SECRETARY-GENERAL'S MESSAGE FOR INTERNATIONAL DAY FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY
Press Release
SG/SM/6137
ENV/DEV/390
SECRETARY-GENERAL'S MESSAGE FOR INTERNATIONAL DAY FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY
19961227 Following is the text of the message of Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali for the International Day for Biological Diversity, 29 December:One of the outstanding developments in international efforts to protect the environment since the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, held at Rio de Janeiro in 1992, is the entry into force of the Convention on Biological Diversity. Another is the establishment of the Commission on Sustainable Development as a unique international forum for fostering multilateral negotiations and promoting action in the area of changing consumption and production patterns. In the four years since the Rio Conference, it has become universally recognized that these two concepts are closely linked: the conservation of biological diversity is a crucial element in achieving sustainable development.
The Commission on Sustainable Development has paid particular attention to the conservation of biodiversity and has stressed that this concept cuts across a wide spectrum of sectoral and cross-sectoral issues addressed in Agenda 21. Indeed, practically all the chapters of Agenda 21 contain objectives which are relevant to those of the Biodiversity Convention, in particular in such areas as combating deforestation, desertification and drought; promoting sustainable agricultural and rural development and sustainable mountain development; and planning for and managing land resources.
The Commission has called for close cooperation with and between the different entities within the United Nations system concerning the Biodiversity Convention and the conventions on other environmental issues that have been established since the Rio Conference. A number of arrangements to ensure such cooperation have already been set in place.
I expect that the work under way in the context of the Convention on Biological Diversity will be one of the key inputs to the special session of the General Assembly to be held in 1997 to carry out an overall review and appraisal of Agenda 21. Progress in conserving biological diversity is a vital element in much of what is covered in the Agenda, and the Assembly must give this topic the consideration it deserves.
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