The Convention on Biological Diversity serves as a key coordinating, catalyzing, and monitoring mechanism for international biodiversity. The Convention on Biological Diversity was concluded at the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro. It requires states to adopt and carry out conservation policies to maintain biological diversity. For the Wider Caribbean Region, it was decided that the implementation of the SPAW Protocol of the Cartagena convention would meet the majority of the obligations of the Convention on Biological diversity.

Included in the Convention on Biological Diversity is a commitment by governments to survey their natural living resources and to conserve sites noted for their rich biological diversity, and to ensure that any use of biodiversity is sustainable and equitable. An important function of the convention is to provide substantial new funding for biodiversity conservation in developing countries by establishing a financial mechanism that would provide both technical and financial assistance in support of surveying, characterizing, and conserving biodiversity. The commercial exploiters of biodiversity shoud also finance much of its conservation in countries where they operate. The administrative structure of the Convention gives equal control to developed and developing countries that are parties to the Convention in the distribution of funds under the Convention. The establishment of a monitoring and early-warning system to alert governments and the public to potential threats to biodiversity is also included in the Convention. It is recognized that the conservation of biological diversity is a common concern of all humankind, and that access to biodiversity is contingent upon prior informed consent of the country concerned, and that both in-situ conservation and ex-situ preservation of biodiversity are key tools to any effective conservation strategy.

150 states signed the Convention on Biological Diversity at the UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. The convention entered into force on 29 December 1993. The treaty is a landmark in the field of environment and development, as it takes, for the first time, a comprehensive rather than sectoral approach to conservation of biodiversity and the sustainable use of earth’s resources.