ABSTRACT
The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) brought the concept of sustainable development into the focus of the international community. The comprehensive and holistic nature of this concept implies close involvement in its practical implementation of relevant international agencies, specifically those with clear environmental and developmental mandates: the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the United Nations Development Programme. Several global environmental treaties had been negotiated by the time of UNCED and were brought to Rio for signature by the Member States. The new institutional paradigm raised by UNCED needs to be implemented through the practical and harmonious application of the relevant mandates. New institutional arrangements were needed to meet the general requirements of participation, equity, transparency, accountability and subsidiarity; as well as the challenges of integrating the environment and development. The process of 'greening international institutions' as applied to UNEP and United Nations Development Programme translates differently into their mandates.
