The International Development Targets have been agreed by the entire United Nations membership, following a series of summit meetings held by the UN and its specialised agencies over the last ten years or so. The meetings discussed progress in poverty reduction and sustainable development and set targets for measuring that progress.

The target for the environment is as follows:

There should be a current national strategy for sustainable development in the process of implementation, in every country by 2005, so as to ensure that current trends in the loss of environmental resources are effectively reversed at both global and national levels by 2015.