This implies a number of key components:
- Understand, respect and improve the environment in its widest sense, including its natural, social, economic and cultural aspects
- Support and secure the abundance and diversity of nature
- Ensure that people have secure rights and equitable access to natural resources, decent living conditions on a sustainable basis
- Understand the interdependence of poverty and the environment protection, recognize the importance of sustainable natural resource use in meeting people's aspirations
The primary steps associated with achieving this vision include:
- Serving as a bridge between the national and regional/global levels, particularly in relation to regional environmental agreements and global environmental conventions;
- Involving both governments and civil society, notably by using the Union's gathering power to organize multi-stakeholder forums;
- Facilitating communication, coordination, and information exchange among different actors in the region, through the establishment of specialist networks and other mechanisms;
- Providing a neutral platform for multi-stakeholder dialogue on contentious environmental and developmental issues;
- Promoting the testing, refinement, and adoption of new tools and approaches to key conservation issues;
- Synthesizing information about previous and ongoing conservation and development initiatives, in order to assess their effectiveness and impact, identify lessons learned, and reveal gaps and future priorities;
