This book is based on research carried out under the auspices of the United Nations University programme on ‘Sustainable Environmental Futures’. The Yogyakarta conference in May 1991 was the first in a series of regional conferences planned under the programme. The programme focuses on the complex interactions of physical and human activities in changing the environment, especially in the tropical regions of the world. The overall aim of the programme is to promote ecologically as well as socially and economically sustainable development through basic and applied research, training and dissemination of information. The research first identified the driving forces of regional environmental transformation, and then analysed the larger environmental issues, especially those of global change, as well as the specific environmental issues facing the region up to the year 2005. The aim was to consider the constraints on and the possible methods of improved environmental management in the region, and to examine the policy options available to development planners. The book also identifies specific areas of unsustainability and increasing vulnerability, as well as topics for future research and action.