ABSTRACT
The widespread acceptance of the need to promote sustainable development for human well-being reflects how far the international community has come in understanding the profound relationship between the environment and social and economic development. This process did not take place overnight, but rather evolved over time, particularly in the two decades that spanned the convening of the first United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, in Stockholm in 1972, and the United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development (UNCED), in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.
