ABSTRACT
The pollution-control regimes designed to conserve natural resources must overcome conflicts among states' economic and political interests, concerns for protecting state sovereignty, and different opinions regarding the importance of the precautionary principle and the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and how to implement these principles. The regimes focus on shared natural resources: physical or biological systems that extend into or across the jurisdictions of two or more states. In addition to national sovereignty issues, efforts to negotiate regimes to deal with biodiversity, endangered species, forests, fish stocks, and land management may also have consequences for particular economic development strategies or efforts to promote free trade. The United Nations Economic and Social Council established the United Nations on Forests in 2000 with the goal of promoting "the management, conservation and sustainable development of the world's forests, and to strengthen long-term political commitment to this end".
