The United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, in a message on the International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer, hails the international community's response to the destruction of the Ozone Layer as impressive. "Recent findings by the world's leading atmospheric scientists show that the level of chlorine in the upper atmosphere is at or near its peak. As a result the rate of the Ozone Layer depletion in the stratosphere has been observed to be declining. We are now seeing the first signs of the recovery of the Ozone Layer", he observes.