Sustainable Tourism Law

SUSTAINABILITY: THE PATH FROM STOCKHOLM TO THE EUROPEAN CHARTER 617 Since the 1980’s, environmental awareness has become more critical due to the increased frequency and seriousness of the problems. One of the most evident ones was the hole in the ozone layer discovered by English scientists in 1985.The leadingcause for thisphenomenonwas theuseof chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in several products such as refrigerator systems and aerosols 3 . Despite the significant advances in the last decades, namely trough the strong growth of the global market since the 1970’s, the improvement of the income per capita and the life expectancy in developed countries, the opposite is crudely pointed out in the Malmo Ministerial Declaration 4 : “ the root causes of global environmental degradation are embedded in social and economic problems such as pervasive poverty, unsustainable production and consumption patterns, inequity in distribution of wealth, and the debt burden ”. The Canadian Maurice Strong, one of the most important world leaders in environmental issues (left) with the Conference President Ingemund Bengtsson on the last day of the event, 16 th June 1972. Twenty years later Strong would also be the General Secretary in the Rio Conference, contributing significantly to the creation of visionary and pragmatic works. He was recognized for his role in Rio+20, July 2012. 3 In 1987 the Montreal Protocol was signed to establish deadlines and serious measures for the total elimination of the chemical products that were causing the problem. 4 Malmo Ministerial Declaration, adopted by the Global Ministerial Environment Forum, Sixth Special Session of the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Program, Fifth plenary meeting, Malmo (Sweden) from 29 th to 31 st May 2000.