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In principle, the regimes regulating the importation of ozone-depleting substances, veterinary medicines and pharmaceutical products for human use are also harmonized among the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU), with the prohibition of importing and producing ozone-depleting substances and equipment containing them

At the WAEMU community level, standardization priorities are defined on the basis of the need expressed by at least half the States and relevance to health, safety, the environment and trade

In January 2008, WAEMU adopted a Common Environmental Improvement Policy (PCAE) with commitment to harmonize and standardize their environmental standards and technical regulations, and to promote the sustainable management of natural resources, renewable energy sources and management of environmental problems

In 2007, WAEMU adopted a framework for plant and animal health and food safety establishing mechanisms for cooperation and mutual recognition, subject to the precautionary principle, among the member States, with a commitment to align their sanitary measures on the international standards, directives and other recommendations, in particular those of the Codex Alimentarius, the WTO (SPS and TBT Agreements), the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC), the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) and those established by the Cartagena Protocol on the Prevention of Biotechnological Risks

The principal WAEMU legislation for agriculture, including livestock-raising, fishing and forestry, is the Union Agricultural Policy (PAU) aiming at making a sustainable contribution to meeting the population's food needs, to its economic and social development and to reducing poverty

WAEMU currently has no common regulations for forestry products. although a common policy to improve the environment was adopted in 2008

Fisheries and aquaculture occupy a strategic place in the economy of WAEMU member countries as regards both revenue and food security given that there is a major risk of over- fishing (legal or illegal) in the region's fisheries constituting a threat to both food security and the balance of the marine ecology

The programme defined for implementing the a Regional Sustainable Energy Initiative (IRED) comprises three successive phases: (i) to make energy available over the period 2010-2012; (ii) to make energy competitive in the WAEMU area over the period 2013-2020; and lastly (iii) to provide a sustainable supply of energy over the period 2021-2030

The IRED emergency programme is built around three basic components: a programme to expand the supply of electricity; a regional energy saving programme to enable WAEMU to undertake energy efficiency activities in government departments, households and industry, including the dissemination of low energy consumption bulbs; and better governance in the electricity sector in terms of the quality of management of national electricity companies and of regulation

The Abidjan Convention serves as the basis for implementation policies in several of West Africa's coastal countries in order to remedy common ecological and environmental problems that threaten natural resources, caused for the most part by non-sustainable exploitation of resources, such as oil slicks and waste from ships flushing out their tanks along the coast covering the beaches