This Manual seeks to promote and enhance effective implementation of Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs). It has been developed to facilitate the use and application of the “Guidelines on Compliance with and Enforcement of Multilateral Environmental Agreements” (set forth in Annex I). The Guidelines were developed by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), with the cooperation of more than 70 States and many other stakeholders. UNEP’s Governing Council (the body that directs and oversees UNEP’s work) approved these Guidelines at Cartagena in February 2002. In its decision adopting the Guidelines, the Governing Council called for UNEP “to take steps for advancing capacity-building and strengthening of developing countries, particularly the least developed countries, and countries with economies in transition, in accordance with the guidelines.” This Manual has been prepared to facilitate the use of the Guidelines and to promote their use according to this Governing Council decision.
Rationale
Over the past few decades, the number and scope of international environmental agreements have grown rapidly. It is estimated that there are 700 or more different international agreements that govern some aspect of the environment; and several more are being negotiated at the bilateral, regional, and global levels.
In many instances, States recognised an environmental problem, negotiated an MEA to address the problem, and then signed and ratified the MEA, without conducting a serious assessment of whether particular States actually have the financial, personnel, and technical resources to implement the MEA. Now, many States are faced with the challenge of implementing numerous MEAs with limited resources. In addition to scarce resources, politicians often need to be convinced of an MEA’s importance considering the other pressing priorities facing a developing country.
There are a number of modest measures that States and MEAs (through their Secretariats and Conferences of the Parties) can adopt to facilitate compliance with and enforcement of MEAs. The Guidelines and this Manual are designed to provide guidance on how to implement MEAs. Expanding upon the Guidelines, this Manual provides ideas, approaches, and experiences that Governments and other stakeholders may consider when seeking to improve compliance and enforcement. Governments have expressed particular interest in approaches designed to simplify MEA implementation — such as priority setting and MEA clustering — in countries with limited resources to implement MEAs.