ABSTRACT
The principle of environmental integration has long been regarded as an essential mechanism of international law for the effective implementation of sustainable development (Rieu-Clarke, 2005: 84–91). For example, the New Delhi Declaration of Principles of International Law Relating to Sustainable Development, adopted by the International Law Association in 2002, notes that:
the principle of integration reflects the interdependence of social, economic, financial, environmental and human rights aspects of principles and rules of international law relating to sustainable development as well as the interdependence of the needs of current and future generations of human kind.
The 1995 Report of the Expert Group on Identification of Principles of International Law for Sustainable Development, convened by the UN Commission on Sustainable Development, concluded that ‘the principle of interrelationship and integration forms the backbone of sustainable development’. Similar conclusions on the role and significance of the principle of integration have been articulated in the Legal Principles on Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development adopted by the World Commission on Environment and Development (1987) and the 2000 IUCN Draft Covenant on Environment and Development.