Asian Environment and New Development Patterns

Agenda 21, adopted at the Earth Summit held at Rio de Janeiro in 1992, presented a comprehensive action plan for a sustainable society in the twenty-first century. In particular it sought to eliminate poverty as well as to facilitate a paradigm shift, from the present development path which is based on the wasteful use of resources, to a more sustainable one (UN, 1992). In order to realize the paradigm shift, the methods for putting the agenda into practice must be clarif1ed, and analytical research is needed to suggest strategic policies and to bring them about.