Stockholm Declaration, Principle No. 1, and the Rio Declaration, Principle 3 says:
Man … bears a solemn responsibility to protect and improve the
environment for present and future generations
OPOSA, ANTONIO A., JR. explains:
Essentially, the principle means that we hold the natural resource treasures of the earth in trust for the benefit, enjoyment and use of the generations of humankind yet to come. It is therefore a trust endowed upon us as trustee and depository to use and enjoy. While our generation has the right to use the earth’s resources, as a trustee and depository, we are also duty bound not to misuse or exhaust it, so that those of our species to come in much later years will still have something to use. xxx
The time frame is not limited to nor extending only until the generation of our children and of our children’s children. Rather, it extends up to a horizon of reasonable perpetuity, i.e. up to the time when the species homo sapiens is still around and that they will still need the lifesupport systems of the natural resource treasures of the earth.
