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Environment must also be an approach to development. Environment is a social justice issue and environment even is a peace and security issue. The barrier to achieving sustainable development, are, great, as miqht be expected in a major historical transformation, but they are are from insurmountable.
We approach the millennium in a world in which global interdependence is the central reality, but where absolute poverty and environmental degradation cloud our vision of a common future, and where a qeopolitical climate dominated by nuclear terrorism and increasing militarization saps the idealism of the young and the will to dream in us all.
Ralph Torrie
On Behalf of Canndian
Environment, Development, and
Peace Organizations
WCED Public Hearing
Ottawa, 26-.27 May 1986
2. Cooperative Manaqement
39. Already. environmental stresses are encouraging cooperation among nations, giving some indication of ways to proceed, Antarctica is subject to a far-reaching agreement that provides a collective approach to management. (See Chapter 10.) There are now various institutional systems. often of complex and advanced form, to foster bilateral and regional cooperation for marine fisheries in order to regulate maximum sustainable yields and distribution of catches. One of the main threats to the ocean the dumping of highly toxic wastes has so far been manged by the London Dumping Convention. As for international water bodies, impressive progress has been made by the bilateral U.S.-Canadian Commission for the Great Lakes. The Mediterranean Convention, only one of the many such treaties concluded within the context of the UNEP Regional Seas Pregramme, brings together coastal nations in an arrangement to monitor and combat pollution at sea.
40. Some of the most challenging problems require cooperation among nations enjoying different systems of government. or even subject to antagonistic relations. The 1986 Chernoby1 reactor accident in the Soviet Union has resulted in two agreements covering international cooperation in cases of such accidents. In the future, the nation concerned will immediately alert neighbouring states; they, in turn, will offer assistance at cost and free of liability.[1] The 1979 Convention on Transboundary Pollution has provided a framework for monitoring and assessing damage from pollutants causing acid rain in Europe.[2]
41. Cooperation on environmental issues among developing countries has often been made difficult by poor communications. Nonetheless, many now participate in UNEP's Regional Seas Programme. The nations of the Sahel have formed a regional
- ↑ 'Negotiations on Agreement Concerning Nuclear Safety Reach Consensus', press release (P-86/17), IAEA, 15 August 1986,
- ↑ 'Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution' concluded 13 November 1979 and entered into force 16 March 1983, summarized in N.J. Bowman and D.J. Harris (eds,), Mutilateral Treaties: Index and Current Status (London: Butterworths,
