569. The objectives outlined in the policy of the Ministry of the Environment and Sustained Development do not lack legitimate ambition: well-balanced development over the entire territory linking social progress, economic efficiency and protection of the environment, development of employment and growth of the national heritage. 570. On this basis, certain principles of action aimed at sustained development through the promotion of sectoral approaches for the integraton of the environment in the development process had been introduced in the context of the « National Action Programme on the Environment and Development » (National 21 Agenda) drawn up in 1996. 571. The great importance that Tunisia attaches to the environment is evident from the international conventions that it has ratified, the legislation that it has implemented, the technical structures and bodies that it has created and the various programmes which it has implemented for the purpose of preventing environmental degradation and to ensure the rational and stable exploitation of the natural resources of the country. I- The International Conventions ratified 572. Tunisia is a member of the international system for the protection of the environment and the preservation of natural resources through its ratification of the related international conventions and by ensuring their application, including notably: -The Montreal Protocol on substances harmful to the ozone layer, adopted at the 9th meeting of the Parties, under the terms of the law n° 99-77 of 2nd August 1999; -The United Nations Convention on bio-diversity, under the terms of the law n° 93-45 of 3rd May 1993; -The United Nations Convention on the control of desertification, under the terms of the law n° 95-52 of 19th June 1995; -The Basle Convention on the control of the transborder movements of hazardous wastes and their elimination, under the terms of the law n° 95-63 of 10th July 1995; - The Convention on the protection of the aquatic environment of the Black Sea, of the Mediterranean and of the neighbouring Atlantic zone aimed at the preservation of water species, under the terms of the law n° 2001-68 of 11th July 2001; -The Stockholm Convention on persistent organic polluants, under the terms of the law n° 2004-18 of 15th March 2004. 573. Tunisia’s attachment to the application of the International Charters and Conventions relating to the environment was confirmed during its participation at the Second Earth Summit as well as at the 19th Extraordinary Sesssion of the United Nations General Assembly, held in June 1997 in New York to evaluate the application, at the national level, of the recommendations of the first Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. 119