The first set of international recommendations to guide environmental education (EE) was developed in Tbilisi, Georgia, in 1977. Ten years later, in 1987, a conference in Moscow, Russia, reviewed progress and focused on institutional strategies and action plans to strengthen environmental education. A third international environmental education conference was held in Thessaloniki, Greece, in 1997, which debated the role of environmental education in contributing to sustainable development. Following the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002, the UN Decade on Education for Sustainable Development (DESD) (2005-2014) was launched based on earlier recommendations in Chapter 36 of "Agenda 21." The 4th International Conference on Environmental Education (ICEE), held in Ahmedabad, India, in 2007 within the framework of DESD, marks 30 years after Tbilisi. The recommendations documented at this most recent conference reflect common themes raised in the conference, and is complemented by a conference declaration, and recommendations from more than 30 topics discussed by working groups at the conference. In drafting these recommendations, this document was recognized as one in a range of documents that provide orientation to environmental education in the 21st century, most importantly the DESD's "International Implementation Scheme" and associated regional, subregional, national and local strategies and action plans being developed to guide in the implementation of the UN Decade.