3-24-00
THE EARTH CHARTER
PREAMBLE
We stand at a critical moment in Earth's history, a time when humanity must
choose its future. As the world becomes increasingly interdependent and
fragile, the future at once holds great peril and great promise. To move
forward we must recognize that in the midst of a magnificent diversity of
cultures and life forms we are one human family and one Earth community with a
common destiny. We must join together to bring forth a sustainable global
society founded on respect for nature, universal human rights, economic
justice, and a culture of peace. Towards this end, it is imperative that we,
the peoples of Earth, declare our responsibility to one another, to the greater
community of life, and to future generations.
Earth, Our Home
Humanity is part of a vast evolving universe. Earth, our home, is alive with
a unique community of life. The forces of nature make existence a demanding
and uncertain adventure, but Earth has provided the conditions essential to
life's evolution. The resilience of the community of life and the well-being
of humanity depend upon preserving a healthy biosphere with all its
ecological systems, a rich variety of plants and animals, fertile soils, pure
waters, and clean air. The global environment with its finite resources is a
common concern of all peoples. The protection of Earth's vitality, diversity,
and beauty is a sacred trust.
The Global Situation
The dominant patterns of production and consumption are causing environmental
devastation, the depletion of resources, and a massive extinction of species.
Communities are being undermined. The benefits of development are not shared
equitably and the gap between rich and poor is widening. Injustice, poverty,
ignorance, and violent conflict are widespread and the cause of great
suffering. An unprecedented rise in human population has overburdened
ecological and social systems. The foundations of global security are
threatened. These trends are perilous—but not inevitable.
The Challenges Ahead
The choice is ours: form a global partnership to care for Earth and one
another or risk the destruction of ourselves and the diversity of life.
Fundamental changes are needed in our values, institutions, and ways of
living. We must realize that when basic needs have been met, human
development is primarily about being more, not having more. We have the
knowledge and technology to provide for all and to reduce our impacts on the
environment. The emergence of a global civil society is creating new
opportunities to build a democratic and humane world. Our environmental,
economic, political, social, and spiritual challenges are interconnected, and
together we can forge inclusive solutions.
Universal Responsibility
To realize these aspirations, we must decide to live with a sense of
universal responsibility, identifying ourselves with the whole Earth
community as well as our local communities. We are at once citizens of
different nations and of one world in which the local and global are linked.
Everyone shares responsibility for the present and future well-being of the
human family and the larger living world. The spirit of human solidarity and
kinship with all life is strengthened when we live with reverence for the
mystery of being, gratitude for the gift of life, and humility regarding the
human place in nature.
We urgently need a shared
vision of basic values to provide an ethical foundation for the emerging world
community. Therefore, together in hope we affirm the following interdependent
principles for a sustainable way of life as a common standard by which
the conduct of all individuals, organizations, businesses, governments, and
transnational institutions is to be guided and assessed.
PRINCIPLES
I. RESPECT AND CARE FOR THE
COMMUNITY OF LIFE
1. Respect Earth and life in
all its diversity.
a. Recognize that all beings
are interdependent and every form of life has value regardless of its worth
to human beings.
b. Affirm faith in the inherent dignity of all human beings and in the
intellectual, artistic, ethical, and spiritual potential of humanity.
2. Care for the community
of life with understanding, compassion, and love.
a. Accept that with the
right to own, manage, and use natural resources comes the duty to prevent
environmental harm and to protect the rights of people.
b. Affirm that with increased freedom, knowledge, and power comes increased
responsibility to promote the common good.
3. Build democratic
societies that are just, participatory, sustainable, and peaceful.
a. Ensure that communities
at all levels guarantee human rights and fundamental freedoms and provide
everyone an opportunity to realize his or her full potential.
b. Promote social and economic justice, enabling all to achieve a secure and
meaningful livelihood that is ecologically responsible.
4. Secure Earth's bounty
and beauty for present and future generations.
a. Recognize that the
freedom of action of each generation is qualified by the needs of future
generations.
b. Transmit to future generations values, traditions, and institutions that
support the long-term flourishing of Earth's human and ecological
communities.
In order to fulfill these four broad commitments, it is necessary to:
II. ECOLOGICAL INTEGRITY
5. Protect and restore the
integrity of Earth's ecological systems, with special concern for biological
diversity and the natural processes that sustain life.
a. Adopt at all levels
sustainable development plans and regulations that make environmental
conservation and rehabilitation integral to all development initiatives.
b. Establish and safeguard viable nature and biosphere reserves, including
wild lands and marine areas, to protect Earth's life support systems,
maintain biodiversity, and preserve our natural heritage.
c. Promote the recovery of endangered species and ecosystems.
d. Control and eradicate non-native or genetically modified organisms harmful
to native species and the environment, and prevent introduction of such
harmful organisms.
e. Manage the use of renewable resources such as water, soil, forest
products, and marine life in ways that do not exceed rates of regeneration
and that protect the health of ecosystems.
f. Manage the extraction and use of non-renewable resources such as minerals
and fossil fuels in ways that minimize depletion and cause no serious
environmental damage.
6. Prevent harm as the best
method of environmental protection and, when knowledge is limited, apply a
precautionary approach.
a. Take action to avoid the
possibility of serious or irreversible environmental harm even when
scientific knowledge is incomplete or inconclusive.
b. Place the burden of proof on those who argue that a proposed activity will
not cause significant harm, and make the responsible parties liable for
environmental harm.
c. Ensure that decision making addresses the cumulative, long-term, indirect,
long distance, and global consequences of human activities.
d. Prevent pollution of any part of the environment and allow no build-up of
radioactive, toxic, or other hazardous substances.
e. Avoid military activities damaging to the environment.
7. Adopt patterns of
production, consumption, and reproduction that safeguard Earth's regenerative
capacities, human rights, and community well-being.
a. Reduce, reuse, and
recycle the materials used in production and consumption systems, and ensure
that residual waste can be assimilated by ecological systems.
b. Act with restraint and efficiency when using energy, and rely increasingly
on renewable energy sources such as solar and wind.
c. Promote the development, adoption, and equitable transfer of
environmentally sound technologies.
d. Internalize the full environmental and social costs of goods and services
in the selling price, and enable consumers to identify products that meet the
highest social and environmental standards.
e. Ensure universal access to health care that fosters reproductive health
and responsible reproduction.
f. Adopt lifestyles that emphasize the quality of life and material
sufficiency in a finite world.
8. Advance the study of
ecological sustainability and promote the open exchange and wide application of
the knowledge acquired.
a. Support international
scientific and technical cooperation on sustainability, with special
attention to the needs of developing nations.
b. Recognize and preserve the traditional knowledge and spiritual wisdom in
all cultures that contribute to environmental protection and human
well-being.
c. Ensure that information of vital importance to human health and
environmental protection, including genetic information, remains available in
the public domain.
III. SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC
JUSTICE
9. Eradicate poverty as an
ethical, social, and environmental imperative.
a. Guarantee the right to
potable water, clean air, food security, uncontaminated soil, shelter, and
safe sanitation, allocating the national and international resources
required.
b. Empower every human being with the education and resources to secure a
sustainable livelihood, and provide social security and safety nets for those
who are unable to support themselves.
c. Recognize the ignored, protect the vulnerable, serve those who suffer, and
enable them to develop their capacities and to pursue their aspirations.
10.
Ensure that economic activities and institutions at all levels promote human
development in an equitable and sustainable manner.
a. Promote the equitable
distribution of wealth within nations and among nations.
b. Enhance the intellectual, financial, technical, and social resources of
developing nations, and relieve them of onerous international debt.
c. Ensure that all trade supports sustainable resource use, environmental
protection, and progressive labor standards.
d. Require multinational corporations and international financial
organizations to act transparently in the public good, and hold them
accountable for the consequences of their activities.
11. Affirm gender equality
and equity as prerequisites to sustainable development and ensure universal
access to education, health care, and economic opportunity.
a. Secure the human rights
of women and girls and end all violence against them.
b. Promote the active participation of women in all aspects of economic,
political, civil, social, and cultural life as full and equal partners,
decision makers, leaders, and beneficiaries.
c. Strengthen families and ensure the safety and loving nurture of all family
members.
12. Uphold the right of
all, without discrimination, to a natural and social environment supportive of
human dignity, bodily health, and spiritual well-being, with special attention
to the rights of indigenous peoples and minorities.
a. Eliminate discrimination
in all its forms, such as that based on race, color, sex, sexual orientation,
religion, language, and national, ethnic or social origin.
b. Affirm the right of indigenous peoples to their spirituality, knowledge,
lands and resources and to their related practice of sustainable livelihoods.
c. Honor and support the young people of our communities, enabling them to
fulfill their essential role in creating sustainable societies.
d. Protect and restore outstanding places of cultural and spiritual
significance.
IV. DEMOCRACY, NONVIOLENCE,
AND PEACE
13. Strengthen democratic
institutions at all levels, and provide transparency and accountability in
governance, inclusive participation in decision making, and access to justice.
a. Uphold the right of
everyone to receive clear and timely information on environmental matters and
all development plans and activities which are likely to affect them or in
which they have an interest.
b. Support local, regional and global civil society, and promote the
meaningful participation of all interested individuals and organizations in
decision making.
c. Protect the rights to freedom of opinion, expression, peaceful assembly,
association, and dissent.
d. Institute effective and efficient access to administrative and independent
judicial procedures, including remedies and redress for environmental harm
and the threat of such harm.
e. Eliminate corruption in all public and private institutions.
f. Strengthen local communities, enabling them to care for their
environments, and assign environmental responsibilities to the levels of
government where they can be carried out most effectively.
14. Integrate into formal
education and life-long learning the knowledge, values, and skills needed for a
sustainable way of life.
a. Provide all, especially
children and youth, with educational opportunities that empower them to
contribute actively to sustainable development.
b. Promote the contribution of the arts and humanities as well as the
sciences in sustainability education.
c. Enhance the role of the mass media in raising awareness of ecological and
social challenges.
d. Recognize the importance of moral and spiritual education for sustainable
living.
15. Treat all living beings
with respect and consideration.
a. Prevent cruelty to
animals kept in human societies and protect them from suffering.
b. Protect wild animals from methods of hunting, trapping, and fishing that
cause extreme, prolonged, or avoidable suffering.
c. Avoid or eliminate to the full extent possible the taking or destruction
of non-targeted species.
16. Promote a culture of
tolerance, nonviolence, and peace.
a. Encourage and support
mutual understanding, solidarity, and cooperation among all peoples and
within and among nations.
b. Implement comprehensive strategies to prevent violent conflict and use
collaborative problem solving to manage and resolve environmental conflicts
and other disputes.
c. Demilitarize national security systems to the level of a non-provocative
defense posture, and convert military resources to peaceful purposes,
including ecological restoration.
d. Eliminate nuclear, biological, and toxic weapons and other weapons of mass
destruction.
e. Ensure that the use of orbital and outer space supports environmental
protection and peace.
f. Recognize that peace is the wholeness created by right relationships with
oneself, other persons, other cultures, other life, Earth, and the larger
whole of which all are a part.
THE WAY FORWARD
As never before in history, common destiny beckons us to seek a new beginning.
Such renewal is the promise of these Earth Charter principles. To fulfill this
promise, we must commit ourselves to adopt and promote the values and
objectives of the Charter.
This requires a change of mind and heart. It requires a new sense of global
interdependence and universal responsibility. We must imaginatively develop and
apply the vision of a sustainable way of life locally, nationally, regionally,
and globally. Our cultural diversity is a precious heritage and different
cultures will find their own distinctive ways to realize the vision. We must
deepen and expand the global dialogue that generated the Earth Charter, for we
have much to learn from the ongoing collaborative search for truth and wisdom.
Life often involves tensions between important values. This can mean difficult
choices. However, we must find ways to harmonize diversity with unity, the
exercise of freedom with the common good, short-term objectives with long-term
goals. Every individual, family, organization, and community has a vital role
to play. The arts, sciences, religions, educational institutions, media,
businesses, nongovernmental organizations, and governments are all called to
offer creative leadership. The partnership of government, civil society, and
business is essential for effective governance.
In order to build a sustainable global community, the nations of the world must
renew their commitment to the United Nations, fulfill their obligations under
existing international agreements, and support the implementation of Earth
Charter principles with an international legally binding instrument on
environment and development.
Let ours be a time remembered for the awakening of a new reverence for life,
the firm resolve to achieve sustainability, the quickening of the struggle for
justice and peace, and the joyful celebration of life.
www.earthcharter.org
