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Humanity faces serious and urgent problems, which are, underlined daily by a wide range of dramatic events, which affect the level of development of our society in terms of the local, regional and planetary environments as well as sociological and economic development.

The Johannesburg declaration was adopted at the global summit for development in 2002. It confirmed action to be taken by heads of state and world governments, « to make global society more humane, more helpful and more respectful of the dignity of others » and recommended that the General Assembly of the United Nations « proclaim a decade of education for sustainable development (DESD) starting in 2005 ». In December 2002, resolution 57/254 of the “United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development” (2005-2014) was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly and UNESCO was designated as lead agency for the promotion of the Decade.This decade starts on January 1st 2005 and will finish at the end of 2014. This programme has the target to encourage governments to improve the integration of ESD into their strategies and educational action plans at an appropriate level.

The overall goal of the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD) is to integrate the principles, values, and practices of sustainable development into all aspects of education and learning. This educational effort will encourage changes in behaviour that will create a more sustainable future in terms of environmental integrity, economic viability, and ajust society for present and future generations.