Two seminal publications of the early 1980s were the World Conservation Strategy (IUCN, UNEP, WWF, 1980) and the Brandt Report (Independent Commission on International Development Issues, 1980). The Brandt Report stressed that many world problems would be solved only if it was recognised that rich and poor countries had a mutual interest – the solution of developing countries’ problems was not just a question of charity but of global interdependence. The World Conservation Strategy promoted conservation for ‘sustainable development’ (the first time the latter phrase was widely publicised). The World Commission on Environment and Development set out in 1984 to re-examine environment and development problems and to formulate proposals for solutions. The Commission’s findings (the Brundtland Report – World Commission on Environment and Development (1987) Our Common Future) highlighted the need for sustainable development and urged a marriage of economics and ecology. The Brundtland Report may be said to have initiated a new relationship between social science, natural science, economics and policy making, and is one of the most important publications of the twentieth century.