The recent United Nations Conference on the Environment andDevelopment, popularly known as the Earth Summit, was a milestone eventfor sustainable development. In dealing with ecological anddevelopmental issues concurrently, it brought the internationalenvironmental agenda to the fore. Canada was the first industrializedcountry to announce that it would be a signatory to the BiodiversityConvention, and by furthering future forestry and global warmingconventions, it played an important leadership role.

Achieving Sustainable Development explores how well Canadahas met the Earth Summit’s targets and attempts to find ways inwhich the public can become involved in such issues. Its authors stressthe importance of integration of information from various fields andseek to stimulate the exchange of knowledge among the academiccommunity, government, non-governmental organizations and industry. Thecontributors look far beyond merely identifying and analyzing selectedissues and problems. To facilitate public discussion and to affectpolicy development, at least one initiative is proposed and detailedfor each problem identified.

Achieving Sustainable Development provides an overallintroduction to critical subjects in sustainable development --industrial growth, women, institutional arrangements, industrialpractices, and aboriginal peoples. Most importantly, it argues for theimmediate development of a research and policy agenda for Canada andsuggests mechanisms for its implementation.