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000351 DRAFT-Not for distribution Environmental Cooperation and "reaffirms" the responsibility of states to ensure that activities within their jurisdictions do not cause damage to the environment of neighbor states (essentially adopting the transboundary harm rule, discussed below). The 1986 Ramsar Convention obliges each contracting party to designate at least one wetland site for inclusion in the List of Wetlands ofIntemational Importance.95 Mexico has designated the Colorado River delta wetlands. The United States has designated the Everglades in Florida. The 1983 Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals provides that "the States [nations] are and must be the protectors of the migratory species of wild animals that live within or pass through their national jurisdictional boundaries.,,96 Mexico is responsible for meeting the same international law expectations with respect to its domestic or the international environment as any other nation. The use and exploitation of natural resources, including use of water, in Mexico is within the sovereign jurisdiction of Mexico. That principle is specifically set forth in the 1944 Mexican Water Treaty and the Preamble of the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation. Establishment of the level of environmental protection for humans, animals or plant life or health appropriate in the United States or Mexico is within the sovereign jurisdiction of each nation.97 The Stockholm Declaration on the Human Environmenr8 and the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development 99 recognize the sovereign right of nations to exploit their own resources pursuant to their own environmental policies, and the responsibility to ensure that activities within their jurisdiction or control do not cause damage to the environment of other states or of areas beyond the limits of national jurisdiction. Nations have long abided by a two- part principle that each sovereign nation is (1) responsible for the use of its natural resources, including the conservation of plant and wildlife within its borders and (2) possesses the sovereign right to regulate it accordingly. 100 The Preamble of the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation, "reaffirms" that the exploitation of national resources pursuant to each nation's own environmental and develo~ment policies is within the inviolable sovereign jurisdiction of each of the respective nations. 01 Similarly, the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora102 provides in its preamble "that peoples and States are and should be the best protectors of their own wild fauna and flora." Mexico's designation of the Colorado River Delta as a "wetland of international importance" under the Ramsar Convention103 suggests that the Delta's environmental well being is an asset in which all nations have an interest. The Delta's wetlands are habitat for species which migrate between Mexico and the United States and are the subject of a bilateral treaty with the United States. The salt water-fresh water interface ill estuarine environments, such as the Delta wetlands, is also the birthplace of species and the habitat of minute life forms the well- being of which is an international asset. As riparian delta systems deteriorate globally (Nile, Amazon, Mekong, Ganges), maintenance of the Colorado River delta by Mexico becomes a reasonable international expectation. Mexico's damage to the Delta, by diverting its water from the Delta thus causes damages to other states. It would appear, therefore, that a persuasive argument can be made that Mexico has an international duty to the United States, also a signatory to the Ramsar Convention, to preserve and protect the Delta. 9