An unprecedented wave of change has been taking place in the past few decades in the field of environment. The concept of sustainable development is now commonly understood by many people around the world – from its origins during the 1972 UN Conference on the Human Environment (more commonly known as the 1972 Stockholm Conference), up to the recently agreed upon Post-2015 Agenda and the SDGs. The roots of sustainable development go back to the early 1970s, when the UN Declaration in Stockholm proclaimed the second UN Development Decade and the Stockholm Convention first clearly emphasized that environmental protection and economic development must be understood as compatible and mutually reinforcing goals. It has been defined as ‘development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’.