Sustainable development is a global objective that aims to respond to the needs of current generations without compromising the abilities of future generations to meet their own needs. The Millennium Development Goals, approved by 189 countries in September 2000, and the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation, adopted in 2002 by the World Summit on Sustainable Development, emphasize the urgent need for greater commitment to reduce inequalities and assist in the development of poor countries. They also emphasize the need to change unsustainable production and consumption patterns, as confirmed by the Marrakech process, to protect and manage natural resources sustainably for economic and social development, to safeguard health and integrate the objective of sustainable development more effectively into the process of globalization. The WSSD also calls for regional and national strategies in recognition that sustainable development cannot be achieved in isolation and that international prescriptions have to be adapted to local circumstances and to the conditions of the eco-region.