PREAMBLE

The Member States of the Council of Europe and the other signatories hereto,

CONSIDERING that the aim of the Council of Europe is to achieve a greater unity between its members;

CONSIDERING the wish of the Council of Europe to co-operate with other States in the field of nature conservation;

RECOGNIZING that wild flora and fauna constitute a natural heritage of aesthetic, scientific, cultural, recreational, economic and intrinsic value that needs to be preserved and handed on to future generations;

RECOGNIZING the essential role played by wild flora and fauna in maintaining biological balances;

NOTING that numerous species of wild flora and fauna are being seriously depleted and that some of them are threatened with extinction;

AWARE that the conservation of natural habitats is a vital component of the protection and conservation of wild flora and fauna;

RECOGNIZING that the conservation of wild flora and fauna should be taken into consideration by the governments in their national goals and programmes, and that international co-operation should be established to protect migratory species in particular;

BEARING in mind the widespread requests for common action made by governments or by international bodies, in particular the requests expressed by the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment 1972 and the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe;

DESIRING particularly to follow, in the field of wildlife conservation, the recommendations of Resolution No. 2 of the Second European Ministerial Conference on the Environment;