Biodiversity

Regional and subject-specific conventions

In the face of this situation and the 2010 target, decided during the World Summit on Sustainable Development held in Johannesburg in 2002, France is committed to reducing the rate at which biological diversity is being depleted on a global scale. A signatory to the big international conventions, France has negotiated many international, regional and subject-specific agreements - with the main tool being the Convention on Biological Diversity.

Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)

In 1992, during the Rio Summit, the States - with the notable exception of the United States - adopted the first global agreement covering biological diversity in all its forms. There are now 188 Parties to the Convention.

The main objective is the sustainable conservation of biodiversity. A third objective, negotiated by the developing countries in return for the first two objectives, concerns fair distribution of and access to the advantages stemming from the use of genetic resources.

The Convention adopted some 170 decisions, distributed among seven work programmes (agricultural, forest, mountain, island, coastal and marine, arid and sub-humid and coastal water biodiversity) and 17 cross-sectoral issues (protected areas, access to genetic resources, traditional knowledge, education and public awareness, etc.).

Moreover, the Convention has a specific protocol on biosafety. The Protocol of Cartagena was adopted in 2000 and aims to control the risks that the cross-border movements of living modified organisms could represent to biodiversity. Currently ratified by 130 countries, including France, it came into force on 11 September 2003.

Time frames:

  Eighth Conference of the Parties (20 to 31 March 2006, Curitiba, Brazil)

The Washington Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES)

Adopted in 1973 in Washington, it now has 169 Parties. It aims to control international trade of endangered species, to maintain the ecological equilibrium of species being marketed and to ensure international cooperation in view of the contribution of international trade of species to sustainable development.

In order to reach these objectives, the convention assigns species to one of three lists, in accordance with the status of the populations of the species concerned:

  Appendix I, the strictest one, establishes the list of species, the international trade of which can be authorized only exceptionally;

  Appendix II concerns species, the trade of which is authorized, but on condition of quotas and permits;

  Appendix III concerns species subject to national regulations and, for Parties that so require, species subject to international cooperation for control of the trade thereof.

Five thousand animal species and 28,000 plant species are included on the CITES lists.

Time frames:

  14th Conference of the Parties (2007)

The Convention on Wetlands of International Importance (Ramsar Convention)

Signed in February 1971, the Ramsar Convention provides a specific framework for international cooperation for the conservation and sustainable use of wetlands and their resources. Wetlands cover approximately 6% of the Earth’s surface and make a significant contribution to the global economy, in terms of water supply, fishing, agriculture, forestry and tourism. There are currently 150 Parties to the Convention, with 1,558 wetland sites, totalling approximately 130 million hectares.

The mechanism of the Convention consists in the commitment of the Parties themselves (i) to designate at least one site as complying with the Ramsar criteria; (ii) to ensure that the environmentally-sound characteristics of the designated site or sites are maintained; (iii) to include the conservation of wetlands in national space management plans in order to promote the sustainable use thereof; (iv) to establish natural wetland reserves and to promote training in the areas of research and management of these environments; and (v) to cooperate with the other Parties in implementing the Convention, in particular in terms of cross-border wetlands, aquatic systems and species that are common to several Parties as well as development projects that impact wetlands.

Time frames:

  Tenth Conference of the Parties (South Korea, 2008).

Alongside these “big” conventions and their protocols, many other regional or subject-specific convention have also been adopted:

  Protection of nature in the South Pacific (SPREP, 1976)

  Conservation of wildlife and the natural environment in Europe, or the Bonn Convention (1979)

  Protection of natural resources and the environment of the South Pacific (1986)

  Conservation of bats in Europe (1991)

  Protected areas and biological diversity in the Mediterranean (1995).

Updated on 27/02/2006