Officials from the Water Resources and Environment Administration (WREA) and relevant sectors in Vientiane on Tuesday gathered to close the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) project ‘Coordinating the Implementation of Multilateral Environmental Agreements in Laos '.

The project was initiated in 2004 and has contributed significantly to improving national capacity to negotiate and implement global environment commitments, said WREA Deputy Head Noulinh Sinbandith.

Laos is party to 10 global multilateral environmental agreements, providing a framework for the country to cooperate with the international community in the protection of the global environment, according to a press release from UNDP.

Through issues including climate change, biological diversity, and world cultural and natural heritage, the Kyoto Protocol and the international trade in endangered species, this global participation is an opportunity for Laos to seek financial and technical assistance to support the environmental protection activities required to ensure sustainable development.

“We all recognise the complexity of this project that deals with multiple ministries, many issues, and the 10 multilateral environmental agreements to which Laos is a signatory, which range from land degradation to climate change,” said Manager of UNDP's Environment Unit, Dr Linda Norgrove.

She said the technical reports produced during the project include a comparative analysis of Laos 's obligations under these agreements and those of the relevant national legislation.

This analysis has contributed significantly to developing new legislative measures and revising existing ones.

“Within the framework of this project, we have also been able to help WREA to conduct environmental education and awareness raising. Working with the general public, and particularly schoolchildren, this has involved tree planting in 20 villages and 21 primary schools,” said Dr Norgrove.

She said throughout the project, national ownership has been strong. As a result of WREA's management of project implementation, the managerial and technical capacities of participating government officials have been strengthened significantly in both project management and the related technical areas of the 10 multilateral agreements.

Dr Norgrove said the five-year UNDP project supported coordinating government implementation of the multilateral environmental agreements, which was designed with technical support from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

Major outcomes of the project include improved awareness of global environmental issues and a comparative analysis of multilateral environmental agreements and relevant national legislation, the first conducted by any Asean country, which has contributed significantly to the processes of developing new legislative measures and revising existing ones.