TWO KEY ORGANIZATIONS REVIEWING STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP FOR ENVIRONMENT

(Reissued as received.)

NAIROBI, 23 February (UNEP) -- At a time when the environment agenda has greater demands made upon it and faces increasing challenges, IUCN and UNEP are reviewing their strategic partnership agreement.

“It is urgent that we work closely together in helping to reposition the conservation and environment agendas as a key response to addressing the Millennium Development Goals and the poverty eradication agenda.  By strengthening our collaboration, we believe that we can help our respective communities and constituencies to make a difference”, said Achim Steiner, Director-General of the IUCN.

“IUCN, the World Conservation Union, is an organization with members at grass roots, as well as in governments across the world.  By joining forces, we can together take the important step -- mainstreaming biodiversity and other environmental concerns into the development agenda”, says Klaus Toepfer, Executive Director of UNEP.

The IUCN and UNEP have enjoyed a long history of collaboration which goes back to UNEP's creation, in 1972, and has resulted in landmark results -- such as the World Conservation Strategy (1982), which provided a new paradigm for the environmental community at that time, and the development of the multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) now in place at global and regional levels.  UNEP and the IUCN have also collaborated in bringing together and making available key information on protected areas and environmental law and in developing capacities in most regions of the world.

Both institutions agreed to revise their 1995 Framework Agreement to respond to the challenges of today and especially to those resulting from the Millennium Assembly, the World Summit on Sustainable Development, the Doha Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization, and the International Conference on Financing and Development.

This strengthened collaboration has been reflected by the UNEP-IUCN joint work carried out in response to the tsunami disaster.  This has shown how the two organizations have built on their competencies and constituencies to provide a rapid response to one of the most challenging situations the world has seen in the last decades.

The signing of this agreement marks a new commitment to a more strategic collaboration and will provide a clear signal to advance the environmental agenda.

For more information, please contact:  Eric Falt, Spokesman/Director, UNEP, Division of Communications and Public Information, tel:  +254 20 623292, e-mail:  eric.falt@unep.org or Nick Nuttall, UNEP, Head of Media, tel:  +254 20 623084, mobile:  +254 733 632755, e-mail:  nick.nuttall@unep.org.

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