UNEP's experience in building the capacity of developing country legal systems in environmental law, including via the 2002 Johannesburg Principles on the Role of Law in Sustainable Development, highlighted as one contribution.
22 November 2010: In an address to the International Tiger Conservation Forum, Bakary Kante, Director of the Division of Environmental Law and Conventions of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), on behalf of UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner, stated that UNEP stands ready with its experience to assist in saving the tiger.
The Forum is convening in St. Petersburg, Russian Federation, from 21-24 November. Kante said the Forum, organized by the Government of the Russian Federation, the City of St. Petersburg, the World Bank, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and WWF-Russia, expressed a “new level of political will” to bridge ambition with decisive action. He underscored the need to strengthen cross-border customs and law enforcement between countries, including the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Rwanda, and he said such activities were a “key element and part of UNEP’s wider work in the area.”
He noted UNEP’s experience in building the capacity of developing country legal systems in environmental law, including via the 2002 Johannesburg Principles on the Role of Law in Sustainable Development. He also highlighted the need for full and cooperative implementation and strengthening of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS), for which UNEP is the secretariat. Kante said UNEP’s experience and principles, which are being evolved to support the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD, also referred to as Rio+20) in Brazil in 2012, can also contribute to saving the tiger. [UNEP Press Release]