THE INTEGRATION OF MULTILATERAL ENVIRONMENTAL AGREEMENTS: HERDING CATS OR BUILDING BRIDGES?

One of the most significant achievements of the Stockholm and Rio Conferences has been a proliferation of multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) to regulate a variety of anthropogenic threats to the environment. Although this is unquestionably a positive development, concerns have arisen about the implications of so-called "treaty congestion" on these regimes, raising the potential for policy conflict and administrative wastage. Accordingly, a leading priority for many MEAs in recent years has been the development of cooperative arrangements, an issue that remains decidedly understudied. This paper examines the collaborative practices of three distinct groups of treaties - the "chemical cluster", the Rio Conventions and the Biodiversity-Related Conventions - assessing their practices to date and identifying potential benefits and problems with these approaches. This paper demonstrates that numerous techniques have been developed, ranging from an amalgamation of treaty structures, to individual interactions on single issues and unifying multilateral commitments at the national focal point level. While synergy arrangements remain at a preliminary stage in many instances, this paper identifies a number of emerging problems, notably an inherent lack if compatibility between elements of the individual clusters and a chronic lack of financial and human resources to sustain cooperative practices.