Sustainable Development: Constraints and Opportunities contains a selection of the author’s speeches made between 1982 and 1986. During this 5-year period knowledge of environment-development relationships has grown considerably, and this evolving perception can be discerned in his statements spanning those years. Taken together, the common thread binding all the speeches is the fact that long-term development can only be achieved through sound environmental management, that is, sustainable development, which is the title of this book. The speeches included in this volume were delivered in the author’s capacity as the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). They thus cover primarily broad areas of interest of UNEP’s programs and policies. Key topics discussed include environmental protection; disarmament and the environment; environmental information for engineers; the impact of human settlements on the environment; environmental management in the Gulf; the causes, effects, and prevention of desertification; and the environmental impact assessment process.