The vulnerability of affected ecosystems is reduced and the resilience of ecosystems is increased.

Sustainable land management and the combating of desertification/land degradation contribute to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and addressing climate change.

To improve the condition of affected ecosystems, combat desertification/land degradation, promote sustainable land management and contribute to land degradation neutrality.

Conservation, restoration and sustainable use of biodiversity in the Carpathians is enhanced, by harmonized and coordinated efforts and cooperation on conservation, maintenance and sustainable use of natural and semi-natural habitats and securing habitat continuity and connectivity; restoration of degraded habitats; conservation and sustainable use of species of flora and fauna characteristic to the Carpathians, especially endangered or endemic species and large carnivores; and conservation and restoration of wetlands and fresh water ecosystems. (Source: Main reference document: Carpathian Convention Biodiversity Protocol Article 1 on General objective and principles)

The Carpathian forests are sustainably managed and protected by, inter alia, improving the health and vitality of the forests; improving the conservation and sustainable use of forest biodiversity; identifying and protecting natural, especially virgin forests; promoting the restoration of close-to-nature forests; and enhancing the role of the forest-based sector in mitigating climate change. (Source: Main reference document: Carpathian Convention Sustainable Forest Management Protocol, Article 1 on General objective and principles)

Awareness about the objectives and main sustainable development aspects of the Carpathian Convention is strengthened among the general public in the Carpathians. Lifelong learning and global education approaches are integrated into the Carpathian Convention activities and cross-sectoral cooperation and synergies across projects are enhanced, bridging together local and regional actors and strengthening partnerships towards sustainable development of the Carpathians. (Source: Main reference document: Carpathian Convention COP6 Decisions (Decisions/COP6/9), Carpathian Convention Implementation Committee recommendation from 2022, and the Carpathian Convention Art. 13 on Awareness raising, education and public participation, http://www.carpathianconvention.org/tl_files/carpathiancon/Downloads/01%20The%20Convention/CC%20COP6%20DOC3_COP6%20DECISIONS_%20FINAL%20ADOPTED%202020.pdf and http://www.carpathianconvention.org/tl_files/carpathiancon/Downloads/03%20Meetings%20and%20Events/Implementation%20Committee/CCIC%202022/Meeting%20documents/2312%20CCIC%20recommendations%202022%20FINAL%20clean.pdf)

By 2030, ensure sustainable food and agriculture production systems through the continued sustainable use and development of genetic resources and biodiversity for food and agriculture, supporting the implementation of resilient agricultural practices that increase productivity and production, that help maintain ecosystems, that strengthen capacity for adaptation to climate change, extreme weather, drought, flooding and other disasters and that progressively improve land and soil quality.

Restoration is in progress in degraded wetlands, with priority to wetlands that are relevant for biodiversity conservation, disaster risk reduction, livelihoods and/or climate change mitigation and adaptation.

National wetland inventories have been initiated, completed or updated and disseminated and used for promoting the conservation and effective management of all wetlands.

By 2020, ensure the conservation, restoration and sustainable use of terrestrial and inland freshwater ecosystems and their services, in particular forests, wetlands, mountains and drylands, in line with obligations under international agreements

By 2020, sustainably manage and protect marine and coastal ecosystems to avoid significant adverse impacts, including by strengthening their resilience, and take action for their restoration in order to achieve healthy and productive oceans

By 2030, combat desertification, restore degraded land and soil, including land affected by desertification, drought and floods, and strive to achieve a land degradation-neutral world

By 2020, protect and restore water-related ecosystems, including mountains, forests, wetlands, rivers, aquifers and lakes

Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.

Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss

The habitats and ranges of migratory species are maintained and restored, supporting their connectivity.

By 2032, all important habitats for migratory species listed in CMS Appendices are protected, effectively conserved, managed and restored through ecologically representative, well-connected and equitably governed systems of protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures. Explanation: Steps will be taken to establish ecologically representative, well-connected systems of protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures, to ensure that, among others, the connectivity of all areas of importance for migratory species – as well as other areas that may be ecologically linked to them – is preserved. This could include permanent or temporal legal protection measures to ensure migratory ranges and their habitats are maintained, restored, effectively conserved and managed, and provide important biological functions such as opportunities for feeding, resting and habitat for reproduction.

WHEREAS the first objective of the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling is “the interest of the nations of the world in safeguarding for future generations the great natural resources represented by the whale stocks”; MINDFUL that, given the depleted status of great whale populations at the inception of the IWC, and that during the last 25 years, the International Whaling Commission has devoted a overwhelming part of its work to the pursuit of that conservation objective; NOTING that, through the adoption of more than a hundred conservation-oriented resolutions(1), as well as through various Schedule amendments, the Commission has evolved into an organization internationally recognized, among other things, for its meaningful contributions to the conservation of great whales; furthering that conservation work through those Resolutions and Schedule amendments, the Commission has gradually developed an extensive conservation-oriented agenda(2); NOTING that since the Convention came into force in 1948 several key conventions have been adopted which may affect great whales, including, inter alia, UNLOS, CITES, IOC, ICSU, the CBD, CMS, ACCOBAMS and ASCOBANS; RECOGNIZING the various challenges referred to in previous Resolutions and Schedule Amendments, it is prudent for the Commission to effectively organize its future work in the pursuit of its objective by devising an appropriate agenda that places special emphasis on its benefits to conservation. NOW THEREFORE THE COMMISSION: WELCOMES initiatives to assess the achievements and orientation of the cumulative work of the Commission in the pursuit of its conservation objective; ENDORSES the proposals made by various Contracting Governments to organize, on the basis of that assessment, the future Conservation Agenda of the Commission and to cooperate in its preparation; DECIDES to establish a Conservation Committee of the Commission, composed of all Contracting Parties, in conformity with Article III paragraph 4 of the Convention; DECIDES to entrust the Conservation Committee with: (1) The preparation and recommendation to the Commission of its future Conservation Agenda, taking full account of this Resolution; (2) The implementation of those items in the Agenda that the Commission may refer to it and (3) Making recommendations to the Commission in order to maintain and update the Conservation Agenda on a continuing basis. INSTRUCTS the Conservation Committee to meet before the Commission’s Annual Meeting in 2004, in order to organize its work, so that the Conservation Agenda can be considered for adoption by the Commission at that Annual Meeting. DIRECTS the Conservation Committee to explore how the Commission can coordinate its conservation agenda through greater collaboration with a wider range of other organizations and conventions including inter alia CMS, CCAMLR, IMO, IUCN, and UNEP. REQUESTS the Scientific Committee to advise the Conservation Committee in the performance of the tasks entrusted to it in this Resolution, and to ensure that the appropriate scientific research items, including inter alia, whalewatching, environmental issues and behavioural research, under the responsibility of the Scientific Committee, are incorporated in the Conservation Agenda.2 REQUESTS the Conservation Committee to begin exploring the possible establishment, by the Commission, of an appropriate trust fund (including the identification of potential contributors), to make available the necessary financial resources to the Commission and, particularly, to the Contracting Governments committed to implementing specific items of the Conservation Agenda related to conservation-oriented research. To that end, the Committee shall give priority to the question of securing assistance for scientific research and capacity building for scientists and institutions from developing countries, and shall take advantage from the experiences obtained in other international environmental and conservation conventions and treaties, in the establishment of similarly-oriented international funds. DIRECTS the Secretariat to prepare a report, to be considered by the Commission at its next annual meeting, on the implementation of Resolution 1998-6 regarding the establishment of a dedicated “Environment Research Fund” to facilitate research on environmental change and cetaceans, as well as on the results of the appeal it made in its Resolution 1999-5 “to the Contracting Governments, other governments, international organizations and other bodies to contribute financially an in kind” to research programs, and to include in that report a recommendation to the Commission, as to how that Fund could best be considered in the light of the possible establishment of the trust fund referred to in the previous paragraph Read more https://archive.iwc.int/?r=2078

Resolution 2001-11 Resolution on the Importance of Habitat Protection and Integrated Coastal Zone Management WHEREAS the destruction of coastal habitat may have a detrimental impact upon cetaceans; RECALLING that the negative effects of habitat destruction upon cetaceans have been repeatedly recognised by the IWC since 1980, as have the positive actions of a number of Signatories to confront habitat destruction and protect various cetacean species, NOTING that Article 193 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea stipulates that “States have the sovereign right to exploit their natural resources pursuant to their environmental policies and in accordance with their duty to protect and preserve the marine environment.” MINDFUL that the International Whaling Commission with its specific responsibility in the management and conservation of whale stocks may have a mutual interest in supporting the ratification of international treaties with overlapping concerns, NOW THEREFORE THE COMMISSION Commends Contracting Governments to the International Convention on the Regulation of Whaling to pursue the objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Convention on Wetlands, especially Waterfowl Habitats of International Importance (RAMSAR), and the Coral Reefs Initiative, to better achieve coastal habitat protection and integrated coastal zone management as advocated in the implementation decisions of these and similar agreements and initiatives.

Resolution 2002-1 Guidance to the Scientific Committee on the Sanctuary review process RECALLING that amendments to the Schedule, including the establishment of Sanctuaries, require criteria for their periodic review by the Scientific Committee. CONVINCED that the establishment of Sanctuaries for conservation purposes represents an integral part of best management practices for wildlife in general. NOTING that sanctuaries were established and have been maintained for a number of reasons, of which scientific considerations, although important, should not be definitive in the validation process. When considering scientific arguments for sanctuary evaluation, if consensus is not possible, then a precautionary approach should prevail. RECALLING FURTHER that since 1995, the IWC has recognised the need for a broader understanding of environmental changes and threats affecting whale stocks in the Antarctic marine ecosystem and recommended the application of precautionary principles in their discussions. On several occasions there was consistent support within the SC (2002) for the precautionary approach, specially when dealing with Arctic and Antarctic resource management. (SC/54/IA7, IA11, IA15, SC/54/E3, E11, E16, SC/54/IA7, IA11, IA18, SC/54/BRG4). RECOGNISING that if there is no consensus on specific issues within sanctuaries, the Precautionary Approach should limit the negative impacts of environmental uncertainty (e.g. effects of climate change over sea-ice dynamics and feeding habitat accessibility and unforeseen problems in the RMP to the other regions where it was applied). In such cases, currently established sanctuaries complement the provisions of paragraph 10 e) of the Schedule as an integral management strategy. TAKING INTO ACCOUNT that sanctuaries of appropriate spatial and temporal scales are consistent with the practice of establishing large-scale areas closed to harvest as essential components of best management practices. These no-take regions should therefore be regarded independently of any other management actions or the provisions of paragraph 10(e) of the Schedule to the Convention. The long-term provisions and dimensions of an individual sanctuary depend on factors other than those determining the Commission's short-term management policy. NOW, THEREFORE, THE COMMISSION: INSTRUCTS the Scientific Committee that, in reviewing Sanctuaries, it includes the following principles in addition to those in the Instructions from the Commission to the Scientific Committee for Review of Sanctuaries approved by the 53rd Annual Meeting. 1) Temporary overlap of management measures, for example Para 10(e) of the Schedule and a sanctuary, cannot be used to invalidate any long-term scientific and conservation value of a given Sanctuary. 2) The application of the Precautionary Approach shall be determined in accordance to Principle 15 of the 1992 Rio Declaration.

The International Whaling Commission - - AWARE that the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling provides inter alia for the adoption of regulations fixing open and closed waters, including the designation of sanctuary areas; - RECALLING France's proposal at IWC 44 that a sanctuary be designated in the waters of the Southern Ocean; - CONSCIOUS of the views of member States as expressed in formal submissions as well as the work carried out at IWC 44 and 45; - Recalling its Resolution on a sanctuary in the Southern Ocean and its resolution on the need for research on the environment and whale stocks in the Antarctic region, both adopted at IWC 44; Now THEREFORE - ENDORSES the concept of establishing a sanctuary in the Southern Ocean; - RESOLVES to address outstanding legal, political, ecological, geographical, management, financial and global environmental issues relating to such a sanctuary; - INVITES member States and other States concerned as well as relevant organisations active in the area to enhance their scientific and monitoring activities which are relevant to the purpose of the sanctuary; - ACCEPTS the offer from the Government of Australia to host an intersessional open-ended working group of member states to address the above mentioned outstanding issues and to formulate recommendations with the view to enable the Commission to take a full decision on the sanctuary at IWC 46.