The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) was held in the Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) in 1992. One of the objectives of UNCED was to establish common commitments by nations that would guide the sustainable development of the global community; the result was Agenda 21, (CNUMAD, 1992). Agenda 21 recognized the necessity for significant steps to strengthen national and international initiatives to reach the established goals and to fulfill the proposals for action because the countries that face the reatest challenges to sustainability are countries with the least institutional and financial capacity. Initiatives included the industrialized countries exercising thei r responsibilities in cooperation with industrializing countries in seeking to resolve problems related to the environment and sustainability. Careful revision of priorities and budgets must be undertaken with a view to gradually incorporating the costs of environmental protection into local economic calculations.