APEC Environmental Vision Statement

This meeting of APEC Ministers for the Environment forged consensus on a wide range of issues, sharing the spirit of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development. We reaffirmed the inseparable linkages between environment protection and economic growth to build an enduring foundation for sustainable development in our region.

We want to see the continued dynamic growth and growing interdependence of APEC member economies which has transformed our region. We are concerned that degradation of our environment will adversely affect our ability to sustain our economic growth. Our efforts to assure stable and sustainable development must take account of the effect of our economies and our populations on the natural environment. To this end we support the outcomes of UNCED.

We, the Asia Pacific economies are agreed that we must protect our environment and conserve natural resources. In particular, we have to improve the quality of air, water and manage energy resources to ensure sustainable development and provide a more secure future for our people. We agree to develop co-operative programs to this end.

We recognize that problems such as climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution and waste, deteriorating water quality and availability, soil erosion, population pressures, and growing energy consumption challenge all of us to cooperate more effectively in dealing with these issues. APEC should take the lead in addressing these global problems and solutions in line with the global consensus reached at UNCED.

All APEC members share a commitment to sustainable development. We support enhanced protection for our environment and greater sensitivity and concern for the environment in our economic decision-making processes by integrating environmental considerations into relevant policy development and economic decisions throughout the region. To this end, we encourage APEC working groups and policy committees to integrate environmental concerns into their work programs.

Members recognize that the market can be an efficient and flexible means of allocating resources but that market outcomes do not always take into full account relevant environmental concerns. The challenge is to achieve sustainable development while taking advantage of the dynamism that market economies provide.

We welcome the call of the Eminent Persons Group (EPG) for APEC members to embark on a course of sustainable development, without creating new forms of protectionism. We would hope the important EPG work of developing a long term vision for APEC would address equally relevant environmental and economic considerations.

We think APEC's work on the environment should add value to other environmental activities in the region through mutually beneficial work complementary to other multilateral institutions and fora.


We believe sound environment and sound economic policies are mutually supportive and that preventing environmental degradation is fundamental to sustainable development.

We will work together with our APEC Ministers to promote sustainable development, trade and investment in the region, through a vision for APEC that encourages members to integrate environmental considerations into their policy making having regard to the attached framework of principles for integrating environmental considerations within APEC, at all levels.

APEC economies recognize the inter-relationship among poverty, unsustainable patterns of production and consumption, population growth, natural resource depletion and environmental degradation, and the potential for regional approaches in addressing global environmental problems. We encourage an enhanced dialogue focused on opportunities for regional co-operation in priority areas such as environmental technologies, environmental education and information, policy tools, and sustainable cities as well as earth observation and global changes research.

We urge each APEC economy to broaden consultations on sustainable development issues to provide multi-sectoral input into their policy development process. We encourage the private sector to observe their role and obligations in achieving sustainable development. We also encourage APEC senior officials (SOM) to develop ideas for multi-sectoral exchanges at the regional level, including the possible exploration of an Asia Pacific Round Table on the Environment and the Economy, and we encourage APEC economies to develop their own mechanisms for contacts with the private sector and major groups.

We call on APEC senior officials to build on the environment work already underway in APEC working groups to develop a strategic approach, based on sustainable development principles, for environment considerations to be fully integrated into the program of each APEC working group and policy committee.

We are committed to develop policies that are sound economically and environmentally. We agree that sustainable development depends upon successful implementation of policies and programs that integrate economic, environment and social objectives. We believe that APEC should take the lead in achieving sustainable development.

APEC Ministers Responsible for the Environment 
Vancouver, Canada 
March 25, 1994