The United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which came into force in 1993, encourages actions that will guide the way to a sustainable future. It pursues three main goals: (1) conservation of biodiversity; (2) sustainable use of biodiversity; and (3) fair and equitable sharing arising from the use of genetic resources. Article 13…

The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 20-22 June 2012, marking the twentieth anniversary of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 and the tenth anniversary of the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg. With more than…

Chapter 36 of Agenda 21, a key document of the 1992 Earth Summit, emphasised reorienting education towards sustainable development. While two of the Rio conventions, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), developed communication, education and public awareness (CEPA)…

The Business and Society Research Cluster (BSRC) at the German University in Cairo, the El-Khazindar Business Research and Case Center at the American University in Cairo and Misr El-Kheir (MEK) Foundation, Egypt, hosted the region's first sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) case studies conference, entitled "Toward a…

The UNESCO World Conference on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) will be co-organised in 2014 by UNESCO and the Government of Japan on the occasion of the end of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. It has the following objectives: (1) Celebrating a decade of action; (2) Reorienting education to build a better future…

This article reports on an international conference "An Ethical Framework for a Sustainable World," that was held in Ahmedabad, India. The conference served as the culmination of events marking the 10-year anniversary of the completion of the Earth Charter document and the launch of a social movement to transition to a more sustainable…

In parallel to the 2009 World Conference on Education for Sustainable Development held in Bonn, Germany, UNESCO organised a group of 25 young education for sustainable development (ESD)-engaged people from 25 countries to bring perceptions, demands, suggestions and contributions to the conference. Prior to the conference the group was divided into…

To celebrate the two-year anniversary of the founding of ProSPER.Net--the Promotion of Sustainability in Postgraduate Education and Research Network--members convened on 5-9 July 2010 in Shanghai, China, at a meeting hosted by Tongji University, a founding member. ProSPER.Net is an alliance of 21 higher education institutions in the Asia-Pacific…

The Bonn Declaration, approved by the 900 participants at the UNESCO World Conference on Sustainable Development, differs from other conference declarations in that it is the first declaration to deal exclusively with education for sustainable development. It received input from official State representatives and, perhaps because of that, it is…

At the UNESCO Bonn conference, more than 50 ministers from around the world met privately to discuss education for sustainable development (ESD) and progress made in support of the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. Their wide-ranging discussion touched on the purposes of education, the nature of education, the importance of the…

In his speech at the inaugural session of the 4th International Conference on Environmental Education, Ahmedabad, India, in November 2007, Charles Hopkins, one of the "founding fathers" of environmental education (EE) at the 1st International Conference on Environmental Education in Tbilisi, Georgia, in 1977, reflected on how EE has…

This declaration was developed at the 4th International Conference on Environmental Education (ICEE) in November 2007. The conference was sponsored by UNESCO, UNEP and the Government of India and hosted by the Centre for Environment Education (CEE) at Ahmedabad, India. The drafting process involved nearly 1,600 participants from 97 countries.…

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…

The concept of a United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (UNDESD) has its roots in the Asia-Pacific. Arguably, so far, more countries within the Asia-Pacific have engaged in advancing the DESD agenda than any other region in the world. This paper focuses on regional, sub-regional and national efforts to promote learning for…

To encourage efforts for furthering the UN DESD agenda in Latin America, a meeting titled "Building Education for Sustainable Development" was held in Costa Rica from 31 October to 2 November 2006. Plenary sessions were interspersed with working groups to look at how ESD can be integrated in formal and non-formal education systems, and…