution and protec-

t ing common ecosys tems; and co-opera t ion a t a l l

levels.

In i t s f ina l reso lu t ion , the second Minis te r ia l

Conference for a joint policy to combat desertifica-

t ion (Dakar , Senega l , 1 -9 November )( 2 3 )

def ined

29 major p ro jec t s fo r f ina l iza t ion and funding ,

listed measures for international co-operation, and

decided to hold such a conference every two years.

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL ACTION

O n 2 5 J u l y 1 9 8 5 , t h e E c o n o m i c a n d S o c i a l

C o u n c i l , b y d e c i s i o n 1 9 8 5 / 1 7 6 , r e q u e s t e d t h e

Secre ta ry-Genera l to submi t the f ina l repor t as

soon as possible to the Assembly, taking into ac-

count v iews expressed by de legat ions dur ing the

Council’s July 1985 session. By decision 1985/102

of 8 February 1985 , the Counc i l had dec ided to

consider countries stricken by desertification and

d r o u g h t a t t h e s a m e t i m e a s i n t e r n a t i o n a l c o -

o p e r a t i o n o n t h e e n v i r o n m e n t .

GENERAL ASSEMBLY ACTION

On 17 December, the General Assembly adopted

t w o r e s o l u t i o n s c o n c e r n i n g d e s e r t i f i c a t i o n a n d

drought , both recommended by the Second Com-

mittee. It adopted resolution 40/175 without vote.

Countries stricken by desertification and drought

The General Assembly,

Recalling its resolution 39/208 of 17 December 1984

and Economic and Social Council decision 1985/176 of

25 July 1985, as well as its Declaration on the Critical

Economic Situation in Africa, annexed to its resolution

39/29 of 3 December 1984,

Noting Africa’s Priority Programme for Economic

Recovery 1986-1990, adopted by the Assembly of Heads

of State and Government of the Organization of African

Unity at its twenty-first ordinary session, held at Addis

Ababa from 18 to 20 July 1985,

Congratulating the Government of Senegal for having

taken the initiative of convening the Ministerial Con-

ference for a joint policy to combat desertification in

the countries of the Permanent Inter-State Committee

on Drought Control in the Sahel and the Economic

Community of West African States, in the Maghreb

countries and in Egypt and the Sudan, which met at

Dakar, for the first time from 18 to 27 July 1984,(24)

and

for the second time from 1 to 9 November 1985,

Congratulating the Government of Egypt for having in-

vited the first African Environmental Conference,

organized by the United Nations Environment Pro-

gramme in consultation with the Economic Commis-

sion for Africa and the Organization of African Unity,

to be held at Cairo in December 1985,

Congratulating also the Government of France for hav-

ing taken the initiative of convening an international

conference on tree and forest, to be held in Paris in

February 1986,

Noting the positive action taken by the United Nations

Sudano-Sahelian Office, as part of a joint effort by the

Uni ted Nat ions Development Programme and the

Uni ted Nat ions Envi ronment Programme to he lp

twenty-two African countries, on behalf of the United

Nations Environment Programme, implement the Plan

of Action to Combat Desertification,

Taking note of decision 12/10 of 28 May 1984 on deser-

tification, adopted by the Governing Council of the

United Nations Environment Programme,( 2 5 )

Welcoming the establishment by six east African

countries-Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, the

Sudan and Uganda-of an Intergovernmental Authority

for Drought and Development for the purpose of com-

bating the effects of drought in those countries,

Deeply concerned by the tragic consequences of the ac-

celeration of desertification, combined with persistent

drought-the most serious recorded this century-which

have resulted in a substantial drop in the agricultural

output of many developing countries and have con-

tributed particularly to a worsening of the current

economic crisis in Africa,

Noting with great anxiety that desertification and drought

continue to spread and intensify in developing coun-

tries, particularly in Africa,

Aware that the problems of desertilication and drought

are increasingly assuming a structural and endemic

character and that real and permanent solutions must

be found in increased global efforts based on concerted

action by the stricken countries and the international

community,

Bearing in mind that the majority of the countries af-

fected by desertification and drought are low-income

countries and, for the most part, belong to the group

of the least developed countries, particularly those in

Africa,

Aware that the prime responsibility in the struggle

against desertitication and the effects of drought rests

with the countries concerned and that such action is an

essential component of their development,

Recognizing, however, that given the scope and the in-

tensity of desertification and drought, particularly in the

least developed countries, the attainment of the objec-

tives of programmes to combat these scourges requires

Environment 807

financial and human resources beyond the means of the

affected countries

Considering the Interdependence between developed

countries and those affected by desertification and

drought, and the negative impact of those phenomena

on the economies of the countries concerned,

Emphasising the fundamental importance of all forms

of South-South co-operation in executing programmes

to combat desertification and drought,

Taking note of the preliminary report of the Secretary-

General on the countries stricken by desertification and

drought,

1. Welcomes the results of the Ministerial Conference

for a joint policy to combat desertification in the coun-

t r ies of the Permanent In te r -Sta te Commit tee on

Drought Control in the Sahel and the Economic Com-

munity of West African States, in the Maghreb coun-

tries and in Egypt and the Sudan, and takes note with

satisfaction of the final resolution adopted by the Con-

ference in 1984 and that adopted in 1985;

2. Takes note with satisfaction of the establishment by

the Organiza t ion of Afr ican Uni ty of the Spec ia l

Emergency Assistance Fund for Drought and Famine

in Africa;

3. Recommends that high priority should be given in

the development plans and programmes of the affected

countries themselves to the problem of desertification

and to problems resulting from drought;

4. Recognizes that particular attention should be given

to countries stricken by desertification and drought and

that special efforts should be made by the international

community, particularly the developed countries, in sup-

port of action taken individually or collectively by the

affected countries;

5. Recommends that the international community,

above all the developed countries, should continue to

provide coherent short-term, medium-term and long-

term assistance to those countries in order to support

the rehabilitation process effectively-in particular

through intensive reafforestation-and the renewal of

growth of agricultural production in the countries

stricken by desertification and drought, particularly in

Africa;

6. Recommends that, within the framework of bilateral

and multilateral development aid programmes, the fight

against desertilication and drought should be granted

priority in view of the extent of those problems;

7. Appeals to all members of the international com-

munity, including organs and agencies of the United Na-

tions system, regional and subregional financial institu-

tions, and non-governmental organizations, to continue

to provide full support, in all forms—including finan-

cial, technical or any other form of assistance—to the

development efforts of countries stricken by desertifica-

tion and drought;

8. Takes note with satisfaction of the generosity with

which the international community has responded to

the assistance needs resulting from the emergency in

Africa, particularly as regards food aid, transport and

medical assistance;

9. Requests the appropriate organs and agencies of

the United Nations to provide the Secretary-General,

for transmission to the stricken countries, with all rele-

vant studies carried out in their respective spheres of

competence, in particular with respect to food and

agricultural production, development of water resources,

industrialization and raw materials, including the studies

carried out by the United Nations Conference on Trade

and Development on the impact of desertification and

drought on the foreign trade of the stricken coun-

tries,(26)

including similarly, the studies to determine

the interaction between forest zones and arid regions

and their influence on the acceleration of desertifica-

tion, particularly in Africa;

10 . Reques t s the Secre ta ry-Genera l to t ake a l l

necessary steps to ensure that his final report on the im-

plementation of resolution 39/208, which is to be sub-

mitted to the General Assembly through the Economic

and Social Council at its second regular session of 1986,

contains proposals for specific action to be undertaken,

as indicated in the present resolution.

General Assembly resolution 40/175

1 7 D e c e m b e r 1 9 8 5 M e e t i n g 1 1 9 A d o p t e d w i t h o u t v o t e

Approved by Second Committee (A/40/1009/Add.1) without vote. 3 December

(meeting 46): draft by Vice-Chairman (A/C.2/40/L.76), based on informal con-

sultations on draft by Algeria, Angola, Argentina, Austria, Bangladesh, Benin,

Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile China,

Comoros, Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, France, Gambia, Germany, Federal

Republic of, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, India, Indonesia, Italy, Ivory Coast, Jamaica,

Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mexico,

Mozambique, Netherlands, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Romania, Rwanda, Senegal,

Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, United Kingdom, United States, Yugoslavia,

Zaire and Zambia (AIC.2/40/L.33); agenda item 12.

Meeting numbers. GA 40th session: 2nd Committee 22, 23, 29, 30, 34, 36, 39.

42, 43, 46; plenary 119.

T h e G e n e r a l A s s e m b l y a d o p t e d r e s o l u t i o n

40 /209 wi thou t vo te .

Desertification and drought

The General Assembly,

Aware of the importance of problems relating to deser-

tification and drought for a large number of countries,

Bearing in mind that such problems are discussed under

a number of agenda items in the Second Committee,

1. Emphasizes the importance of existing mandates

under its resolutions relating to desertification and

drought;

2. Requests the Secretary-General to ensure that all

problems relating to desertification and drought will be

considered in future years under one sub-item, to be

entitled “Desertification and drought”, under the item

entitled “Development and international economic co-

operation” and will be dealt with in odd years, in accord-

ance with the biennial programme of work of the Sec-

ond Committee.

General Assembly resolution 40/209

1 7 D e c e m b e r 1 9 8 5 M e e t i n g 1 1 9 A d o p t e d w i t h o u t v o t e

Approved by Second Committee (A/40/989/Add.14) without vote, 25 November

(meeting 43); draft by Vice-Chairman (AIC.2/40/L.65). based on informal con-

sultations on draft by Finland (A/C.2/40/L.39); agenda item 84.

Meeting numbers. GA 40th session: 2nd Committee 31, 38, 41, 43; plenary 119.

Implementation of the

Plan of Action to Combat Desertification

Throughout 1985 , severa l bod ies took pa r t in

t h e e f f o r t t o c o m b a t d e s e r t i f i c a t i o n . T h e f i r s t

Afr ican Minis te r ia l Conference on the Envi ron-

ment (see p. 793) took action to implement several

p r o g r a m m e s o n d e s e r t i f i c a t i o n , i n c l u d i n g a

r e g i o n a l c o - o p e r a t i o n p r o g r a m m e a m o n g t h e

m o s t - a f f e c t e d c o u n t r i e s , s t r e n g t h e n i n g o f t h e

N o r t h S a h a r a n g r e e n b e l t p r o j e c t , e f f o r t s t o

Economic and social questions

combat desert advance in the South Saharan zone

a n d t h e G u m B e l t ( S u d a n ) a n d g r e a t e r c o -

operation in research.

The fifth session of the Consultative Group for

Desertification Control (Geneva, 18-24 July) was

attended by seven United Nations co-sponsor

agencies, 14 core members, 21 invited countries

a n d o t h e r o r g a n i z a t i o n s . F o u r t e e n a n t i -

desertification project proposals were presented to

the Group, which expressed interest in six of them,

costed at $20.82 million; consultations between

donors and recipients followed. The Group also

made recommendations on resource mobilization

for implementing the 1977 Plan of Action to Com-

bat Desertification.(27)

An expert meeting (Nairobi, 11-14 March)

reviewed progress concerning the Desertification

Assessment and Mapping Methodology and Data

Base being developed by FAO and UNEP. The

meeting discussed methodologies for monitoring

and mapping desertification and the preparation

of a World Atlas of Thematic Maps on Desertifica-

tion called for in the Plan of Action.

UNEP began work on a Desertification Informa-

tion System, to organize and code the thousands

of documents in the library of UNEP’s Desertifica-

t i o n C o n t r o l P r o g r a m m e A c t i v i t y C e n t r e

(DC/PAC), as well as country and project files, for

entry into a microcomputer. The work entailed

creating several data bases to respond to world-

wide requests for information.

In 1985, three television documentaries on

desertification were produced. The Crowded Desert,

on India’s Thar Desert, and a six-part series Seeds

of Hope, on land degradation in Ethiopia, were pro-

duced by UNEP and Central Independent Televi-

sion (United Kingdom). Trees for Tomorrow showed

a DC/PAC tree-planting project in southern India

( s e e b e l o w ) . D C / P A C a l s o p a r t i c i p a t e d i n

Australian and Japanese television documentaries,

and organized trips for journalists to areas in

Kenya undergoing desertification. One issue of the

Desertification Control Bulletin and a report on Research

and Training Desertification Control: the United Na-

tions Effort were published. A directory of world-

wide institutions concerned with desertification,

containing more than 500 entries, was prepared

for publication in 1986. The two-volume Desertifica-

tion Control in Africa: Actions (I) and Directory of In-

stitutions (II) was updated and reprinted.

UNEP assisted the Tunisian Government to for-

mulate a national plan against desertification and

to integrate it in its national development plan.

In Tunisia UNEP also initiated a pilot project to

map desertification, study indigenous plants for

use in sand-dune fixation, and carry out deser-

tification control training courses. A UNEP/UNEF

COM project on integrated agricultural develop-men t a s a means t o comba t de se r t i f i c a t i on

continued in Democratic Yemen. A project involv-

ing tree planting, the training of schoolchildren

and farmers in afforestation and the setting up of

nurseries was launched in southern India, in sup-

port of the NGO Millions of Trees Club. In addi-

tion, UNEP decided to develop an approach for a

project in the Sudano-Sahelian region for ACC

consideration.

In a UNEP-sponsored training course held in the

United Republic of Tanzania, five scientists from

the Institute of Desert Research, China, organized

seminars on desertification control. A UNEP-

sponsored training course on afforestation and

sand-dune f ixat ion in dry zones was held in

Moscow and Ashkabad, USSR, for 20 specialists

from 16 developing countries.

In response to a 1983 General Assembly re-

ques t ,( 2 8 )

the Secretary-General submitted in

September 1985 a report( 2 9 )

summarizing the

substantive views of 46 Member States, some of

which had been received in 1982(30)

and 1983,(31)

on financing the Plan of Action, particularly the

establishment of an international financial cor-

poration to fund non-commercial initiatives. The

majority of countries did not support the proposed

modalities, and while half of them supported the

setting up of the financial corporation, few were

willing to finance it. There seemed to be no general

support for additional financing. The Secretary-

General suggested that the Consultative Group for

Desertification Control be asked to consider in-

novative approaches for the Plan’s financing.

UNEP Counci l ac t ion. On 23 May,( 3 2 )

the

Governing Council urged Governments, United

Nations bodies, research institutions and other

organizations to intensify their efforts to combat

desertification and expressed appreciation for the

emergency assistance offered to countries facing

famine. It called on affected countries to prepare

national plans, and on donor countries to assist

affected countries to curb desertification. Noting

the role played by NGOS in many of the most suc-

cessful anti-desertification efforts, the Council

c a l l e d o n G o v e r n m e n t s a n d i n t e r n a t i o n a l

organizations to utilize NGOs to a greater degree.

It invited the Executive Director to consult the

principal internat ional organizat ions funding

desertification control activities to ascertain how

UNEP could best assist them, and to recommend

to the Counci l in 1987 measures that could

enhance co-operation between UNEP and those in-

stitutions. The Council approved measures to

enhance the work of the Inter-Agency Working

Group on Desertification, requested the Executive

Director to consider including the States members

o f t h e S o u t h e r n A f r i c a n D e v e l o p m e n t C o -

ordination Conference (SADCC) in the list of coun-

tries eligible to receive assistance through the

United Nations Sudano-Sahel ian Office (see

808

Environment 809

below), and urged him to seek alternative sources

of funding to assist SADCC countries in particular.

GENERAL ASSEMBLY ACTION

On 17 December, the General Assembly, on the

r e c o m m e n d a t i o n o f t h e S e c o n d C o m m i t t e e ,

adopted reso lu t ion 40 /198 A wi thou t vo te .

Implementation and financing of the Plan of Action

The General Assembly,

Recalling its resolution 32/172 of 19 December 1977,

by which it approved the Plan of Action to Combat

Desertification,

Recalling also its resolutions 33/89 of 15 December

1978, 34/184 of 18 December 1979, 36/191 of 17

December 1981, 37/220 of 20 December 1982 and 38/163

of 19 December 1983, dealing with the implementation

and financing of the Plan of Action to Combat Deser-

tification,

Recalling further the Declaration on the Critical

Economic Situation in Africa, adopted by the General

Assembly in its resolution 39/29 of 3 December 1984,

Noting with dismay and grave concern the continuing

spread and intensification of desertification in develop-

ing countries, especially in Africa, and the grave human

suffering, economic losses and social disruption caused

by this phenomenon,

Having considered the report of the Governing Council

of the United Nations Environment Programme on the

work of its thirteenth session and decision 13/30 A of

23 May 1985 of the Governing Council on the im-

plementation of the Plan of Action to Combat Deser-

tification,

Having also considered the report of the Secretary-

General on financing the Plan of Action to Combat

Desertification,

1. Takes note of decision 13/30 A of the Governing

Counci l o f the Uni ted Nat ions Envi ronment Pro-

gramme;

2. Shares the concern of the Governing Council over

the slow implementation of the Plan of Action to Com-

bat Desertification;

3. Urges Governments, organizations of the United

Nations system and other intergovernmental bodies to

intensify their efforts in combating desertification and

to accord the highest priority to actions recommended

in the Plan of Action and decision 13/30 A of the Gover-

ning Council;

4. Notes the significant role that non-governmental

organizations are playing in the anti-desertification ef-

forts, and calls upon Governments and organizations

of the United Nations system and other intergovemmen-

tal bodies to explore all opportunities of involving them

more in this effort;

5. Urges the international community to increase its

assistance to the countries concerned with a view to the

implementation of their national and regional pro-

grammes aimed at desertification control;

6. Endorses the Governing Council’s invitation to the

Executive Director of the United Nations Environment

Programme to consult with the principal international

organizations which are funding desertification control

activities in order to ascertain how the Programme can

facilitate funding activities, and to recommend measures

to enhance co-operation in this field;

7. Urges Governments of countries affected by deser-

tification to accord sustained priority to medium-term

and long-term strategies and programmes for combating

desertification and to ensure that these are smoothly in-

tegrated with their national development plans and

regional co-operative programmes to curb the spread

of environmental degradation;

8. Notes the measures approved by the Governing

Council of the United Nations Environment Programme

in its decision 13/30 A to enhance the work of the Inter-

Agency Working Group on Desertification and calls

upon all members of the Working Group to intensify

their joint efforts for the effective implementation of the

Plan of Action;

9. Requests the Governing Council of the United Na-

tions Environment Programme to report to the General

Assembly at its forty-second session, through the

Economic and Social Council, on the progress made in

the implementation of the Plan of Action;

10. Takes note of the report of the Secretary-General

on financing the Plan of Action to Combat Deser-

tification;

11. Notes the dearth of reactions and replies on the

measures for providing additional resources needed for

financing the Plan of Action recommended in the three

reports(33) prepared by high-level financial experts con-

vened by the Executive Director in accordance with

General Assembly resolution 32/172;

12. Considers that the expert studies deserve further

consideration and requests the Executive Director of the

United Nations Environment Programme to take due

account of them under his responsibility with respect

to the implementation of the Plan of Action, as well as

within the framework of the mandate of the Consultative

Group on Desertification Control;

13. Requests the Secretary-General to report to the

General Assembly at its forty-second session, through

the Economic and Social Council, on the implementa-

tion of the present resolution.

General Assembly resolution 40/198 A

1 7 D e c e m b e r 1 9 8 5 M e e t i n g 1 1 9 A d o p t e d w i t h o u t v o t e

Approved by Second Committee (A/40/989Add.6) without vote (parts A & B

together), 25 November (meeting 43): draft by Vice-Chairman (A/C.2/40/L.66).

based on informal consultations on draft by Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Chad,

Comoros Ecuador, France, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Italy, Kenya, Liberia,

Mali, Mauritania, Netherlands, Niger, Panama, Senegal and United Republic of

Tanzania (A/C.2/40/L.35); agenda item 84 (f).

Meeting numbers. GA 40th session: 2nd Committee 22, 30, 34, 36, 43; plenary 119.

Implementation of the Plan ofAction in the Sudano-Sahelian region

In 1985 the drought continued to be particularly

a c u t e i n t h e S u d a n o - S a h e l i a n r e g i o n , a n d m o s t

in te rna t iona l a id was emergency ass i s tance . The

Uni ted Nat ions Sudano-Sahe l ian Off ice (UNSO) ,

a j o i n t U N D P / U N E P v e n t u r e , w o r k i n g o n U N E P ’ S

behal f to implement the Plan of Act ion to Com-

bat Desertification in the Sudano-Sahelian region,

co-opera ted c lose ly in th i s endeavour , espec ia l ly

w i t h t h e O f f i c e o f E m e r g e n c y O p e r a t i o n s f o r

Afr ica ( see Chapter I I I o f th i s sec t ion) .

UNSO raised almost $13 million in new pledges

t o t h e U n i t e d N a t i o n s T r u s t F u n d f o r S u d a n o -

Sahe l ian Act iv i t i e s in 1985 (no t inc lud ing U N E P

and UNDP con t r ibu t ions ) . I t a l loca ted over $12

810 Economic and social questions

million for projects against desertification, mainly

for reforestation, energy-related activities, range

and water resources management, soil protection

and sand-dune fixation, planning, research and in-

formation exchange.

Major forestry initiatives were carried out in

Ethiopia. UNSO expanded a reforestation programme

involving 3,000 hectares in the Debre Birhan area,

with a contribution from the Danish International

Development Agency (DANIDA), and undertook a

joint mission with the Finnish International De-

velopment Agency (FINNIDA) for a project in Dese

which would expand the total planted area to 7,500

hectares. UNSO also received a commitment from

FINNIDA for forestry management in Somalia. In

Mauritania, UNSO obtained a contribution from

DANIDA for institutional support to the Department

for the Protection of Nature. In the Niger, Norway

pledged to finance the expansion of green-belt plan-

tations around Niamey. A project for family woodlots

in Burkina Faso continued.

To reduce the demand for fuelwood, UNSO con-

tinued working on alternative energy sources. In

Somalia, a wind energy project s tar ted with

DANIDA financing. In Cape Verde, where wind

turbines had been installed with DANIDA financ-

ing, UNSO investigated a wider use of wind energy.

A project in Senegal to develop the use of peat as

household fuel and a programme in the Gambia

on improved wood-burning stoves were started

with DANIDA contributions.

To combat moving sand dunes, UNSO was car-

rying out dune fixation using vegetation. In 1985,

three projects were under way in Somalia and one

in Senegal. In Cape Verde, soil protection began

with a contribution from the Norwegian Agency

for International Development.

In range management, a project to establish a

centre for the ecological monitoring of pastoral

ecosystems in Senegal started with a DANIDA con-

tribution. In the Gambia, range-land development

and protection began with a contribution from the

Arab Gulf Programme for United Nations Devel-

opment Organizations. In Mali, the integrated de-

velopment of the Niger River flood plains progressed.

With their inclusion in the list of countries eligi-

ble for UNSO assistance, planning missions went

to Ghana and Togo to assist them in initiating

desertification strategies. UNSO also supported

seminars on desertification in Benin, Burkina Faso

and Senegal, assisted the second Ministerial Con-

ference on desertification (see p. 806), and spon-

sored a symposium on drought and desertification

(Washington, DC., October).

Responding to a June 1985 UNDP Governing

Council request,( 3 4 )

the UNDP Administrator ( 3 5 )

described 1985 UNSO activities to implement the

medium- and long-term recovery and rehabilita-

tion programme in the Sudano-Sahelian region (see

p. 537). These activities were aimed at mitigating

the effects of drought, helping countries to become

self-sufficient in food production, enhancing socio-

economic development and arresting desertifica-

tion. Under the road programme, construction was

under way in Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, the Gambia,

the Niger and Senegal. National activities included

reforestation and road construction in Burkina Faso,

airport runways construction in Cape Verde, water

resources management in the Gambia and reforestation

in Niger. Regional and international activities in-

cluded support to the Institut du Sahel and assistance

in establishing (January 1986) the Intergovernmental

Authority for Drought and Development, comprising

Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia., the Sudan and

Uganda. UNSO continued to assist the members

of the Permanent Inter-State Committee on Drought

Control in the Sahel (CILSS) (Burkina Faso, Cape

Verde, Chad, Gambia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger,

Senegal). Funds mobilized by UNSO amounted to

$87.8 million at the end of 1985.

Activities carried out in 1984 to implement the

Plan of Action in the Sudano-Sahelian region were

described in a February 1985 report of the UNEP

Executive Director.(36)

By decision 40/441 of 17 December, the General

Assembly took note of a Secretariat note drawing

attention to the Executive Director‘s report.

On 23 May,(37)

the UNEP Governing Council

welcomed UNSO's steps to implement the Plan of

Action in 21 countries of the Sudano-Sahelian and

neighbouring regions. It urged the UNEP and UNDP

e x e c u t i v e h e a d s t o c o n s o l i d a t e t h e U N S O

achievements and to intensify efforts to mobilize

resources for combating desertification. It also in-

cluded the United Republic of Tanzania in the list

of countries authorized to receive assistance through

UNSO (with that inclusion, the list stood at 22).

On 28 June,( 3 8 )

the UNDP Governing Council

urged Governments, United Nations bodies and

other organizations to intensify their assistance to

the countries of the region, and urged Governments

of the affected areas to intensify their co-ordination

efforts in combating desertification. It also endorsed

the UNEP Governing Council’s action regarding the

United Republic of Tanzania. On the same day,(34)

the UNDP Council expressed gratitude to those con-

tributing to the implementation of the Sudano-

Sahelian recovery programme, appealed to donors

to strengthen their support for UNSO, and requested

it to continue co-operating with CILSS and its

members. The UNDP Administrator was requested

to continue reporting annually on the implemen-

tation of the recovery programme.

GENERAL ASSEMBLY ACTION

On 17 December, the General Assembly, on the

recommendation of the Second Committee, adopted

resolution 40/198 B without vote.

Environment 811

Implementation in the Sudano-Sahelian region

of the Plan of Action

The General Assembly,

Recalling its resolutions 36/190 of 17 December 1981,

37/216 of 20 December 1982. 38/164 of 19 December

1983, and 39/168 of 17 December 1984,

Noting decision 13/30 B of 23 May 1985 of the Gover-

ning Council of the United Nations Environment Pro-

gramme on the implementation in the Sudano-Sahelian

region of the Plan of Action to Combat Desertification,

Noting also Economic and Social Council resolutions

1984/65 of 26 July 1984 on the implementation in the

Sudano-Sahelian region of the Plan of Action to Com-

bat Desertification, and 1984/72 of 27 July 1984 on en-

vironment and development in Africa,

Considering the report of the Executive Director of the

United Nations Environment Programme on the im-

plementation in the Sudano-Sahelian region of the Plan

of Action to Combat Desertification,

Considering also the report of the Secretary-General on

the critical situation of food and agriculture in Africa,

1984-1985,(39)

1. Takes note of the report of the Executive Director

of the United Nations Environment Programme on the

implementation in the Sudano-Sahelian region of the

Plan of Action to Combat Desertification;

2. Notes with concern.

(a) The damage wrought by drought on the coun-

tries of Africa south of the Sahara;

(b) That insufficient financial resources continue to

be a serious constraint in combating desertification;

(c) That the struggle against desertification requires

financial and human resources beyond the means of the

affected countries:

3. Notes with satisfaction the progress that the United

Nations Sudano-Sahelian Office has made in the face

of these obstacles in assisting, on behalf of the United

Nations Environment Programme, the Governments of

the countries of the region in combating desertification,

under a joint venture between the United Nations En-

vironment Programme and the United Nations Devel-

opment Programme;

4. Endorses the decision of the Governing Council

of the United Nations Environment Programme to add

the United Republic of Tanzania to the list of countries

to be assisted by the United Nations Sudano-Sahelian

Office in their efforts to implement the Plan of Action

to Combat Desertification, contained in Council deci-

sion 13/30 B;

5. Commends the Executive Director of the United

N a t i o n s E n v i r o n m e n t P r o g r a m m e a n d t h e A d -

ministrator of the United Nations Development Pro-

gramme for the effective and co-ordinated manner in

which they have continued to develop the joint venture

through the United Nations Sudano-Sahelian Office:

6. Recommends the Governing Council of the United

Nations Environment Programme and the Governing

Council of the United Nations Development Programme

to continue and increase their support for the United

Nations Sudano-Sahelian Office in order to enable it

to respond more adequately to the pressing needs of the

countries of the Sudano-Sahelian and adjacent regions:

7 . Expresses i t s g ra t i tude to the Governments ,

specialized agencies, other intergovernmental organiza-

tions and all organizations that have contributed to the

implementation in the Sudano-Sahelian region of the

Plan of Action to Combat Desertification;

8. Draws the attention of the international community

to the need to increase the efforts to implement the Plan

of Action in the Sudano-Sahelian region and urges it

to cont r ibu te to th i s implementa t ion th rough ap-

propriate means. including the United Nations Trust

Fund for Sudano-Sahelian Activities, as well as to res-

pond favourably to requests for assistance from the

Governments of the countries of the region;

9. Recommends the Governing Council of the United

Nations Environment Programme to make the necessary

arrangements, in conformity with General Assembly

resolution 39/217 of 18 December 1984, for submitting

to the Assembly, through the Economic and Social

Council, a report on the implementation in the Sudano-

Sahelian region of the Plan of Action to Combat Deser-

tilication.

General Assembly resolution 40/198 B

1 7 D e c e m b e r 1 9 8 5 M e e t i n g 1 1 9

(For other procedural details, see p. 809).

Adopted without vote

Soil management

In many par t s of the wor ld the so i l was be ing

over-used , and mismanagement was robbing i t o f

its wealth, the UNEP Executive Director stated in

h i s annua l repor t .( 4 0 )

Examples of the resul t s of

t h i s a b u s e w e r e t h e g r o w i n g o f s t e p p e i n t h e

monocul tures of d i f fe ren t reg ions in Canada and

the Uni ted S ta tes , so i l e ros ion in Armenia and

K a s a c h s t a n a n d t h e s a l i n i z a t i o n o f s o i l s o f

Sudanese peanut plantations as a result of irriga-

t ion . S igns of a looming wor ld-wide ecologica l

catastrophe were clearly recognizable. The UNEP

1982 World Soils Policy( 4 1 )

addressed the issue of

sustainable agriculture, and in 1985 UNEP sought

to ob ta in f inanc ia l suppor t fo r the Pol icy’s P lan

of Action.( 4 2 )

But in spite of many positive com-

ments , few Governments were ready to suppor t

P lan- re la ted pro jec t s th rough in -k ind cont r ibu-

t i o n s , a n d t h i s h a d p r e v e n t e d t h e P l a n f r o m

becoming opera t iona l .

Land management techniques were the subjec t

of a training course (Georgia, USSR, September)

f o r 2 2 p a r t i c i p a n t s , m a i n l y f r o m t h e A n d e a n

reg ion , under a jo in t Bu lgar ia /UNEP/UNEPCOM

p r o j e c t o n l a n d / s o i l m a n a g e m e n t i n m o u n t a i n

ecosystems. In October, as part of the UNEP/UNEP

C O M p r o j e c t o n t h e i m p a c t o f a g r i c u l t u r a l

management on the envi ronment , a workshop on

ecological management of irrigated farming in arid

and semi-arid zones was held in the southern prov-

i n c e s o f t h e U S S R f o r 2 0 p a r t i c i p a n t s f r o m

developing count r ies .

O n 2 3 M a y ,( 4 3 )

t h e U N E P G o v e r n i n g C o u n c i l

u r g e d G o v e r n m e n t s t o e s t a b l i s h n a t i o n a l s o i l

policies. Governments and international organiza-

tions were urged to intensify efforts to combat soil

degrada t ion and to co-opera te wi th U N E P in im-

plementing the World Soils Policy Plan of Action.

812 Economic and social questions

The Executive Director was invited to continue his

efforts to secure commitments from Governments

and international bodies to the Plan’s implemen-

tation, and to assist Governments in formulating

national soils policies.

Lithosphere

In May 1985, under the UNEP/UNESCO/USSR

project on geology and the environment, the first

session of the International Scientific Council on

Geology and Environment Problems was held at

Yalta, USSR. It was attended by 29 scientists, who

elaborated draft internat ional guidel ines on

geology and land-use planning, and drew up the

curriculum for a 1986 training course to be held

in the USSR.

Forest ecosystems

Tropical forests

Despite efforts by the international community

to reverse the destruction of tropical forests, no

significant changes in the downward trend were

perceived. But those efforts continued, and dur-

ing 1985 several major events in which UNEP

played a role took place. In April, the International

Tropical Timber Agreement came into force pro-

visionally (see p. 570); it included environmental

considerations for the conservation of the resource

base of the commodity. The ninth World Forestry

Congress was held in Mexico; FAO declared 1985

the International Year of the Forest; the President

of France decided to convene in 1986 a high-level

political conference on the protection of forests in

Europe and the Afr ican region nor th of the

equator; and in November several Governments

a n d i n t e r n a t i o n a l o r g a n i z a t i o n s m e t a t T h e

Hague, Netherlands, to analyse the financial im-

plications and mechanisms of the Tropical Forests

Action Plan, originally proposed at an expert

m e e t i n g h e l d i n N a i r o b i i n 1 9 8 0 .( 4 4 )

( F o r

reforestation projects in the Sudano-Sahelian

region, see p. 810.)

Addressing the General Assembly’s Second

Commit tee , ( 4 5 )

the U N E P Executive Director

warned that the world had 20 years, or even less,

to turn from a course of irrevocable destruction.

He called for a high-level non-technical conference

on the future of tropical forests. Such a conference

could tackle two difficult international problems:

the reconciliation of the non-contested national

sovereignty on forests with the legitimate concerns

of the world as a whole; and the frank analysis of

why, when the technical means to conserve forests

existed and the need to use them was so widely

acknowledged, nothing much was being done. He

also suggested that the Assembly consider pro-

claiming 1990 as United Nations Year of the

Tropical Forest.

During 1985, under the UNEP/UNESCO pilot

project on research and training in tropical forest

areas, a regional training course on computer-

based quantitative methods for environmental

biologists was held at Singapore; a t raining

workshop on agroforestry in the humid tropical

zones of West and Central Africa was held in

Makokou, Gabon; and a training course on en-

tomological research in tropical forest ecosystems

was he ld i n Ab id j an and Ta i , I vo ry Coas t .

Fellowships were provided to specialists from

India, the Ivory Coast, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and

Viet Nam. With funds from the National Federa-

tion of UNESCO Associations in Japan, reforesta-

tion/afforestation projects started ‘in Sri Lanka,

Thai land and New Caledonia . Under a joint

UNEP/FAO project on appropriate management of

forest genetic resources, case-studies on conserva-

tion of these resources were carried out in Cam-

eroon, Malaysia and Peru.

In resolution 40/200, the Assembly called on

the Executive Director to co-ordinate further

UNEP activities with those of other United Nations

bodies, to co-operate with the organizers of inter-

national initiatives on the future of the forests, and

to report to the Governing Council.

Mountain ecosystems

An integrated pilot project on the environmen-

t a l m a n a g e m e n t a n d p r o t e c t i o n o f A n d e a n

ecosystems started in 1985. Financed by a trust fund

of the Federal Republic of Germany, it aimed at

improving the Andean farmers’ living conditions

in a demonstration area close to the city of Ca-

jamarca, Peru.

Conservation of wildlife and protected areas

Protecting endangered species, managing national

parks and creating national conservation strategies

continued to be major concerns. UNEP continued

to exercise its co-ordinating role in implementing

the 1980 World Conservation Strategy(44)

by pro-

viding secretariat services to the Ecosystem Con-

servation Group (ECG), comprising UNEP, FAO,

UNESCO, the International Union for Conserva-

tion of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) and

the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Priority was given

to preparing national conservation strategies and

their integration in national development planning.

One of the countries selected by ECG for assistance

was Uganda, where UNEP, in co-operation with the

Government and IUCN, was supporting the devel-

opment of a national conservation strategy Several

United Nations bodies, donor agencies and NGOs

were participating in that project. In 1985 UNEP

also co-operated with Nepal, IUCN and the United

States Agency for Internat ional Development

(USAID) in formulating a national conservation

strategy for that country.

Environment 813

UNEP continued to assist Governments in im-

proving the management of wildlife and protected

areas by reviewing the existing protected area

coverage of habitats and species and their manage-

ment, to ensure that critical habitats were pro-

tected and other measures taken to maintain the

entire range of biological diversity. Towards this

end, three expert group meetings were held in 1985

under a joint UNEP/IUCN project: in the Indo-

Malayan realm (Corbett National Park, India,

February); the Antarctica realm (Bonn, Federal

Republic of Germany, May); and the Afro-tropical

realm (Kasungu National Park, Malawi, June).

The third South Pacific National Parks and

Reserves Conference (Apia, Samoa, June/July),

convened by the South Pacific Regional Environ-

ment Programme, IUCN, UNEP and WWF, was at-

tended by participants from 15 South Pacific island

nat ions, Austral ia , New Zealand, the United

States and various international organizations.

Conference outputs included an action strategy for

protected areas in the region, technical papers and

a training workshop for field managers from 11

countries.

The conservation of endangered animal species

focused on elephants, rhinoceroses, primates, cats

and polar bears, whose status was reviewed in live

UNEP/IUCN workshops which produced action

plans. The improvement in managing the vicuña,

a South American animal related to the llama, was

examined in a workshop (Arica, Chile, March) at-

tended by over 40 participants from all countries

of South America where vicuña exis ted and

Ecuador, which was planning to reintroduce it.

Plans to reintroduce the Przewalski horse into

its native habitat in Central Asia were further

developed. That horse, the original wild horse

from which domesticated varieties derived, had

ceased to exist in the wild in the late 1960s but

a number of zoological gardens had successfully

bred it. At a UNEP-supported expert consulta-

tion (Moscow, May), the directors of zoological

gardens holding Przewalski horses agreed to pro-

vide animals for reintroduction. The experts’

r e c o m m e n d a t i o n s a n d a n a c t i o n p l a n w e r e

distributed to the Governments concerned.

The proceedings of the first (1983 Interna-

tional Biosphere Reserve Congress,(46)

contain-

ing an overview of the s ta te of the world’s

biosphere reserves and future perspectives, were

published and distributed to Governments and

international organizations. Based on the Con-

gress’s recommendations, an Action Plan was

elaborated. A Biosphere Reserve Scientific Ad-

v i s o r y P a n e l w a s e s t a b l i s h e d a n d m e t i n

September 1985 at Cancún.

O n 2 3 M a y ,( 4 7 )

t h e U N E P C o u n c i l u r g e d

States to set up or improve biosphere reserves

and take part in the development of the world

network of biosphere reserves, and invited the

Executive Director to support and assist the im-

plementation of the 1984 Biosphere Reserves Ac-

tion Plan.(48)

U N E P c o n t i n u e d t o s u p p o r t i n t e r n a t i o n a l

measures to conserve wild animals and plants

and their habitats, such as the 1973 Convention

on International Trade in Endangered Species of

Wi ld Fauna and F lo ra ( C I T E S ) . T h e C I T E S

secretariat (Lausanne, Switzerland), provided by

UNEP, brought stricter control to international

trade in threatened wildlife and wildlife products

by stipulating that government permits be re-

quired for such trade. At the fifth meeting of the

Conference of the Parties to the CITES Conven-

tion (Buenos Aires, Argentina, April/May), at-

tended by 450 participants, 22 resolutions were

adopted, including some on control of ivory

trade and plant species.

In collaboration with IUCN, UNESCO and the

International Waterfowl Research Bureau, UNEP

continued to support the Convention on Wetlands

of International Importance Especially as Water-

fowl Habitat. The Convention Task Force met at

The Hague in May and adopted conclusions on

the Convention’s implementation, subsequently

conveyed to all contracting parties.

Convention on the

conservation of migratory animals

As requested in 1984 by the Governing Coun-

ci1,(49)

UNEP provided secretariat services for the

Convention on the Conservation of Migratory

Species of Wild Animals, and organized the first

meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the

Convention (Bonn, 21-26 October).

On 24 May,(3)

the Council appealed to Govern-

ments and international organizations concerned

to participate in the meeting and called on States

not parties to the Convention to consider early

adherence to it.

The meeting, attended by scientific experts and

conservation officials from 63 countries and 33

organizations, revised the appendices to the Con-

vention, established a Standing Committee and

Scientific Council to supervise its implementation,

and adopted financial rules and the first triennial

budget of the secretariat. It gave impetus to trans-

frontier co-operat ion in protect ing migratory

species and adopted procedures for regional

agreements under the Convention. It also re-

quested the UNEP Executive Director, with the ap-

proval of the Governing Council, to seek the

Secretary-General’s consent to establish a trust

fund for the Convention, initially for three years.

The Executive Director subsequently reported(40)

that he had secured that consent and, as there was

to be no 1986 Council session, he would establish

the fund on an interim basis.

814 Economic and social questions

Genetic resources

With UNEP and FAO support, the International

Board for Plant Genetic Resources continued to

stimulate activities for the exploration and collec-

tion of crop plant genetic resources. In 1985 it

undertook the collection of crop germplasm in

Madagascar, Sri Lanka and Uganda to comple-

ment earlier collections. The material collected was

deposited in various gene banks, including those

of the global network housing the World Base Col-

lection co-ordinated by the Board.

The FAO International Undertaking on Plant

Genet ic Resources was discussed at the f i rs t

meeting of the FAO Commission on Plant Genetic

Resources (Rome, March) in which UNEP par-

ticipated, with the aim of improving the conser-

vation and management of such resources. Dur-

ing 1985 FAO, with UNEP support, started pilot

projects in Cameroon, Malaysia and Peru, to de-

velop and test methodologies for in situ conserva-

tion of forest genetic resources within existing

nature reserves and protected areas, and to pro-

duce management plans for different categories of

protected areas where aspects of genetic resources

conservation would be incorporated.

Other activities aimed to create data banks and

conservation schemes for animal genetic resources

in developing countries. Under a joint FAO/UNEP

project, field work on conserving the Kenana breed

of cattle in the Sudan started; co-operation with

research centres in Ethiopia, the Gambia and

Kenya on trypanotolerant breeds of cattle con-

tinued; plans for conservation schemes for Sahiwal

breeds in Pakistan were prepared; studies on the

collection and shipment of semen continued; and

activities towards the establishment of regional

data banks in developing regions were discussed

at an expert consultation meeting.

Research activities of the UNEP-supported

regional Microbiological Resources Centres in

Brazil, Egypt, Guatemala, Kenya, Senegal and

Thailand dealt with the environmental application

of microbial resources in increasing legume pro-

tein production, soil fertility through biological

nitrogen fixation, upgrading of coffee processing

by-products, bio-conversion of cassava surplus and

by-products into power alcohol, and the degrada-

tion of persistent, key environmental pollutants.

Each Centre also organized training activities and

provided fellowships for applied research.

UNEP continued to support the World Data

Centre for Micro-organisms (Brisbane, Australia),

established to promote access to information on

culture collections and to produce specialized in-

ventories of microbial genetic resources of en-

vironmental and economic value. It also organized

the third design meeting of the International

Microbial Strain Data Network Working Group

(Helsinki, August), in association with the Seventh

International Conference on Global Impacts of

Applied Microbiology.

Photosynthesis and bioproductivity

I n 1 9 8 5 , w o r k c o n t i n u e d o n t h e U N E P -

supported project on primary productivity and

photosynthesis in natural ecosystems of the tropics

in relation to environmental variables, established

in 1983 in co-operation with the University of Lon-

don. The project secured the support of regional

centres in Brazil, China, Kenya:, Mexico and

Thailand, which appl ied new technologies to

determine the photosynthesis potential of major

ecosystems of the tropics.

The interim results of regional studies under-

taken in India, Kenya, Venezuela and Yugoslavia

were presented to an expert group on photosyn-

thesis in relation to bioproductivity which met in

March at UNEP headquarters. The meeting, at-

tended by scientists from 10 countries, considered

future research priorities, particularly in develop-

ing countries.

In co-operation with Tycooly Publishers, UNEP

issued a comprehensive work on Photosynthesis in

Relation to Plant Production in Terrestrial Environments

and, in co-operation with Pergamon Press, Ox-

ford, published a second, updated edition of Tech-

niques in Photosynthesis and Bioproductivity.

F r e s h w a t e r e c o s y s t e m s

In 1985, UNEP concentrated on the preparation

of a comprehensive water programme, manage-

ment of international water system::, environmen-

tal training on water management and support for

the Internat ional Drinking Water Supply and

Sanitation Decade (1981-1990), proclaimed by the

General Assembly in 1980(50)

(see p. 680).

As part of the programme on the environmen-

tal management of the common river system of

the Zambezi,(51)

the preparation of a plan for the

sound management of that river system by the

countries concerned-the Zambezi Action Plan

(ZACPLAN)- s t a r t ed i n 1985 . I n Feb rua ry ,

representatives of UNEP, FAO, UNESCO, WHO,

WMO and IAEA attended an inter-agency con-

sultative meeting at Geneva to discuss the pro-

gramme’s development. In April, with UNEP sup-

port, the first meeting of a working group of

government experts on the Zambezi river system

was held at Nairobi , a t tended by Botswana,

Malawi, Mozambique, the United Republic of

Tanzania , Zambia and Zimbabwe. Based on

reports from those countries, UNEP prepared

drafts of a diagnostic study on the state of the

ecology and the environmental management of the

river system and of ZACPLAN.

UNEP initiated a project on effluent monitor-

ing and pollution control in the Lake Victoria

basin, aimed at enabling the Lake Basin Develop-

Environment 815

ment Authority to monitor water quality and other

environmental conditions.

As a member of the International Scientific Coun-

cil of the International Training Centre for Water

Resources Management (CEFIGRE), UNEP attended

its eighth session (Sophia Antipolis, France, April),

which stressed the need to integrate environmen-

tal considerations in CEFIGRE training courses.

During 1985, UNEP supported three such courses:

on water pollution control, with 25 participants

mainly from Africa (Sophia Antipolis, June); on

water resources management to assist the basin coun-

tries in the preparation of ZACPLAN, with 15 par-

ticipants from six Zambezi countries (Harare, Zim-

babwe, October); and on rural water supply and

sanitation, with 20 participants mainly from Asia

(Bangkok, Thailand, November/December).

UNEP supported a training workshop on the

chemistry of natural waters, organized by UNEP

COM (Kishinev, USSR, October) and attended by

15 professionals from developing countries. An In-

terregional Seminar on Assessment and Evaluation

of Multiple Objective Water Resources Projects

(Budapest, October), organized by the Secretariat’s

Department of Technical Co-operation for Devel-

opment and supported by UNEP and Hungary, was

attended by 55 professionals from 25 countries and

seven international organizations. The second

meeting of the Working Group on Large-Scale Water

Development Projects (Athens, Greece, December)

provided UNEP with suggestions on how to prepare

guidelines on environmentally sound management

of water resources, to be used for training. A study

on Large-Scale Water Transfers: Emerging Environmen-

tal and Social Experiences, prepared by the Working

Group, was published and distributed to member

States and professionals.

UNEP continued to support the objectives of the

International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation

Decade. Two projects started in 1984 in co-operation

with WHO progressed satisfactorily. Under the first

(on drinking-water quality control), three pilot sites

in Indonesia, Peru and Zambia were selected for

surveillance activities, and programmes for the sites

were developed. Two international workshops on

hygienic criteria of drinking-water quality (Tashkent

and Kiev, May) were attended by 28 professionals

from 22 developing countries. Under the second

project (on health hazards of waste-water use), a

joint UNEP/WHO/UNDP/WORLD Bank review meeting

on evaluating the health hazards of waste-water and

excreta use (Engelberg, Switzerland, July) developed

a model showing health risks associated with re-

use and prepared a statement on health aspects of

such use in agri- and aquaculture.

On 23 May,(52)

the UNEP Governing Council re-

quested the Executive Director to accord high priority

to training in the areas of water, and to support

for studies and action-oriented activities dealing with

domestic waste-water management and environmen-

tal problems related to water supply.

M a r i n e e c o s y s t e m s

Protect ing the marine environment

UNEP continued during 1985 to assess marine

pollution problems. Much of that work was car-

ried out through its regional seas programme (see

below).

The Joint Group of Experts on the Scientific

Aspects of Marine Pollution was the main inter-

agency mechanism to review marine pollution prob-

lems. Through it, work continued on evaluating

the hazards of harmful substances carried by ships.

Reviews were completed on arsenic, selenium and

mercury as marine pollutants, to be published by

WHO. Similar reviews on organosilicons and car-

cinogenic substances were under way.

Methodologies for assessing land-sea boundary

flux of pollutants were formulated by the working

group concerned, and work was in progress on a

report on air-sea interchange of pollutants as

mod i f i ed by a tmosphe r i c con t aminan t s . A

methodology and guidelines for impact assessment

of pollutants from land-based sources on the

marine environment were elaborated. The scien-

tific rationale for an integrated global ocean

m o n i t o r i n g p r o g r a m m e w a s e x a m i n e d , a n d

preparations started on a global assessment of the

state of the marine environment.

Work on developing reference methods for

marine pollution studies continued, with the co-

operation of several agencies, and 16 reference

method documents were issued. To ensure global

comparability of marine pollution data, a number

of standards, certified reference materials and in-

tercomparison samples were prepared. Using these

reference methods, intercalibration exercises on a

regional, interregional and global basis were con-

ducted for three of the major classes of pollutants.

Pub l i ca t i on o f spec i a l i zed d i r ec to r i e s and

bibliographies continued in co-operation with FAO

and other bodies.

In late 1985, UNEP completed the move of its

Oceans and Coastal Areas Programme Activity

Centre from Geneva to Nairobi.

The third meeting of the Ad Hoc Working Group

of Experts on the Protection of the Marine En-

vironment against Pollution from Land-based

Sources (Montreal, Canada, 11-19 April), attended

by experts from 32 countries and six international

organizations, finalized the Montreal Guidelines

on that subject.(53)

The Governing Council, on 24

May,( 3 )

encouraged States and internat ional

organizations to take the Guidelines into account

when developing agreements, and requested the

Executive Director to distribute them to those con-

cerned.

816 Economic and social questions

On 23 May,(54)

the Council urged the Executive

Director to continue to contribute to the global debate

on the environmental implications of disposing

radioactive and other hazardous wastes at sea, and

urged him to strengthen interregional exchange of

information and experience and to contribute to

protecting the global marine environment. Noting

progress made in adopting action plans and regional

agreements to protect that environment, the Council

called on him to complete the preparatory phase

leading to the adoption of regional seas action plans

and conventions where they had yet to be adopted,

and to continue to assist States to implement those

already adopted.

Shared natural resources and offshore mining

A December 1984 report of the Executive Direc-

tor,(7)

submitted in response to a 1982 General

Assembly request,(8)

described progress made in

environmental co-operation concerning natural

resources shared by two or more States, and in the

use made of the conclusions of the 1981 study of

the legal aspects concerning the environment

related to offshore mining and drilling within the

limits of national jurisdiction.(55)

On 24 May,(3)

the Governing Council called on

Governments to make use of the 1979 principles

on natural resources shared by two or more

Statese,(56)

and the conclusions of the 1981 study,

as guidelines in formulating conventions.

By decision 40/441 of 17 December, the General

Assembly took note of a Secretariat note drawing

attention to the Executive Director‘s report.

Regional seas programme

Since May 1985 , U N E P ’ S regional seas pro-

gramme had been pursuing activities in 10 regions

involving more than 120 coastal States, more than

30 global and regional organizations, and a net-

work of some 250 national institutions. By year’s

end, action plans had been adopted in nine regions

and regional conventions signed in seven; prepara-

tions for adopting a convention for the South

Pacific region were at an advanced stage. UNEP

continued to provide overall co-ordination for the

programme and to serve as the secretariat for four

action plans and three conventions.

Activities included:

Mediterranean. The Fourth Ordinary Meeting of the

Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention

(Genoa, Italy, September), attended by delegations from

16 Mediterranean States and from EEC, adopted a

Declaration on the Second Mediterranean Decade, by

which the parties reaffirmed their commitment to pro-

tecting the Mediterranean through the Mediterranean

Action Plan. They also agreed on 10 priority targets

to be achieved during the Decade, to adopt measures

to ensure that the quality of bathing waters conformed

with the proposed WHO/UNEP environmental quality

criteria on faecal coliforms, and accepted the FAO/UNEP

recommendations on mercury in seafood.

Kuwait region UNEP co-ordinated the implementation

of IAEA assistance to projects of the Regional Organiza-tion for the Protection of the Marine Environment,

and advised on environmental matters. The organiza-

tion’s Council held its fourth meeting (Kuwait, April)

and approved four new projects,

Caribbean. The fifth ratification of the 1983 Con-

vention for the Protection and Development of the

Marine Environment of the Wider Caribbean Region

and its Protocol concerning Co-operation in Com-

bating Oil Spills(46)

was received in 1985. The Third

Intergovernmental Meeting on the Action Plan for the

Caribbean Environment Programme (Cancún, April)

approved eight projects,

West and Central Africa. The parties to the Conven-

tion for Co-operation in the Protection and Develop-

ment of the Marine and Coastal Environment of the

West and Central African Region had their first

meeting (Abidjan, Ivory Coast, April), in which they

dec ided to es tab l i sh a t Abid jan a reg iona l co-

ordination unit for the Convention and set priorities

for project implementation. Highest priority was given

to ongoing projects on contingency planning for pollu-

tion emergencies and marine pollution research and

monitoring, in co-operation with FAO, IAEA, IMO,

IOC, UNESCO and WHO.

East Africa. A Conference of Plenipotentiaries (Nairobi,

June) adopted a Regional Convention for the Protec-

tion, Management and Development of the Marine

and Coastal Environment, an Action Plan, a Protocol

concerning Protected Areas and Wild Fauna and Flora,

and a Protocol concerning Co-operation in Combating

Marine Pollution in Cases of Emergency. The Protocols

and the Convention were signed by France, Madagascar,

Seychelles and Somalia.

East Asian seas. The fourth meeting of the Co-

ordinating Body on the Seas of East Asia (Manila,

Philippines, April) decided to continue all seven ongo-

ing projects, financed by the East Asian Seas Trust

Fund and by UNEP.

Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. In May, Saudi Arabia

became the fourth State to ratify the 1982 Regional

Convention for the Conservation of the Red Sea and

Gulf of Aden Environment and the Protocol concer-

ning Regional Co-operation in Combating Pollution

by Oil and Other Harmful Substances in Cases of

Emergency.( 5 7 )

The Convention and attached Pro-

tocol entered into force in July 1985.

South Pacific. UNEP continued its support to the

South Pacific Regional Environment Programme. An

expert meeting (November) discussed a draft conven-

tion on protecting the region’s natural resources and

environment and two protocols. A seminar (Suva, Fiji,

October) was held to facilitate negotiations on those

instruments.

South-east Pacific. The Second Intergovernmental

Meeting on the Action Plan for the Protection of the

Marine Environment and Coastal Areas of the South-

east Pacific (Galapagos, Ecuador, August) approved

suppor t to the programme for research on and

moni tor ing of mar ine pol lu t ion f rom domest ic ,

agricultural, mining and industrial sources. The pro-

gramme, involving 15 institutions from all live par-

ticipating States, was largely supported by UNEP.

Environment 817

South Asian seas. Work on four of the five nationalreports on environmental problems in the region wascompleted; the reports would be used for drafting aregional action plan. A report on the management andconservation of renewable marine resources in theregion was produced jointly with IUCN.

Environmental aspects of political,

economic and other issues

Arms race and the envi ronment

Alarmed by the possible environmental dangers

stemming from arms research, production and

stockpiling-ranging from risk of accidents to a

post-war nuclear winter-UNEP continued to col-

laborate with the Stockholm International Peace

Research Inst i tute (S IPRI ) in publ ishing and

distributing scientific literature on the subject. A

1985 book, Explosive Remnants of War: Mitigating the

Environmental Effects, examined the problem of

unexploded mines and munitions, especially acute

in developing countries, where most wars had been

fought since 1945.

UNEP and SIPRI jointly organized the second

meeting of the Advisory Group on the Arms Race

and the Environment (Geneva, September 1985),

which examined ongoing projects and made

recommendations for action, and a symposium on

g loba l r e sou rce s and i n t e rna t i ona l con f l i c t

(Stockholm, Sweden, October).

The climatic consequences of a nuclear war-

the so-called nuclear winter-were again consid-

ered by the General Assembly in 1985 (see p. 39).

Mater ia l remnants o f war

In response to a 1984 General Assembly re-

ques t ,( 5 8 )

the Secretary-General submitted in

September 1985 a report on the problem of rem-

nants of war.(59)

He had been asked to collect in-

formation on expertise and available equipment,

so as to evaluate the needs of developing countries

affected and assist them in detecting and clearing

war remnants. Countries responsible for such rem-

nants had been requested to intensify bilateral con-

sultations to solve the problem.

By 13 August 1985, 13 States had replied to his

request for information: Belgium, Burkina Faso,

Burundi, Chile, Finland, Mexico, Netherlands,

Pakistan, Poland, Qatar, Saint Vincent and the

Grenadines, South Africa, Tuvalu.

Of those, one said that the matter was not within

UNEP’s competence; one suggested that bilateral

negotiations between the countries concerned should

be encouraged; another stated that measures should

be taken to alleviate the problem, and responsibility

placed on the countries that had planted the in-

struments of war. One country did not have cur-

rent problems, but was concerned about future dif-

ficulties resulting from the Gulf war and would

appreciate assistance in that regard, one was prepared

to consider providing experts to developing coun-

tries to remove remnants of war. One country had

no remnants as outlined by the Assembly in 1984;

another, never having had any instrument of war

in its territory, was not in a position to provide in-

formation. One did not have equipment or exper-

tise within government agencies. Several countries

had no comments.

The Secretary-General concluded that, since most

Member States had not provided information on

available equipment and expertise, or on bilateral

negotiations undertaken to solve the problem, he

was unable to evaluate the needs of the develop-

ing countries affected so as to assist them in detecting

and clearing war remnants.

GENERAL ASSEMBLY ACTION

On 17 December, on the recommendation of the

Second Committee, the General Assembly adopted

resolution 40/197 by recorded vote.

Remnants of war

The General Assembly,

Recalling its resolutions 3435(XXX) of 9 December 1975,35/71 of 5 December 1980, 36/188 of 17 December 1981,37/215 of 20 December 1982,38/162 of 19 December 1983

and 39/167 of 17 December 1984 concerning the prob-lem of remnants of war,

Recalling also decisions 80(IV) of 9 April 1976, 101(V)

of 25 May1977,9/5 of 25 May 1981 and 10/8 of 28 May

1982 of the Governing Council of the United Nations

Environment Programme,

Recalling further resolution 32 adopted by the Fifth Con-

ference of Heads of State or Government of Non-Aligned

Countries. held at Colombo from 16 to 19 August 1976.

and resolution 26/11-P adopted by the Eleventh Islamic

Conference of Foreign Ministers, held at Islamabad from

17 to 22 May 1980,

Convinced that the responsibility for the removal of the

remnants of war should be borne by the countries that

planted them,

Recognizing that the presence of the material remnants

of war, including mines, in the territories of developing

countries seriously impedes their development efforts and

causes loss of life and property,

1. Takes note of the report of the Secretary-General

on the problem of remnants of war;

2. Requests the Secretary-General, in co-operation with

the Executive Director of the United Nations Environ-

ment Programme, to continue his efforts with the countries

responsible for planting the mines and the affected develop-ing countries in order to ensure the implementation of

the relevant resolutions;

3. Requests the Secretary-General to submit to theGeneral Assembly at its forty-second session a detailed

and comprehensive report on the implementation of the

present resolution.

General Assembly resolution 40/197

1 7 D e c e m b e r 1 9 8 5 M e e t i n g 1 1 9 132-0-23 (recorded vote)

Approved by Second Committee (A/40/989/Add.6) by recorded vote (104-0-22).11

November (meeting 30); 43-nation draft (A/C.2/4O/L16), orally amended by Argentina;

agenda item 84 (f).

818 Economic and social questions

Sponsors: Afghanistan, Angola, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Benin, Comoros, Cuba,

Democratic Yemen, Djibouti, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea,

Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Lebanon, Lesotho, Libyan

Arab Jamahiriya, Madagascar, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Mauritania, Mexico,

Morocco, Nicaragua, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sierra Leone, Somalia,

Sudan, Suriname, Syrian Arab Republic, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Viet

Nam, Yemen, Zambia.

Meeting numbers. GA 40th session: 2nd Committee 22, 30; plenary 119.

Recorded vote in Assembly as follows:

In favour: Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argen-

tina, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia,

Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burma, Burundi,

Byelorussian SSR, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile,

China, Colombia, Comoros, Congo, Costa Rica, Cuba, Cyprus, Czechoslovakia,

Democratic Kampuchea, Democratic Yemen, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican

Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Fiji, Gabon,

Gambia, German Democratic Republic, Ghana, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea,

Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq,

Ivory Coast, Jamaica, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lao People’s Democratic Republic,

Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Madagascar, Malawi,

Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Mongolia,

Morocco, Mozambique, Nepal, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan,

Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Qatar, Romania,

Rwanda, Saint Christopher and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the

Grenadines Samoa, Sao Tome and Principe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone,

Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Syrian Arab Republic, Thailand,

Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, Ukrainian SSR, USSR,

United Arab Emirates, United Republic of Tanzania, Uruguay, Vanuatu, Venezuela,

Via Nam, Yemen, Yugoslavia, Zaire, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

Against: None.

Abstaining: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France,

Germany, Federal Republic of, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Lux-

embourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, United

Kingdom, United States.

In the Second Committee, Italy requested the

recorded vote. In explanation of vote, the United

Kingdom, speaking also on behalf of the Federal

Republic of Germany and Italy, said they had abs-

tained because of reservations also expressed on a

similar draft in 1984,(60)

the problem being a matter

for bilateral negotiations, and the obligations referred

to in the draft had no basis in international law.

The United States, while not unsympathetic to the

problems caused by war remnants, also thought that

their removal could be best dealt with bilaterally.

Sweden reiterated the reasons it gave in 1984, and

stated that practical results could best be achieved

by setting aside the issue of international respon-

sibility and compensation.

The USSR expressed its support for the demands

of developing countries suffering from material rem-

nants of what it said were imperialist and colonialist

wars. India felt that the text applied only to actions

resulting from such wars. Iran said that it understood

that the removal of remnants of war applied only

to those developed countries which had planted them.

Chad said it had supported the text even if skep-

tical about the intentions of its principal sponsor,

the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, which it said was

stockpiling a vast quantity of weapons on Chadian

terr i tory-a charge denied by the Jamahiriya.

Morocco said that the draft sought to promote inter-

national co-operation in solving a problem with com-

plex legal implications.

Envi ronmenta l aspec ts of apar the id

In South Africa black miners faced harsh work-

ing conditions: in some gold mines temperatures

were often 50° C (120° F), working shifts lasted

10 hours and the noise produced by drilling and

blasting operations was intolerably high. Occupa-

tional diseases such as infections of the lung were

widespread. Accident rates were very high. Most

black miners were compelled to live in barrack-

facilities, each holding as many as 8,000. The un- style hostels, overcrowded and with minimal

favourable environmental conditions of workers

h a d s e r i o u s a d v e r s e s o c i a l , m e d i c a l a n d

psychological effects on them and their families.

High incidence of tuberculosis also affected the

black population at large, due to the general

poverty of blacks, the insanitary conditions in

which they were obliged to live, especially in the

black townships, widespread malnutrition and the

inadequacy of the health care available to almost

all of them, especially those living in the so-called

homelands.

This information was contained. in a report of

the Executive Director on the environmental im-

pacts of apartheid.(61)

It concluded that the agenda

for future action in improving the environmental

working conditions for blacks was very long. An

effective trade union for them could have immense

possibilities for bettering the conditions of millions

of black workers and their dependants.

On 23 May,(62)

the UNEP Council reaffirmed its

solidarity with the victims of apartheid and its con-

demnation of that system, and requested the Ex-

ecutive Director to continue monitoring the en-

vironmental impacts of apartheid in South Africa

and to report on the issue in 1987.

Medi te r ranean-Dead Sea cana l p ro jec t

On 23 May,(63)

the Governing Council stated

its position concerning the question of Israel’s deci-

sion to build a canal linking the Mediterranean

Sea to the Dead Sea (see p. 351).

E n v i r o n m e n t a n d d e v e l o p m e n t

Convinced of the close link between develop-

ment and the environment, UNEP continued pro-

viding guidance on including environmental con-

siderations in development decision-making.

A U N E P p r o j e c t c a r r i e d o u t w i t h i n t h e

framework of the ACC Consultative Committee on

Substantive Questions (Programme Matters)( 6 4 )

dealt with the deforestation of the Himalayan

foothills. The project’s ongoing and past work was

assessed at a meeting (New Delhi, 29 April-l May)

convened by UNEP and India, attended by experts

from Bhutan, India and Nepal.

Jointly with Australia, the Commonwealth

Secretariat and the East-West Centre, UNEP laun-

ched a programme to apply economic analysis to

dryland degradation and rehabilitation. Aimed at

preparing technical guidelines, the programme

was based on analyses of case-studies from

Environment 819

Australia and developing countries in Africa, Asia

and Latin America.

IUCN and UNEP continued an experiment to in-

tegrate conservation objectives into four major de-

velopment projects in Costa Rica, Fiji, Pakistan

and Zimbabwe.

UNEP held consultations with the Syrian Arab

Republic’s Planning Office on integrating en-

vironmental considerat ions into development

planning, and began collaboration with Cyprus to

improve its environmental impact assessment.

A report on integrated area development in the

humid tropics, prepared by UNEP, the Organiza-

tion of American States and Peru, contained an

environmental assessment of the Central Selva of

Peru, and recommendations for environmentally

sound development from which a regional en-

vironmental management plan was expected to

evolve.

ECLAC and UNEP prepared reports on the in-

tegration of environmental considerations into

Latin American development planning processes.

They also co-operated with Argentina in conven-

ing a regional seminar on the subject (Buenos

Aires, June).

Under UNEP-World Bank auspices, the third

expert group meeting on environmental accoun-

ting and its use in development policy and plan-

ning (Paris, 29 September-2 October) formulated

guidelines on presenting environmental issues in

national economic analyses. The sixth meeting of

the Committee of International Development In-

stitutions on the Environment (Washington, DC.,

June) reviewed progress made in implementing the

Declaration of Environmental Policies and Pro-

cedures relating to Economic Development.

On 24 May (65)

the Governing Council re-v ,quested the Executive Director to continue review-

ing, in co-operat ion with the Declarat ion’s

signatories, progress achieved in response to the

Declaration, and called on the signatories to ac-

cord special consideration to major environmen-

tal problems within developing countries’ devel-

opment needs.

Among the Executive Director’s recommenda-

tions on the environment in the dialogue between

and among developed and developing countries,

annexed to the Council’s decision on his 1984

state-of-the-environment report (see p. 792), were

a number of environmental issues suggested for

such consultations.

GENERAL ASSEMBLY ACTION

During the mid-term global review of the im-

plementation of the Substantial New Programme

of Action for the 1980s for the Least Developed

Countries (LDCs), several conclusions and recom-

mendations were made by UNCTAD'S Intergovern-

mental Group on LDCs regarding environmental

considerations in those countries (see p. 433).

Those findings were endorsed by the General

Assembly when it adopted resolution 40/205.

Envi ronment and energy

Throughout 1985, UNEP continued to pursue a

number of activities aimed at reducing the impact

on the environment of the production of energy

(see p. 692).

Envi ronment and indus t ry

UNEP'S catalytic action in the crucial area of the

environment and industry included organizing

meetings and disseminating technical information.

The first meeting of the UNEP Environmental

Consultative Committee on the Iron and Steel In-

dustry (Geneva, 28 and 29 March) discussed en-

vironmental control for the industry and the

retrofitting of pollution abatement facilities for

older plants , newly developed environmental

technology, solid waste disposal, and the develop-

ment of legal and regulatory measures. A UNEP-

supported African regional meeting (Abidjan, 23-

26 July) called on industry in the developed coun-

tries to assist African countries to solve their

industry-related environment problems. A con-

ference on industry and the environment (Ankara,

24 and 25 October), organized by UNEP and the

Environmental Problems Foundation of Turkey

and attended by some 180 participants, examined

industrial pollution, the “polluter pays” principle,

foreign investment and the environment, and

Government/industry consultations in choosing

environmental management strategies. An Inter-

nat ional Symposium on Clean Technologies ,

organized by UNEP and the Federal Republic of

Germany (Karlsruhe, 7-18 October), was attended

by some 60 participants (mainly from developing

countries) and included presentations on clean

technologies and field visits to industrial plants.

UNEP continued to disseminate information on

the impact of industry and transportation on the

environment. It published 17 issues in the various

language versions of the quarterly Industry and En-

uironment, each focusing on a specific industrial

topic. Seven other specialized publications were

issued during the year. At UNEP’S request, the

International Petroleum Industry Environmental

Conse rva t i on Assoc i a t i on p r epa red a d r a f t

technical review on environmental management

of petroleum refineries and terminals, which was

widely circulated.

E n v i r o n m e n t a n d h u m a n s e t t l e m e n t s

With environmental conditions in many urban

areas deteriorating, UNEP continued to work to

combat this situation with various United Nations

agencies, especially UNCHS, including support for

820 Economic and social questions

the International Year of Shelter for the Homeless

(1987) (see p. 827).

Having completed environmental guidelines for

human set t lements planning, U N E P and U N C H S

launched a project to apply the guidelines in four

cities in Africa, Asia and Latin America, aimed

at establishing institutional mechanisms by which

environmental considerations would be routinely

included in human set t lements management .

Under a joint UNEP/WHO project on environmen-

tal cr i ter ia for housing and urban planning,

guidelines for improving indoor air quality were

completed, and a kit was produced to guide com-

munit ies in control l ing insects and rodents .

Assistance was provided to the Kenyan Govern-

ment in a project to rehabilitate the Lamu town

sea wall, affected by coastal erosion.

In collaborat ion with UN E P C O M and E S C W A,

UNEP organized a training course (Moscow and

Tbilisi, USSR, November) for 18 technicians from

Arab-speaking countries on environmental aspects

o f h u m a n s e t t l e m e n t s p l a n n i n g a n d w a s t e

management.

Envi ronmenta l educa t ion and t ra in ing

The main activities under the UNEP/UNESCO

Internat ional Environmental Educat ion Pro-

gramme (IEEP) included preparing environmen-

tal education materials, and pilot projects on in-

tegrating environmental education into general

education and into university, technical, vocational

and adult education.

A UNEP-sponsored regional seminar on univer-

sity and the environment in Latin America and

the Caribbean (Bogotá, Colombia, October)

adopted an action plan to incorporate the en-

vironmental dimension into university education

in the region. In December this act ion was

duplicated for the Arab States under an IEEP

project in Qatar. Pursuant to these seminars and

the first African Ministerial Conference on the En-

vironment (see p. 793), regional programmes of

action in environmental education and training,

developed with UNEP assistance, were adopted by

Governments in the African, Asia and the Pacific,

Latin American and Arab regions.

Under UNEP auspices, experts met in Bangkok

in November to develop and adopt an action pro-

g r a m m e f o r e n v i r o n m e n t a l e d u c a t i o n a n d

training.

In the area of training, Strategem-1, a computer-

based resource management game, was designed

by the International Network of Resource Infor-

mation Centres, with UNEP funds. Its purpose was

to help people to understand the concept of sus-

tainable development. The players assumed the

role of ministers in a hypothetical country and had

to manage its resources over 50 years. Success

depended on the players’ ability to balance sec-

tors such as energy, agriculture, industry, en-

vironmental protection and foreign exchange,

while developing human resources and improving

l i v ing s t anda rds . The game was p l ayed a t

workshops in Nairobi and Budapest, used in a

training course for USAID programme managers,

and adopted in some 20 teaching and research cen-

tres around the world.

A UNEP/IUCN International Training Workshop

o n Y o u t h a n d t h e E n v i r o n m e n t ( M o s c o w ,

September), attended by youth leaders from most

African countr ies , developed a conservat ion

agenda for environmental activities in the region

and a draft manual for training youth leaders.

A UNEP/ECA workshop aimed at introducing

environmental components into the training pro-

gramme of 11 ECA-sponsored institutions (Abi-

djan, November) provided training to 20 par-

t ic ipants and produced a core curr iculum in

environmental training for those institutions.

T w e n t y t r a i n e r s r e c e i v e d t r a i n i n g u n d e r a

UNEP/ILO project to incorporate environmental

components in the training activities of ILO-

sponsored institutions; by the end of 1985, 100

management trainers had been trained and train-

i n g m a n u a l s h a d b e e n p r o d u c e d u n d e r a

UNEP/ILO project to introduce environmental

components in ILO management development

programmes. The ninth international graduate

course on resource management and environmen-

tal impact assessment in developing countries

(Dresden, October 1985-July 1986), organized by

UNEP, UNESCO and the German Democrat ic

Republic, had involved 125 participants from 40

developing countries by the end of 1985.

On 23 May, the Governing Council adopted

three decisions on education and training. By the

first(66)

it requested the Executive Director to con-

sider convening in 1987 an international meeting

on environmental education and training, in co-

operation with UNESCO and the USSR, to ap-

praise the achievements in this area in the

preceding decade and to make proposals for the

future.

By the second,(67)

the Council requested the

Executive Director, in co-operation with interna-

tional organizations, to accord priority in 1986-

1987 to training in Africa on: water management,

with particular reference to rural areas; domestic

waste-water management and recycling of waste

water for agriculture; energy management, with

emphasis on efficiency of energy utilization; and

soil conservation. The Executive Director was also

requested to accelerate the establ ishment of

subregional African centres of excellence for en-

vironmental education and training, and to take

into account the recommendations of the African

environmental conference (see p. 793) in for-

mulating other 1986-1987 activities for Africa.

Environment 821

The third decision( 6 8 )

deal t with the Latin

American and Caribbean Environmental Train-

ing Network (see p. 793).

REFERENCES(1)

YUN 1982, p. 1030. (2)

YUN 1981, p. 839. (3)

A/40/25(dec 13/18)

(4)UNEP/WG.107/3.

(5)YUN 1979, p. 710.

(6)Multilateral Treaties Deposited with the Secretary-General; Status as

at 31 December 1985 (ST/LEG/SER.E/4). Sales No. E.86.V.3)( 7 )

UNEP/GC.13/9Àdd.l. ( 8 )

YUN 1982, p. 1003, GÁ

res. 37/217. 20 Dec. 1982. ( 9 )

YUN 1978, p. 537.( 1 0 )

UNEP/GC.13/10. ( 1 1 )

A/40/25 (dec. 13/l) . ( 1 2 )

Ibid.

(dec 13/29). (13)

YUN 1984, p, 750. (14)

Ibid., pp.’ 751 & 754.( 1 5 )

A /40 /25 (dec . 13 /31 ) . ( 1 6 )

Y U N 1 9 8 4 p . 7 5 5 .(17)

UNEP/WG.122/3. (18)

YUN 1979, 1312. (19)

A/40/20(dec. 13/24).

(20)A/40/392-E/1985/117.

(21)YUN 1984, p. 757,

GA res. 39/208, 17 Dec. 1984. (22)

A/40/666. (23)

A/C.2/40/10.(24)

YUN 1984, p. 508. (25)

Ibid., pp. 756 & 759.(26)

TD/B/1082. (27)

YUN 1977, p. 509. (28)

YUN 1983, p. 776,

GA res. 38/163, 19 Dec. 1983. (29)

A/40/644. (30)

YUN 1982,

(33)YUN1978, p.541; YUN 1980, p. 727; YUN 1981,

p. 1017. (3l)YUN 1983, p. 776. (32)A/40/25 727; (dec. 13/30 A).

827. (34)E/1985/32 (dec. 85/30). ( 3 5 )

DP/1986/82.(36)

UNEP/GC.13/7/Add.1, (37)

A/40/25 (dec. 13/30 B).(38)

E/1985/32 (dec. 85/29). (39)

A/40/329-E/1985/80.(40)

UNEP/GC.14/2. (41)

YUN 1982, p. 1021. (42)

YUN 1984,

763. (43)

A/40/25 dec. 13/27). (44)

YUN 1980, p. 717.(45)

A/C.2/40/SR.14. (46)

YUN 1983 p. 784. (47)

A/40/25

(dec. 13/28). (48)

YUN 1984, p. 764. (49)

Ibid., p. 770. (50)

YUN

1980, p. 712, GA res. 35/18, 10 Nov. 1980. (51)

YUN 1984,

649. (52)

A/40/25 (dec. 13/26). (53)

UNEP/GC.13/9/Add.3.(54)

A/40/25 (dec. 13/25). (55)

YUN 1981, p. 832. (56)

YUN 1979,

p. 692. (57)

YUN 1982, p. 1022. (58)

YUN 1984, p. 767, GA

res. 39/167, 17 Dec. 1984. (59)

A/40/650. (60)

YUN 1984,

768 (61)

UNEP/GC.13/3/Add.l. (62)

A/40/25 (dec. 13/7).(63)

Ibid. (dec. 13/8). (64)

E/1985/57. (65)

A/40/25 (dec. 13/16).(66)

Ibid. (dec. 13/19). (67)

Ibid. (dec. 13/20). (68)

Ibid. (dec. 13/21).

OTHER PUBLICATION

Treatment and Disposal Methods for Waste Chemicals (IRPTC No. 5),

Sales No. E.85.III.D.2.