CIESIN Thematic Guides

Environmental Treaty Sources

The following references describe sources of environmental treaties ranging from 18th century agreements covered in the Oceana International Protection of the Environment series (Ruster and Simma 1975) to the up-to-date listings of treaty status in Multilateral Treaties (Bowman and Harris 1984).

A few sources of treaty texts are available electronically. These sources provide access to treaty texts in addition to those major global change treaties available elsewhere in this guide. (Available here are The Biodiversity Treaty, The Framework Convention on Climate Change, The Montreal Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer, and other United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) documents).

World Treaties for the Protection of the Environment (1992) is an on-line collection of treaty texts originally prepared for UNCED by the Instituto per L'Ambiente of Milan, Italy.
United Nations Environment Programme Register of International Treaties and Other Agreements in the Field of the Environment provides a summary, objectives, signature, and entry-into-force dates for more than 150 environmental agreements as of 1991.
The Survey of Existing Agreements and Instruments and Its Follow-Up (A/CONF.151/PC/103) is a summary of environmental agreements and their provisions produced during the UNCED preparatory process. A group of experts compiled the report with the goal of evaluating the effectiveness of existing agreements and instruments. Their report contains recommendations for improvement of treaty implementation. Addendum I and Addendum II contain listings of 100 treaties, their objectives, entry-into-force dates, secretariats, and bibliographic sources for the full texts.
The Multilateral Treaties Collection is an on-line source of treaty texts from the Fletcher School of International Diplomacy, Tufts University. The Fletcher collection has several sections relevant to environment, including atmosphere and space, cultural protection, flora and fauna, marine, coastal and "other environmental" treaties.

The following publications are also sources of treaty texts or other relevant information:

Bowman, M. J., and D. J. Harris. 1984. Multilateral treaties: Index and current status. Compiled and annotated within the University of Nottingham Treaty Centre. London: Butterworths. (Kept up-to-date by cumulative supplements.)

Brown Weiss, Magraw and Szasz. 1992. International environmental law: Basic instruments and references. Dobbs Ferry, NY: Transnational Publishers.

Hohman, H. 1992. Basic documents of international environmental law. London: Graham and Trotman.

Hoog, G., and A. Steinmetz, eds. 1993. International conventions on protection of humanity and environment. Berlin: W. de Gruyter.

International environmental law on CD-ROM. 1993. Norwalk, CT: Opal Publishing Corp.

International legal materials: Current documents. 1962 - .Washington, D.C.: American Society of International Law.

Lyster, S. 1985. International wildlife law: An analysis of international treaties concerned with conservation of wildlife. Cambridge, UK: Grotius Publishers.

Robinson, N. A., ed. With P. Hassan and F. Burhenne-Guilmin. 1992. Agenda 21 & the UNCED proceedings: International protection of the environment. Third Series. Dobbs Ferry, NY: Oceana Publications.

Ruster, B., and B. Simma, eds. 1990. International protection of the environment : Treaties and related documents. Second Series. Dobbs Ferry, NY: Oceana Publications.

Ruster, B., and B. Simma, eds. 1975- . International protection of the environment : Treaties and related documents. First Series. Dobbs Ferry, NY: Oceana Publications.

Sand, P. H. 1992. The effectiveness of international environmental agreements: A survey of existing legal instruments. Cambridge, UK: Grotius Publishers.

United Nations. 1946/47 - .Treaty series. Recuiel des trates. New York: United Nations Publications Office.