In this shrinking world we do not want to isolate ourselves. Proposals, suggestions and criticisms expressed in an atmosphere of friendship will be r… - Suharto

Alarming statistics, reflecting wasteful patterns of production and consumption, inter alia resulting in global warming and the progressive depletion of the ozone layer, have jolted the world into renewed and heightened concern. Unless these self-destructive practices are halted or drastically reduced, our planet is doomed to ecological catastrophe. Life as we know it is at stake. Conditions in the developing South also have an adverse impact on the environment. But here, degradation of the environment primarily results from population pressures and their corollary, pervasive poverty.

Development has many facets, including social and cultural, but development is primarily an economic endeavour comprising the pursuit of material wealth, of income and earning capacity. Aware as we are of the link between development and environment, we are convinced that when a country is able to increase its material wealth and financial resources, to the same degree it is able to strengthen its pursuit of sustainable development. By serving the cause of economic development we thus serve the cause of the environment

The relationship between Man and his environment, especially since the Industrial Revolution, has been an exploitative and predatory one. Until the early seventies, little or nothing was done. In the absence of global accountability, greatly accelerated economic activities as well as population pressures combined to erode the carrying capacity of the global ecosystem, to destroy natural resources and habitats, and bring about widespread pollution of air and water as well as the degradation of the soil.