/etc/sysconfig/apache2 & httpd.conf, Apache 2.2, OS 11.4

There is a line in the file /etc/sysconfig/apache2

like this: APACHE_CONF_INCLUDE_FILES=""

which I changed to: APACHE_CONF_INCLUDE_FILES="/etc/apache2/httpd.conf.local"

But I don’t know when this file gets included in relation to the httpd.conf file. E.g. Does httpd.conf.local get read before httpd.conf, after httpd.conf or is it slotted somewhere in the middle.