Tangible results asked from Earth Summit offsprings.

It he year 1993 saw the birth of much of the institutional mechanism suggested by the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; the Commission on Sustainable Development held its first session, and other bodies met to flesh out global agreements on such issues as desertification, fisheries on the high seas, and the sustainable development of small islands.

The forty-eighth General Assembly asked for tangible results in those three areas, as well as progress in other matters, in several environment-related texts recommended to it by the Second Economic and Financial) Committee.

The Assembly noted (48/194) progress made by the UN Conference on Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks, and reaffirmed that the Conference should complete its work before the 1994 Assembly session. It approved the convening in New York of two further sessions of the Conference, to be held from 14 to 31 March, and 15 to 26 August 1994.

Fishing, islands

The Assembly expressed (48/445) its appreciation of measures taken to implement its 1991 resolution calling for an absolute ban on large-scale pelagic drift-net fishing, due to its devastating impact on marine life. It also expressed concern at reports of activities inconsistent with that resolution.

The Assembly decided (48/193) to convene the first Global Conference on the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States in Barbados from 25 April to 6 May 1994, including a high-level segment on 5 and 6 May. The Preparatory Committee for the Conference should resume its first session in New York from 7 to 11 March.

Recalling that desertification is a "problem of global dimension, in that it affects one sixth of the world population and one quarter of the total land area of the world", the Assembly urged (48/191) the one-year-old Committee tackling the problem-formally known as the Intergovernmenta Negotiating Committee for the Elaboration ration of an International Convention to Combat Desertification in those Countries Experiencing Serious Drought and/or Desertification, particularly in Africa - to complete its negotiations by June 1994.

Drought, climate

In a related text (48/175), the Assembly urged the international community to continue its financial and technical support to the countries most affected by drought and desertification, in order to implement the relevant programmes outlined in Agenda 21, the blueprint of action adopted by the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) - as the Earth Summit was officially called.

The Assembly decided (48/189) that the first session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change should be held from 28 March to 7 April 1995. It accepted the offer of the Government of Germany to host that session in Berlin.

All Governments were urged (48/190) to promote wide dissemination of the 1992 Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, which contained "fundamental principles for the achievement of sustainable development, based on a new and equitable global partnership".

The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) was asked (48/192) to submit a report on its environmental monitoring activities, including a review of Earth-watch, an international surveillance network of the state of the environment.

The Assembly stressed (48/174) the need for close cooperation between UNEP and the Commission on Sustainable Development in implementing UNCED recommendations.

Reflecting on the first year of the Commission for Sustainable Development, its Chairman, Razali Ismail of Malaysia, said on 2 3 November that while he was pleased with the outcome of the Commission's first substantive session, there was still vast ground to cover if Agenda 21 was not to remain a programme of action on paper alone.