The United Nations Development Programme strives to persuade countries into integrating environmental planning and goals into national policy and agenda.

In one such area, the United Nations Development Programme works along side the Global Environment Facility (GEF) to support projects focusing on biodiversity, climate change, land degradation, and ozone depletion.  (www.undp.org/gef/).

In efforts to alter global decision makings regarding rainforest destruction, the UNDP brought forth the Convention on Biological Diversity to the most recent World Summit Meeting.

            The result has been a tremendous effort upon the parts of “national governments, national
            economists, environmentalists, indigenous peoples, and local communities” to work together
            on problems arising from rainforest destruction.  “More than 100 countries now have
            developed a national biodiversity strategy and action plan” (Swarns).
 
 

Another United Nations agency working along with the UNDP is the UNFCCC, or the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

            These two agencies acknowledge that decrease in major amounts of tree and plant resources
            (such as those occurring in tropical rainforests) are a component of increased carbon dioxide
            in the atmosphere.  The resulting increase in greenhouse gasses has lead to ozone depletion
            which ultimately causes global warming.

            One obvious step that both the UNDP and the UNFCCC have taken is to reduce the amount of
            rainforest being cut down and burned to a minimum.

            These steps have included: working along side national governments to spread understanding
            and establish both preservation and conservation tactics.  The two agencies have also
            established Not for Profit Organizations and in a few instances these N.P.O’s offer the
            opportunity for any person to buy (and thus save) one acre of tropical rainforest for $25.

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(information cited from the un homepage).

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