Norway will pay Liberia $150 million to stop deforestation
Liberia is a global diversity hotspot, home to the last remaining viable populations of species including western chimpanzees, forest elephants and leopards.
International cooperation
Brazilian government launches $1.2 billion Amazon Fund to protect country’s rainforests
The Amazon Fund, made by possible from financial support from Norway and Germany, supports projects aimed at promoting the conservation and sustainable use of the Brazilian Amazon.
12 nations sign the UNASUR Constitutive Treaty
The UNASUR Constitutive Treaty officially established the Union of South American Nations, an intergovernmental continental union of twelve South American nations.
New Zealand’s prime minister Helen Clark formally apologizes to Samoa
New Zealand’s prime minister Helen Clark formally apologized for two incidents during the period of New Zealand’s administration: a failure in 1918 to quarantine the SS Talune, which carried the ‘Spanish ‘flu’ to Samoa.
The African Union is founded by 55 member states
The AU has many key objectives, including fostering greater unity, cohesion and solidarity between the African countries and African nations.
Portugal cedes control of Macau to China, ending European colonization of Asia
Although offered control of Macau as early as the 1960s, the Chinese deemed the time “not yet ripe” and preferred to wait until December 1999 — the very end of the millennium, two years after the Hong Kong handover—to close this chapter of history. Upon the handover of Macau European colonization of Asia ended.
Austria, Finland, and Sweden join the European Union
The European Union was formally established when the Maastricht Treaty came into force on 1 November 1993. In 1995, Austria, Finland, and Sweden joined the EU.
Australia, France, Japan, Jamaica, the Philippines, Sweden, U.K., and U.S. found the International Coral Reef Initiative
The ICRI is an informal partnership among nations, international organizations and non-government organizations to help protect coral reefs globally. It is now the world’s largest body dedicated to coral conservation.
The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea comes into force
The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) is an international treaty that establishes a legal framework for all marine and maritime activities. It is perhaps the first major international agreement ever to establish laws to respect, protect, preserve, and prevent the dumping of plastics in the marine environment. Its preamble asserts that problems faced by the ocean “are closely interrelated and needed to be considered as a whole.” As of October 2024, 169 sovereign states and the European Union are parties.
The U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity, signed by 168 countries, enters into force
The Convention on Biological Diversity is a historic multilateral treaty now signed by all U.N. member states other than the United States. The Convention has three main goals: biodiversity, the sustainable use of its components, and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from genetic resources. The Convention recognized for the first time in international law that the conservation of biodiversity is “a common concern of humankind” and is an integral part of the development process.
The multilateral treaty recognized for the first time in international law that the conservation of biodiversity is “a common concern of humankind” and is an integral part of the development process.