The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) held in 1992 in Rio de Janerio constitutes an event of great interest to South Africans insofar as it sought to create the political mechanisms through which the world community might be able to “set the planet on a new course towards global sustainable development” (UNCED 1992:1–18). At the core of the conference deliberations was the focus on the "environmental" problems involving the interface between human beings and the rest of the ecosystem. A significant commitment here rests on the meaningful steps to be taken, to assure that the world will be able to deal with "environmental problems" that will have both human causes and human consequences. The South African environmental situation is by no means exempted from the implications of these deliberations.