International Institute for Environment and Development

Summary

The International Institute for Environment and Development is a global leader in sustainable development.

As an independent international research organisation, we are specialists in linking local to global. In Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Central and South America, the Middle East and the Pacific, we work with some of the world's most vulnerable people to ensure they have a say in the policy arenas that most closely affect them — from village councils to international conventions.

Through close collaboration with partners at the grassroots, we make our research and advocacy relevant to their needs and alive to their realities.
Our Natural Resources group works in three broad areas - drylands, sustainable agriculture and biodiversity, and forestry.

IIED was launched in 1971 by renowned economist and policy advisor Barbara Ward, making it one of the very first organisations to link environment with development.

The institute has played key roles in the Stockholm Conference of 1972, the Brundtland Commission of 1987, the 1992 Earth Summit and the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development, and is now helping to shape the global debate on climate change.