SEEU Review vol. 5 Nr. 2 (pdf) - South East European University

SEEU Review Volume 5, No. 2, 2009
The evolution of the concept of sustainable development
Even before being determined by the Brundtland Commission, the
concept of sustainable development was a topic of discussion among people.
Namely, in the beginning of the 1970s, the notion sustainability was used by
a large number of economists, ecologists, sociologists, political scientists
and lawyers, in order to define the economy which is strongly oriented
towards social and ecological issues and respects the protection of the
environment. The first conference of the UN devoted to the issue on the
environment held in Stockholm in 1972 resulted in the Stockholm
Declaration. This declaration does not directly mention the sustainable
development, but within the whole text emphasizes all crucial elements of
the sustainable development. In this respect, the preamble of the declaration
mentions that the protection and advancement of the environment should be
the main issue which the people’s welfare and the economic development is
associated with and that this is the direction that all governments should
follow so that a better quality of life is achievable and more benefits are
gained from the economic development. Further on, in the declaration, it is
said that 2 million people in the underdeveloped countries live under the
minimal tolerable circumstances whereas developed countries should show
greater will to support those countries financially and technologically. It is
stated in the preamble that the protection and the advancement of the
environment will contribute towards better living of present and future
generations and that this is associated with the economic and social welfare.
This declaration points out clearly and undoubtedly the caretaking of future
generations, i.e. the intergenerational approach and the inseparability of the
environment from the basic pillars of the sustainable development.
The declaration of Rio in 1992, promotes in details and more explicitly
the sustainable development where it actually represents one of the central
points in the declaration. At the very first principle of the declaration, it is
said that the human is the focal center of the sustainable development. The
third and fourth principles of the declaration say that the right of
development cannot be realized without equal treatment of the environment
and the development and that all processes of development cannot be
separated from the protection of the environment. Further on, in the
declaration the duty of developed countries to help the underdeveloped ones
is mentioned, in terms of supporting their efforts to achieve the aims of the
sustainable development. The need for intensive collaboration among
countries for purposes of exchange of scientific achievements and new
technological innovations has also been mentioned as well as the need for an
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