Given the eminently regulatory nature of policy in the region in the twentieth century, twenty-first century policy must incorporate economic instruments more firmly to effectively produce the desired changes in both producers and consumers and usher in more egalitarian and sustainable patterns. In this framework, the central message of United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) was the need to fully integrate environmental considerations into development approaches. The greater the number of species in an ecosystem, the greater its genetic differentiation, and the more likely that it will be stable, resilient and resistant to extreme changes.