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26 Envtl. Pol'y & L. 1 (1996)

handle is hein.journals/envpola26 and id is 1 raw text is: 










   At the FAO  general meeting in October 1995, the Member States themselves had to use the red pencil, as
 General DirectorJacques Dioufrefused to undertake the budget cuts demanded by them. The budget now agreed
 ($650 million), willforce the Organisation to be more careful in the use ofits available finances, because delegates
 refused to allow it to cut back on any parts of its programme. However, the consensus arrived at was achieved
 with the abstentions of three big contributors - the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom.
    In the same month, a FAOMinister Conference in Quebec had as its priority the preparation ofthe next World
 Food Summit in Rome. Parallel to that Meeting, the 50th Anniversary ofthe founding of the Organisation was
 celebrated (see also page 14).
    The last World FoodSummit was heldmore than 20 years ago. At that time, aproclamation was adopted, which
 stated, inter alia, that each person has the right to grow up free from hunger and malnutrition. Delegates then
 thought that this goal could have been achieved by now. They did not imagine that today 800 million people should
 still be suffering from the effects of malnutrition, and at a time when the willingness of the industrialised States
 to give more development aid has decreased.
   Against this worsening background, the FAO Director General decided, with the agreement ofthe Member
 States, to convene another Food Summit this year in Rome. However, it is clear that if any lasting success is to
 be achieved, a completely new approach to the problem will have to be taken.
    We have to congratulate FAO for the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries now agreed upon (see EPL
 vol.25 atpagel80) andfor their workin negotiatingthe revision ofthe International Undertaking on Plant Genetic
 Resources, to harmonise it with the Convention on Biological Diversity.



   A  recent forests report by the UN/ECE, giving the results of national and transnational surveys from 32
European  countries, states that more than 25 per cent had to be classified as damaged. The results of the report
- Forest Condition in Europe - indicate that although there were some improvements in individual countries,
forest damage continues to be a serious problem.
   European forests were one of the points on the agenda for the Third Ministerial Conference in Sofia, within
the framework  of the ECE (see report on page 2). The Council of Europe's Pan-European Biological and
Landscape Diversity Strategy, adopted by the Ministers, together with the Ministerial Declaration (see page 31)
and  the European Action Programme, provide a framework to promote a consistent approach and common
objectives for national and regional action in this and other areas.



   The Government  ofAustria and UNEP will be celebrating the tenth anniversary ofthe Vienna Convention for
the Protection ofthe Ozone Layer, with a ceremony on 4 December. We plan to report next time on the Seventh
Meeting of the Parties (5-7 December 1995), which will consider adopting new amendments and adjustments
containing even stronger measures to counteract harmful activities.
   The report on the Second Conference of the Parties to the Biodiversity Convention, too late for this issue, will
also be included next time.


                                                                                   2 December  1995


BDITUBlAL ]

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