The document summarizes several key environment-related conventions: the Aarhus Convention establishes public access to environmental information; the Basel Convention regulates transboundary movements of hazardous waste; the Bern Convention protects wildlife and habitats in Europe; the Convention on Biological Diversity conserves biodiversity at ecosystem, species and genetic levels; and the Espoo, CLRTAP, Bonn, Minamata, and Vienna conventions address issues like transboundary environmental impacts, air pollution, migratory species conservation, mercury regulation, and ozone layer protection, respectively.

1. Environment related
conventions

2. AARHUS CONVENTION
• The Aarhus Convention is a multilateral environmental
agreement through which the public, both in the present and in
future generations, have the right to know and to live in a
healthy environment.
• It was signed on 25 June 1998 in the Danish city of Aarhus.
• It has three pillars :
1. Access to information
2. Public participation in decision making
3. Access to justice

3. BASEL CONVENTION
• It was signed on March, 1989.
• Plastic wastes, classified as hazardous waste, which are difficult to
recycle – will be subject to consent procedure before they can be
legally exported from the country of dispatch to the destination
country.
• The European Union countries will also be prohibited from exporting
plastic waste to developing countries.

4. BERN CONVENTION
• The convention on the conservation of European wildlife and natural
habitats is a binding international legal instrument in the field of Nature
Conservation.
• The convention came into force on June 1, 1982.
• It is particularly concerned about protecting natural habitats
and endangered species, including migratory species.

5. BIODIVERSITY CONVENTION
• The Convention on Biological Diversity is a multilateral treaty.
• It was entered into force on 29 December, 1993.
• Its objective is to develop national strategies for the conservation and
sustainable use of biological diversity.
• It covers biodiversity at all levels: ecosystems, species and genetic
resources.
• It also covers biotechnology.

6. • THE ESPOO CONVENTION
• The Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a
Transboundary Context was signed in Espoo, Finland, in 1991.
• The Espoo Convention is an international agreement to
address decisions taken in one country, but affecting the
environment in another country as well.
• Transboundary impacts are impacts that originate within one
country, but have the ability to extend across national
borders.

7. CLRTAP
• The Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution is
intended to protect the human environment against air
pollution and to gradually reduce and prevent air pollution,
including long-range transboundary air pollution.
• To improve air quality, UNECE member States have been working
successfully to reduce air pollution in the region through the
convention.
• Eight protocols identify specific measures to be taken by Parties to
cut their emissions.

8. BONN CONVENTION
• The Convention on the Conservation of Migratory
Species of Wild Animals, is an international agreement
that aims to conserve migratory species.
• The Agreement is concerned with conservation of wildlife
and habitats on a global scale.
• It was signed in 1979 in Bonn, Germany.
• Many of the world’s animal species take on great
migrations which involves seasonal journeys of thousands
of miles, crossing multiple countries.
• For them, our human political boundaries have no
meaning which is why this convention of UN was created.

9. THE MINAMATA CONVENTION
• It is an international treaty designed to protect human
health and the environment from emissions
of mercury and mercury compounds.
• It was signed on 10 October 2013 in Japan.
• The Convention is named after the Japanese
city Minamata.
• This naming is of symbolic importance as the city went
through a devastating incident of mercury poisoning.
• The treaty also addresses the direct mining of mercury, its
export and import, its safe storage and its disposal once
as waste, pinpointing populations at risk, and treating
mercury-related effects.

10. Vienna Convention for the Protection
of the Ozone Layer
• It is a multilateral environmental agreement signed in 1985.
• It provided frameworks for international reductions in the
production of chlorofluorocarbons due to their contribution to the
destruction of the ozone layer, resulting in an increased threat of
skin cancer.