AROUND twenty years ago, the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), popularly known as the “Earth Summit,” took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It gathered over a hundred heads of states. The conference produced several important outcomes: the Rio Declaration which contains a declaration of principles on the environment and development, the Agenda 21 which is a 40-chapter document that outlines a blue print on implementing sustainable development, the Forest Principles, the UN Convention on Biological Diversity and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.