CIESIN Reproduced, with permission, from: Parson, E. A., P. M. Haas, and M. A. Levy. 1992. A summary of major documents signed at the earth summit and the global forum. Environment 34 (4): 12-15, 34-36.

A Summary Of The Major Documents Signed At The Earth Summit And The Global Forum

BY EDWARD A. PARSON, PETER M. HAAS AND MARC A. LEVY

Two parallel conferences on environment and development held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, this past June produced a vast array of documents.1 Although these conferences were well attended by the media,2 it is difficult to access the cornucopia of information generated. This summary of the major documents produced during the meetings is intended to facilitate Environment's readers' access to the information.

The formal 12-day conference of government delegations, called the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) was held at the RioCentro convention center in Rio's outskirts. The conference--which culminated a process of preparatory negotiations that included four major international meetings of the Preparatory Committee or "PrepCom"--concluded with a two-day summit by many ministers and heads of state, the true "Earth Summit." During these meetings, consensus was reached on the language of certain unresolved issues, so that brackets within the text, used to indicate disagreement about phrasing, were removed.

Simultaneous to UNCED, a large gathering of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) was held in Flamengo Park, 40 kilometers from the RioCentro conference site, under the umbrella title of the Global Forum. The Global Forum was a mixture of extensive NGO networking, street fair, trade show, political demonstration, and general events, and it involved about 18,000 participants, plus more than 200,000 local residents who visited the site during the conference.

Although there were attempts to coordinate the more formal UNCED conference and the Global Forum, the distance between them posed great difficulties to anyone who wished to participate in both. For more details about the two conferences, see the article "Appraising the Earth Summit: How Should We Judge UNCED's Success?" beginning on page 6 of this issue.

The formal intergovernmental UNCED process yielded five documents signed by heads of state: the "Rio Declaration," a statement of broad principles to guide national conduct on environmental protection and development; treaties on climate change and biodiversity; a statement of forest principles; and "Agenda 21," a massive document presenting detailed workplans for sustainable development, including goals, responsibilities, and estimates for funding.

The Rio Declaration

The Rio Declaration was originally conceived of as an "Earth Charter," a statement of environmental principles for national behavior. During the PrepCom meetings, developing countries insisted that a balance be established between environmental principles and those relating to development. Although the resultant compromise declaration is less inspiring and coherent than its original proponents had hoped, its 27 principles include key elements of the political agendas of both industrialized and developing countries. Principles in the document include a state's sovereign right to exploit its own resources in accordance with its own policies, without harming the environment elsewhere (principle 2); the right to development (principle 3); environmental protection as an integral part of development (principle 4); sustainable development that requires reducing "unsustainable patterns of production and consumption," and that promotes "appropriate demographic policies" (principle 8); access to information and citizen participation (principle 10); the precautionary principle (principle 15); and the polluter pays principle, including the internalization of costs and the use of economic instruments (principle 16).

Although the Rio Declaration was the only unbracketed text to emerge from the final PrepCom meeting, rumors spread throughout UNCED that the United States government would reopen negotiations on the declaration. The strongest U.S. objection was to principle 23, which called for protection of the environmental and natural resources of "people under oppression, domination, and occupation." In a late compromise involving the United States, Israel, and the Arab states, this phrase was retained in the declaration but all references to people under occupation were removed from Agenda 21. The United States accommodated its other objections by issuing a statement of its reservations to several principles, including the right to development, which it said could be used to justify human-rights violations, and the principle of "differentiated responsibilities."

Convention on Climate Change

Because of UNCED's political prominence, many other international environmental debates were merged into the process, such as those of the conventions on climate change and biodiversity, which were not negotiated at UNCED or in the PrepCom meetings but were signed in Rio following separate negotiations. Formal international discussion of a convention on climate change began in 1988 with the establishment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), an advisory body of scientists and officials that assessed comprehensively climate science, impacts, and response strategies. IPCC served as a forum for "prenegotiation," because many of its participants expected it to be followed by formal negotiations under the same authority. Instead, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution in December 1990 that established the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC). After five negotiating sessions, however, discussions stalled between the United States and other industrialized countries, particularly those of the European Community, which argued that the convention should contain specific commitments to limit emissions of carbon dioxide--at present the largest contributor to human-induced changes in radiative forcing--to 1990 levels by 2000. The United States argued that such limits were premature and lacked sufficient scientific evidence and that any controls should be enacted comprehensively on all gases contributing to climate change.

INC chairman Jean Ripert of France broke the deadlock last May by drafting a compromise document that requires industrialized countries to develop national emission limits and emission inventories and to report periodically on their progress, without targets or dates. Instead of detailed commitments, the countries would accept a circuitously worded goal of returning their greenhouse-gas emissions to "earlier levels" by the turn of the century. All the major participants accepted the convention, which was finalized on 9 May 1992, so that there would be a treaty to sign in Rio. Although the treaty lacks specific emission targets, it contains a very strong objective: "stabilization of greenhouse-gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system . . . within a time frame sufficient to allow ecosystems to adapt naturally."3

The convention establishes a financial assistance mechanism to support its implementation in developing countries, to be administered by the Global Environmental Facility on an interim basis. Also, the convention established institutional mechanisms for periodic review and an update of commitments, including the scheduling of regular conferences. Finally, two new subsidiary bodies were established by the treaty, one on science and technology and one on implementation. Like IPCC but unlike the Montreal protocol, membership in these bodies is restricted to government representatives. Representatives from 153 countries signed the climate convention in Rio, though only 50 ratifications were needed.

Convention on Biodiversity

Discussions for a convention on biological diversity, or biodiversity, which concluded on 22 May 1992 in Nairobi, were initiated in 1988 by the United Nations Environment Programme's (UNEP) Governing Council. The issues of biodiversity and biotechnology were originally treated by separate working groups, but were merged to be handled by a single intergovernmental negotiating committee in 1991, over the objections of the United States and other nations. The treaty has three goals: the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity, and the fair sharing of products made from genestocks. To advance these goals, the signatories must develop plans for protecting habitat and species; provide funds and technology to help developing countries provide protection; ensure commercial access to biological resources for development and share revenues fairly among source countries and developers; and establish safety regulations and accept liability for risks associated with biotechnology development. Financial assistance, initially set at $200 million, will ultimately be channeled through some mechanism under the control of the signatories but will be administered by the Global Environmental Facility on an interim basis.

The negotiations were plagued by conflict over the financial mechanism, the sharing of benefits, and biotechnology regulation. France originally threatened not to sign the treaty because it did not include a list of global biodiversity-rich regions; Japan threatened not to sign because it feared biotechnology regulation. At the last moment, both relented, and only the United States refused to sign the treaty because officials felt that the financial mechanism represented an open-ended commitment with insufficient oversight and control; that the benefit-sharing provisions were incompatible with existing international regimes for intellectual property rights; and that the requirement to regulate the biotechnology industry would needlessly stifle innovation. Although only 30 ratifications were needed for it to enter into force, 153 nations signed the convention in Rio.

Forest Principles

When an early attempt to negotiate a treaty on the protection of global forests failed, the PrepCom added a legally nonbinding declaration on forests to its own agenda. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) had discussed a forest treaty before the establishment of UNCED and recommended in November 1990 that a treaty be concluded in time for UNCED. Organized treaty negotiations never got under way, however, in part because governments widely mistrusted FAO but lacked an alternative forum. Early UNCED PrepComs discussed the possibility of a forest treaty but were inhibited by strong differences between industrialized countries, which wanted a treaty focusing on tropical rain forests, and developing countries, led by Malaysia, which insisted on the inclusion of temperate and boreal forests. The statement of 17 nonbinding principles negotiated at the last moment in Rio explicitly includes all types of forests. The most contentious issue at UNCED was whether a forest treaty should be created. Although some delegations advocated adding a statement to the forest principles that either explicitly called for or excluded a future treaty, the final document merely commits governments to keeping the principles "under assessment for their adequacy with regard to further international cooperation on forest issues."4

Agenda 21

Agenda 21 is the only document signed at UNCED that attempts to embrace the entire environment and development agenda. It is also the largest product of UNCED, comprising 40 chapters and 800 pages and states goals and priorities regarding a dozen major resource, environmental, social, legal, financial, and institutional issues. Each chapter contains a description of a program and its cost estimate.

Agenda 21 is not a legally binding document but a "work plan," or "agenda for action," with a political commitment to pursue a set of goals. It may become "soft law," if, as is likely, the UN General Assembly adopts it as a resolution this fall. Agenda 21 includes estimates of the annual costs of its programs in developing countries from 1993 to 2000, of which about $125 billion per year will come from the industrialized countries. Although it may be only soft law, the contentious negotiation of many parts of Agenda 21 underscores its importance to the signatories. Most of the text of Agenda 21 was finalized at the last PrepCom meeting in April. The remaining text was left to be negotiated at UNCED by eight informal "contact groups" that addressed the most contentious issues: atmosphere, biodiversity and biotechnology, finance, forests, freshwater resources, institutions, legal instruments, and technology transfer.

The chapters of Agenda 21 are divided into four major headings, plus a preamble. The following is a list of the chapters and a brief summary for each of some of the most significant decisions and negotiations.

Preamble (Chapter 1)

Although the preamble contains no substantive provisions, its language figured in three controversies. Saudi and Kuwaiti delegations had insisted on including the words "safe and" in the phrase "environmentally safe and sound energy systems" to avoid the perception that the document favored nuclear power. As a compromise, the words were eventually removed from all other sections except the preamble, which states that references to "environmentally sound" energy systems in fact mean "safe and sound." In another incident, references to "people under occupation" were retained in the Rio Declaration but removed from Agenda 21, though an addition to the preamble states that implementation of Agenda 21 would respect all principles in the declaration. Finally, a reference to "economies in transition" was retained in the preamble but deleted elsewhere.

Section 1: Social and Economic Dimensions

Chapter 2: Accelerating Sustainable Development in Developing Countries. Although largely an uncontroversial discussion of the relationship between international economies, national policies, and sustainable development, the chapter's text required some negotiation on whether the contribution to development by the international economic environment or by domestic policies would be emphasized more.

Chapter 3: Combating Poverty. Chapter 3 consists of uncontroversial statements on the need to eradicate poverty and hunger and to manage natural resources sustainably with regard for the people who depend on them for their livelihood.

Chapter 4: Changing Consumption Patterns. In chapter 4, the relationship between present patterns of production and consumption in industrialized countries and sustainable development is discussed diplomatically.

Chapter 5: Demographic Dynamics. An equally tactful discussion of population issues is found in this chapter. A phrase from chapter 5, "demographic dynamics and policies," became UNCED's standard phrase for population.

Chapter 6: Human Health. Chapter 6 discusses the need for intersectorial efforts to link human health to environmental and socioeconomic improvements.

Chapter 7: Sustainable Human Settlements. Chapter 7 contains an uncontroversial discussion of the sustainable development of cities in both the industrialized and developing worlds.

Chapter 8: Integrating Environment and Development in Decisionmaking. The need to integrate environmental factors into policymaking, law, economic instruments, and national accounting is discussed in chapter 8.

Section 2: Conservation and Management of Resources for Development

Chapter 9: Atmosphere. This chapter promotes understanding of and effective action to combat climate change, ozone depletion, and transboundary air pollution. There were difficult negotiations on two matters: references to the desirability of developing new and renewable energy sources, which were retained, and the phrase "environmentally safe and sound energy systems." Because of the outcome of these two controversies, the Saudi delegation entered a formal reservation to this chapter, which is of little significance because Agenda 21 is not legally binding in any case.

Chapter 10: Integrated Planning and Management of Land Resources. This chapter's discussion focuses on the need to allocate land to uses that provide the greatest sustainable benefits.

Chapter 11: Combating Deforestation. Because of conflict over the need for a forest treaty, the text of chapter 11, similar to that used in the Forest Principles document, neither promotes nor excludes negotiations toward a treaty.

Chapter 12: Combating Desertification and Drought. After the United States dropped its early objection to this chapter, delegations agreed to begin negotiations toward a convention on desertification to be convened by 1994.

Chapter 13: Sustainable Mountain Development. Chapter 13 discusses the need for proper management of mountain resources, for information about mountain ecosystems, and for integrated development of mountain watersheds.

Chapter 14: Promoting Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development. This chapter contains an uncontroversial discussion of the importance of, and criteria for, environmentally sound and sustainable production of food and fiber.

Chapter 15: Conservation of Biological Diversity. There were surprisingly difficult negotiations over several questions that had been resolved by the biodiversity convention, including the sharing of benefits from exploitation of genetic resources and technology transfer. The language of chapter 15 is similar to that used in the treaty.

Chapter 16: Environmentally Sound Management of Biotechnology. Chapter 16 centers on discussion of the need for safety procedures, codes of conduct, and liability and compensation provisions for the biotechnology industry. Also discussed is the rights of indigenous peoples to share in the benefits from the commercial exploitation of their knowledge and practices.

Chapter l7: Oceans and Their Living Resources. The single issue in this chapter that remained to be resolved at UNCED was exploitation of straddling and migratory fish stocks. Sharp division was created between Canada and the European Community because of their disagreement over the fate of North Atlantic cod stocks. Negotiators agreed to address this issue in a separate UN conference, whose agenda would promote implementation of the relevant provisions of the Law of the Sea.

Chapter 18: Freshwater Resources. Chapter 18 discusses the importance of integrated management of water resources and includes a provision on safe drinking-water supply and sanitation.

Chapter 19: Toxic Chemicals. This chapter covers the need for better information on and risk assessment and management of toxic chemicals, including the need for prevention of illegal international traffic.

Chapter 20: Hazardous Wastes. The one contentious phrase in this chapter, which discusses the need for sound management of hazardous wastes, concerned the environmental impacts of military establishments. The United States had bracketed this section for reasons of national security. After some consultation, all delegations agreed that governments should determine that their militaries conform to national norms in the treatment and disposal of hazardous wastes.

Chapter 21: Solid Wastes and Sewage. Chapter 21 contains a discussion of the minimization, recycling, and environmentally sound disposal of solid waste and sewage.

Chapter 22: Radioactive Wastes. The need for safe management, transport, storage, and disposal of radioactive wastes is discussed in chapter 22. Controversy over the issue of ocean disposal of radioactive wastes was resolved by inclusion of the statement that countries will cooperate with international organizations to determine the risk of such disposal.

Section 3: Strengthening the Role of Major Groups

This section contains chapters 23-32 and consists entirely of statements on the importance of each of the following nongovernmental sectors in implementing sustainable development: women; children and youths; indigenous peoples; NGOs; local authorities; trade unions; business and industry; science and technology; and farmers.

Section 4: Means of Implementation

Chapter 33: Financial Resources and Mechanisms. Negotiations for this chapter were the most difficult of the conference. The three major issues discussed are a target and deadline for an increase in total official development assistance (ODA); the level of replenishment of the concessionary branch of the World Bank, the International Development Agency (IDA); and the governance of the Global Environmental Facility (GEF). The question of total ODA was resolved by the statement that industrialized nations "reaffirm" their commitment to the UN target of ODA equal to 0.7 percent of donor gross national product. Thus, no new obligation is imposed on those industrialized countries that never "affirmed" the UN goal. The level of IDA replenishment was not resolved during discussions at UNCED, and additional donor funding for an explicit "Earth increment" to the fund was not instituted. World Bank President Lewis Preston proposed that the next scheduled IDA replenishment should maintain the present level in real terms, which would require funding of about $17.5 billion over the period 1993 to 1995. He also suggested that the bank allocate an additional $1.2 billion from its interest income. Furthermore, the UNCED delegations recommended changing the structure of GEF to give developing countries more power.

Chapter 34: Transfer of Environmentally Sound Technology. Disputes over appropriate terms for technology transfers were resolved by the inclusion in this chapter of such statements as enhanced access to technology should be "promoted, facilitated, and financed as appropriate," and that states should take measures to prevent the abuse of intellectual property rights.

Chapter 35: Science for Sustainable Development. Chapter 35 covers the use of scientific knowledge in sustainable development and resource management and includes calls for a wide variety of environment-related monitoring activities, such as collecting data on international trade; collecting environmental, economic, and social data; monitoring forests; monitoring global biogeochemical and hydrological cycles; observing and studying global sources and sinks of greenhouse gases; monitoring marine and terrestrial systems; collecting data from satellite missions; predicting ecosystem responses to short- and long-term perturbations; studying the role of biodiversity in the functioning of ecosystems; developing a global observation system for freshwater and mountain systems, especially in developing countries; and conducting surveys and opinion polls of populations.

Chapter 36: Education, Public Awareness, and Training. This chapter discusses promoting public awareness of environmental issues through education and training.

Chapter 37: Cooperation for Capacity Building in Developing Countries. Chapter 37 discusses building capacity for implementing Agenda 21 in developing countries.

Chapter 38: International Institutional Arrangements. This chapter discusses the establishment of the Sustainable Development Commission, a new UN body under the Economic and Social Council, to coordinate the pursuit of sustainable development among international organizations and to monitor progress by governments and international organizations toward the goals of Agenda 21. Several important organizational questions regarding the commission were deferred to the fall meeting of the UN General Assembly: the authority, reporting structure, location, and membership of the commission; the relationship between participation by representatives of governments and NGOs; the size and resources of the secretariat; and the formality and prominence of national reports to the commission.

Chapter 39: International Legal Instruments and Mechanisms. This chapter is controversial because of its discussion of such issues as the "environmental crimes" provision on deliberate large-scale environmental destruction, environmental standards as trade barriers, compliance with international agreements, and dispute prevention. A dispute arose over whether use of the phrase "environmental crimes" should be confined to times of war or used more generally. Many developing countries argued that general use would infringe on their sovereignty by allowing UN agents to scrutinize domestic environmental practices. The United States also favored restricting the provision to wartime use because broader use of the term would undermine ongoing UN negotiations on the law of war. Ultimately, the provision was restricted to wartime use. The trade dispute was settled by inclusion of the statement that environmental policies should not result in unnecessary trade restrictions, but if they do, the measure should be nondiscriminatory and transparent, should restrict trade as little as possible, and should consider the special conditions of developing countries. The issues of compliance and dispute prevention were both settled by the use of weaker language; thus, "effective, full, and prompt implementation" was used instead of compliance, and the phrase "dispute avoidance" was substituted for dispute prevention.

Chapter 40: Information for DecisionMaking. The final chapter discusses the importance of collecting and using information for sustainable development and for implementing Agenda 21.

Products of NGOs

An enormous volume of information, too vast to catalog, was produced by NGOs at both UNCED and the Global Forum. The two major products of the parallel NGO event were the NGO treaty-writing project of the International NGO Forum and a book on sustainable development initiatives in business and industry published by the Business Council for Sustainable Development.

NGO Treaties

Preparations for the NGO treaty-writing project took about one year. Following the Global NGO Conference in Paris in December 1991, an international committee coordinated local and regional consultations via a computer network and meetings during the spring of 1992. After the New York PrepCom in March and April 1992, several committees prepared draft treaties to form the starting point for discussions at the forum.

The architects of the project conceived of the treaties primarily as agreements among citizen's groups, representing concrete statements of what participating NGOs would do, rather than as manifestos or model treaties for governments. About 30 treaties were planned, including some that paralleled UNCED issues and others that addressed issues that UNCED excluded or treated perfunctorily, such as debt, transnational corporations, racism, women, trade, and alternative economic models. The treaties were intended to be finalized in the first week of the forum for signing by the heads of state at UNCED.

The original agenda of treaties to be drafted included an "Earth Charter"--an alternative document parallel to the Rio Declaration with principles for sustainable development--and a set of treaties grouped into five cluster issues: NGO cooperation and institution building, alternative economic issues, major environmental issues, food production, and cross-sectorial issues. The drafting process was open-ended and participants were permitted to add to the list.

The project faced many organizational problems. The quality of the treaties produced and the magnitude of participation were highly uneven--the number of participants ranged from about a dozen in some treaties to more than a thousand in others--and the drafters rarely stuck to the original goals of the project. Although some treaties focus on commitments to NGO action, others are largely theoretical statements or denunciations of present policies or, at worst, rhetorical manifestos. The following is a list of the treaties that were completed by the last day of the Global Forum.

* Earth Charter. This document contains a short statement of eight principles and a preamble and is intended to parallel the Rio Declaration of governments.

* NGO Cooperation and Institution- Building Cluster. This cluster contains treaties on technology, the NGO code of conduct, NGO cooperation and sharing of resources, NGO global decisionmaking, poverty, the treaty of the people of the Americas, and communication, information, media, and networking. This cluster includes the most concrete proposals for NGO action, including measures for formalized international networking and sharing of technical, informational, and financial resources. The treaty on sharing of resources includes a pledge to share 1 percent of annual budgets among NGOs.

* Alternative Economic Issues Cluster. This cluster includes treaties on alternative economic models, transnational corporations, trade, debt, and consumption and lifestyle. This cluster consists principally of theoretical critiques of present economic systems and calls for citizen mobilization to pressure governments. The transnational corporation treaty includes concrete pledges to create regional information clearinghouses and a book of case studies. The consumption treaty presents a detailed action plan, based on the descending hierarchy of "revalue, restructure, redistribute, reduce, reuse, recycle."

* Major Environmental Issues Cluster. This cluster contains treaties on climate, forests, biodiversity and biotechnology, energy, oceans, and toxic and nuclear wastes.

* Food Production Cluster. This cluster includes treaties on sustainable agriculture, food security, freshwater, and fisheries. The treaties in these latter two clusters consist mainly of statements of principles and plans for political action. The climate treaty primarily concentrates on carbon dioxide emissions and calls for developing countries to reduce emissions by 25 percent by 2005 and by 60 percent ultimately; "currently available nuclear technology" and emissions-trading schemes are excluded. Texts of the forests and oceans treaties were not available by the end of the forum.

* Cross-Sectorial Issues Cluster. This cluster includes treaties on racism, militarism, women's issues, population, youths, environmental education, urbanization, and indigenous peoples. These treaties constitute a diverse selection of general principles and concrete citizen's actions. Most stress the links between environment, development, and other political issues. The indigenous peoples treaty is a code of conduct for interactions between NGOs and indigenous peoples and includes provisions for consultation, community development, and sharing of resources.

Business Council on Sustainable Development

The second major product of the parallel NGO events was the Business Council on Sustainable Development's book Changing Course, which discusses the need for sustainable development as an opportunity for business.5 The bulk of the book consists of 38 case studies of successful business initiatives for sustainable development.

Access to Documentation

The United Nations published the drafts of Agenda 21, the Rio Declaration, and the Forest Principles after the fourth PrepCom meeting, prior to the final revisions made at UNCED. Summaries of the national reports prepared for UNCED also have been published by the United Nations in three volumes.6

A much larger and more up-to-date selection of UNCED documents can be obtained through the Econet computer network. The Econet conference "en.unced.docum" contains official UNCED documents, including Agenda 21. Other Econet conferences contain official Climate Change Convention documents and a limited number of documents relating to the Biodiversity Convention. Econet contains many NGO documents of relevance to UNCED, including the ECO newsletters, the "Earth Summit Bulletin," and the NGO treaties. Access to Econet requires a computer, a telephone line, a modem, and a subscription fee. Econet can be contacted at the Institute for Global Communications, 3228 Sacramento Street, San Francisco, California 94115; (415) 442-0220. Outside of the United States, Econet conferences are accessible from members of the Association for Progressive Communications (APC). For information on APC, contact APC Secretariat, Alternex-IBASE, Rua Vicente de Souza 29, 22251 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Computer diskettes containing up-to-date versions of Agenda 21, the Forest Principles, the Rio Declaration, the Biodiversity Convention, and the Climate Change Convention are available from Econet at a cost of $10 for NGOs and individuals and $50 for corporations. Texts of the Biodiversity and Climate Change conventions will be published in such legal sources as the International Environment Reporter published by the Bureau of National Affairs in Washington, D.C., and in International Legal Materials. Summaries of the first 40 national reports have been published by the United Nations, as Nations of the Earth Report: Volume I. Volumes II and III, containing the remainder of the reports, will be published in 1993. The Consortium for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) also is planning to make available the core UNCED documents on the Wide Area Information Server, accessible through the Internet, an international electronic network. For information about this free service, contact Steve Wise at CIESIN headquarters, 2250 Pierce Road, University Center, Michigan 48710 (telephone: 517-797-2671).

Notes

1. Information presented here on the contents of Agenda 21 and other UNCED documents was partially drawn from the "Earth Summit Bulletins" produced daily during the conference. The bulletins are available on Econet, conference en.unced.general.

2. About half of the 8,000 media representatives were from Brazil. UNCED Secretariat, NGO Unit, "Facts and Figures on UNCED RIOCENTRO" (Press release, 12 June 1992).

3. UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, 9 May 1992, article 2.

4. UN doc. A/CONF.151/6/Rev.l, "Forest Principles," 13 June 1992.

5. S. Schmidheiny, Changing Course: A Global Business Perspective on Development and the Environment (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1992).

6. United Nations, Drafts Agenda 21, Rio Declaration, Forest Principles (New York: United Nations, 1992); and United Nations, Nations of the Earth Report: Volume I (New York: United Nations, 1992).

EDWARD A. PARSON is an assistant professor of public policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. PETER M. HAAS is an associate professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. MARC A. LEVY is an assistant professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton University in New Jersey.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors are grateful to the Rockefeller Brothers Fund for providing support to attend UNCED.