FOREWORD

The Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization - ISESCO- has successfully undertaken its responsibility mobilizing the Islamic World to take part in the anti-pollution international campaign led by the United Nations to protect the environment and lay the basic foundation for a sustainable development to the benefit of generations to come. In fact, the ISESCO has successfully contributed in drawing the attention of the islamic public opinion to the importance of organized action, strong coordination and joint cooperation sharing with the international community its concern about environment and sustainable development issues.

The efforts extended by ISESCO in this respect were crowned by the importance attached to the question of the participation of the Islamic World in pro-environment and sustainable development activities under the patronage of the United Nations, as an item of the agenda of the 28th session of the Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers held in Bamako - the Republic of Mali - in June 2001. Consequently, the Conference had decided to entrust the ISESCO with convening the First Islamic Conference of the Ministers of Environment which the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia willingly welcomed in Jeddah in the period from 12 to 14 June 2002.

As part of its appreciation of the importance attached by ISESCO to the environmental issues in the Islamic World, the Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers entrusted the Islamic Organization with undertaking a number of researches on environment and sustainable development within the framework of the Islamic perception of relevant issues.

Assuming its responsibility, in fulfilment of the decision taken by the Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers thereupon, ISESCO realized a number of documented scientific studies and presented a number of detailed reports on relevant issues during the First Islamic Conference of the Ministers of environment. The Conference, then, unanimously adopted them after detailed discussion and recommended ISESCO to address them at the International Summit on Sustainable Development to be held in Johannesburg -The Republic of South Africa- in the month of August 2002.

Desirous to achieve a widespread optimization of these highly important scientific studies and reports, in a bid to make the Islamic world more and more interested in issues on environment and development as part of its participation in the international effort to disseminate environmental awareness and promote comprehensive and prospective developmental concerns, the ISESCO has been keen on making this book an account of the efforts and the outcomes of the First Islamic Conference of the Ministers of Environment. The book features the following :

- Report on ISESCO’s Efforts and Future Vision in the field of management of Water Resources in the Islamic World.

- Report on ISESCO Efforts in Environmental, Health and Population Education.

- Study on Sustainable Development from the Perspective of Islamic Values and Specificities of the Muslim World.

- The Islamic World and the Challenges of Sustainable Development.

- Study on Environment and Sustainable Development in the Islamic Countries (Sustainable Development from an Islamic Perspective).

- General Framework of Islamic Agenda for Sustainable Development.

- The Islamic Declaration on Sustainable Development.

Published by the ISESCO at a time of increasing global concern about issues of environment and sustainable development, the book, under the title of “The Islamic World and Sustainable Development : specificities, challenges and commitments” offers a civilizational and Islamic perception regarding these issues. As part of the ISESCO’s concern for the coordination of the Islamic World’s effective participation in the continuous efforts of the International Community for a clean global environment and a progressive sustainable development to achieve welfare and prosperity for the whole humanity in a world of peace, justice, equality and mutual respect.