MANUAL SPORT ENVIRONMENT

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During this second c onferenc e, 184 gov ernments convened at the highest political
level to address the concerns of sustainability, and the relationship betw een
env ironment and economic development. As a result, governments produc ed a
prescription for s urviv al in the form of an 800 page document entitled Agenda 21, s o
called for its projection that all of its recommendations s hould be met by the beginning
of the 21st Century. Agenda 21 deals extens ively w ith actions that governments,
international organizations, industry and the community at large can take to ac hiev e
lasting changes w ith regard to human economic development. These actions
recogniz e the impacts of human behav ior on the environment and on the sustainability
of production systems. The Earth Summit als o produc ed tw o legally binding
conv entions on biodiv ersity and c limate change, a set of forest principles w hich may
form the basis for a forestry convention, and the Rio Declaration.
In 1997, w orld leaders met in New York, United States, at a spec ial session of the
United Nations General Assembly to rev iew progress and apprais e Agenda 21.
Des pite improv ements on many fronts, the final report highlighted that muc h needed to
be done to deal w ith an increas ingly degraded planet.
Some conv entions that c urrently conc ern the env ironment are:
• Conv ention to Combat Desertification
• Conv ention on Climate Change
• Basel Conv ention on the Transport of Haz ardous Waste
• Conv ention on Biological Divers ity; the Convention on the Law of the Sea
• Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Oz one Layer
• Conv ention on International Trade in Endangered Spec ies of Wild Fauna and Flora
( CITES)
• Conv ention on Wetlands of international Importance, especially as Waterfow l
Habitat (Ra msar)
• Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs)
• Ky oto Protocol on c limate change.
All the different international agreements and c onv entions w hich have been adopted
can theref ore prov ide a foundation for the es tablishment of an environmental
programme of action in any section of the community , such as the sports movement
for instance. Part of each c ommunity's w ork for the environment could be to find out
w hat thes e agreements are, and to cooperate w ith gov ernments , loc al or regional