Official Development Assistance in the Field of Environmental Protection

In the past century the growing population of mankind parallel with the rapid industrialization led to several environmental problems. The damages have far exceeded the national and regional borders and environmental deterioration became a global problem that needed international co-operation. This book describes official development assistance activities, their environmental dimensions and the motivations behind them. The book tries to demonstrate how important it is to assist developing countries in the field of environment, because the improvement of environmental problems involves the alleviation of economic and social problems as well. The work summarizes international con-ferences which influenced the formation of environmental develop-ment assistance activities. Finally a development assistance project is presented, which entails significant positive effects on the local and global environment and contributes to sustainable development. The book should be useful to anyone who is interested in environ-mental protection or in the brief history and general characteristics of environmental development assistance activities.