A/HRC/34/49 decrease the quality of life of these vulnerable populations, even if other segments of society benefit.”47 25. The loss of biodiversity-dependent ecosystem services also has disproportionate effects on people who are vulnerable for other reasons, including gender, age, disability, poverty or minority status. Much more research is necessary to understand and respond to the ways that access to and management of biodiversity vary according to gender and other characteristics, and the differentiated effects of the loss and degradation of biodiversity. The lack of disaggregated data on biodiversity access, use and control hampers efforts to design and implement measures that appropriately respond to these types of vulnerabilities.48 III. Human rights obligations relating to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity 26. States have obligations to protect against environmental harm that interferes with the enjoyment of human rights, and the obligations apply to biodiversity as an integral part of the environment. As the Special Rapporteur emphasized last year in relation to climate change, these obligations continue to be studied and clarified, and the present report should not be taken as the final word on their content. In particular, it does not substitute for the more detailed analysis of particular human rights by mandate holders, treaty bodies, regional human rights tribunals or others. Rather, the goals are to provide an overview of this evolving area of the law and a framework for further elaboration. A. Procedural obligations 27. The procedural human rights obligations of States in relation to the environment include duties: (a) to assess impacts and make environmental information public; (b) to facilitate public participation in environmental decision-making, including by protecting the rights of expression and association; and (c) to provide access to remedies for harm. These obligations have bases in civil and political rights, but they have been clarified and extended in the environmental context on the basis of the entire range of human rights at risk from environmental harm (see A/HRC/25/53, para. 29). They are supported by provisions in international environmental instruments, including principle 10 of the 1992 Rio Declaration on Environment and Development. 28. Each of these obligations applies to measures that affect biodiversity in ways that threaten the full enjoyment of the human rights that depend on its components. For example, before a State grants a concession for exploitation of a forest, authorizes a dam on a river or takes other steps that allow the degradation or loss of biodiversity, it should assess the environmental and social impacts of the proposal, provide information about its possible effects, facilitate informed public participation in the decision-making process, including by protecting the rights of freedom of expression and association, and provide access to effective legal remedies for those who claim that their rights have been violated. 47 48 10 Sandra Diaz and others, “Biodiversity loss threatens human well-being”, PLOS Biology, vol. 4, No. 8 (August 2006), pp. 1300 and 1302. Connecting Global Priorities, pp. 32-33.