The Convention should provide protection and sustainable development of the SEE Mountains in their entirety as a uniform regional ecosystem. Parties should agree to establish a comprehensive policy towards this, and endeavor to cooperate in several areas of common interest, including biodiversity, agriculture and rural development, forest land use, management of water resources, transport, tourism, cultural heritage and traditional knowledge, energy and spatial planning.

The Convention is designed as a framework-type agreement: its substantive provisions are set out in general terms, which need, for their effective implementation, to be specified through additional protocols.

Further information about the process is available at
http://www.balkanfoundation.org/eng/balkan_convention.htm