The Strategy is the guiding document for environmental policy. It replaced in 1997 the National Programme on Environment and Development, first elaborated in 1993 and representing the first initiative in response to international calls for elaboration of national plans on sustainable development. The Strategy defines the main environmental issues (land degradation, factors affecting forest coverage, pollution, loss of biological diversity, water scarcity, and climate change impacts) and proposes the policies and instruments to prevent, solve or minimise them in order to improve environmental protection and the efficient use of national resources.