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.
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