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 programmes to deal with their problems and advise and assist development assistance agencies in this respect; and


 * to provide advice and asistance to the United Nations Development Programme, the World Bank, and other UN orqanization and agencies regarding the environmental diemesions of their programmes and technical assistance projects, including training activities.

2.2.1 Focus on Environmental Protection Issues
47. UNEP has been a key agent in focusing the attention of governments on critical environmental problems (such as deforestation and maine pollution), in helping develop many global and regional action plans and strategies (as on desertification), in contributing to the negotiation and implementation of international conventions (on Protection of the Ozone Layer, for example), and in preparing global guidelines and principles for action by governments (such as on marine pollution from land-based sources). UNEP's Regional Seas Programme has been particularly successful, and could serve as a model for some other areas of special concern, especial!y international river basins.

48. UNP's catalytic and coordinating role in the UN system can and should be reinforced and extended. In its future work in critical environmental protection issues, UNEP should focus particularly on:
 * developing, testing, and helping to apply practical and simple methodologies for environmental assessment at project and national levels:
 * extending international agreements (such as on chemicals and hazardous wastes) more widely;
 * extending the Regional Seas Programme;
 * developing a similar programme or international river basins; and /…