[1] It is used in several contexts, most prominently in relation to sustainable development[2] and the rights of nature,[3][4] both aimed at addressing anthropogenic environmental crises.
Twenty years after the "Rio Declaration," it is necessary to update its First Principle such that it would state: "Human beings and nature are at the center of concerns for sustainable development."
Nature is not just a set of resources that can be exploited, modified, altered, privatized, commercialized and transformed without any consequences.
It is an indivisible, interdependent and interrelated community comprised of human beings, nature, the atmosphere, the hydrosphere, and the geosphere.
It is essential to restore, affirm and guarantee the existence, integrity, interrelation, interaction and regeneration of the Earth system as a whole and of all of its components.
In this century, the two central challenges of sustainable development are to overcome poverty and inequality, and to reestablish balance within the Earth system.
When growth begins to break that balance, as we see with global warming, we can no longer speak of it as development, but rather, the deterioration and destruction of our home.
In a world in which 1% of the population controls 50% of the wealth of the planet, it will not be possible to eradicate poverty or restore harmony with nature.
Only a society that controls its principal sources of income can aspire to a just distribution of the benefits needed to eliminate poverty.
We must change the unsustainable patterns of consumption, production, and waste through public policy, regulations, and the conscious and active participation of society.
To guarantee the human right to water, education, health, communication, transportation, energy and sanitation, above all in the very poor and marginalized sectors, the provision of these services must be essentially public and based on efficient social management, not private business.
States should ensure the right of their populations to proper nutrition by strengthening food sovereignty policies that promote: a) food production by farmers, indigenous peoples and small agricultural producers; b) access to land, water, seeds, credit and other resources for family and community producers; c) the development of social and public enterprises for food production, distribution, and sale that prevent hoarding and contribute to the stability of food prices in domestic markets, thus halting speculative practices and the destruction of local production; d) the right of citizens to define what goods they wish to consume, the origins of those goods and how they are produced; e) consumption of what is necessary and the prioritization of local production; f) practices that contribute to reestablishing harmony with nature, avoiding greater desertification, deforestation, and destruction of biological diversity; g) the promotion of the use of indigenous seeds and traditional knowledge.
All States and peoples worldwide should work together in solidarity to ensure that loss of vegetation, deforestation, the pollution of the atmosphere and contamination are prevented from continuing to alter the hydrological cycle.
Forests are essential to the balance and integrity of planet Earth and a key element in the proper functioning of its ecosystems and the broader system of which we are a part.
The maintenance of native forests and woodlands is essential for the water cycle, the atmosphere, biodiversity, the prevention of flooding, and the preservation of ecosystems.
The preservation of forests should be pursued through integral and participatory management plans financed with public funding from developed countries.
It is essential to guarantee a real and effective reduction of greenhouse gases, particularly on the part of the developed countries historically responsible for climate change, in order to stabilize the increase in temperature to 1 °C during this century.
In order for sustainable development to exist, is essential to guarantee the full application of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Under the framework of common but differentiated responsibilities established in the 1992 Rio Declaration, the so-called developed countries must assume and pay their historical ecological debt for having contributed the most to the deterioration of the Earth system.
The resources developed countries dedicate to their defense, security and war budgets should be used to address the effects of climate change and the imbalance with nature.
Intellectual property rights over genes, microorganisms and other forms of life are a threat to food sovereignty, biodiversity, access to medicine and other basic elements of the survival of low-income populations.
Respect for peaceful and harmonious complementarity among the diverse cultures and economies, without exploitation or discrimination against any single one, is essential for saving the planet, humanity, and life.
It is essential to end the imposition of conditionalities, military interventions, coups and different forms of blackmail in order to stop imperialism and neocolonialism.
In the hands of capitalism, everything is converted into merchandise: water, earth genomes, ancestral cultures, justice, ethics, life.
It is essential to develop a pluralistic system based on the culture of life and harmony among human beings and with nature; a system that promotes sustainable development in the framework of solidarity, complementarity, equity, social and economic justice, social participation, respect for diversity, and peace.
It is necessary to create public and multilateral mechanisms within the United Nations to evaluate in an independent manner and without conflict of interest the potential environmental, health, social, and economic impacts of new technologies before they are spread.
The market mechanisms that permit exchange among human beings and nations have proven incapable of contributing to an equitable distribution of wealth.
To use an approach based on market principles and private appropriation to try to resolve the problem of inequality – itself a product of capitalism – is like trying to put out a fire with gasoline.
The drive for profit, instead of reestablishing harmony within the system, will provoke even greater imbalances, concentrations of wealth, and speculative processes.
This organization should articulate and unite the different authorities involved in order to avoid overlapping efforts and achieve effective coordination.