Executives in both the public and private sectors need to be kept abreast of relevant information vital to decision-making. With this in view, and recognizing the "threats to both the inner limits of basic human needs and the outer-limits of the planet's physical resources", the United Nations Environment Programme is launching a series of executive summaries on environmental themes in order to provide a convenient reference for the educators, scientists and decision-makers of the world. The first in this new series, In Defence of the Earth, contains the three basic documents upon which the fundamental principles of environmental management are based: the Founex Report, the Stockholm Plan of Action and the Cocoyoc Declaration.