Arising out of the increasing concern for the protection and improvement of the environment expressed by individuals and nations which surfaced in the 1960s, the first world conference on the Human Environment was held in Stockholm in 1972. In response to one of the recommendations of this conference, UNESCO and UNEP set up an Intemational Environmental Education Programme (IEEP) in 1975.
The first three years of activity of this programme culminated in the Tbilisi Conference which was the first world-wide ministerial-level inter-governmental conference on environmental education (EE) convened by UNESCO. The conference was attended by 66 UNESCO member states and two non-member states, as well as representatives and observers from other organizations world-wide. The recommendations emanating from this conference set out in a formal way the role, objectives and guiding principles of EE which have become the foundation references for the further development of EE programmes and materials worldwide.