A world conservation strategy is launched
Robert Wazeka
ROBERT WAZEKA is the correspondent in Europe for a group of North American newspapers.
On 5 March, 1980, press conferences were held in the capitals of 30 countries to launch a World Conservation Strategy. Heads of state or governments were prominent at many of these. But what was remarkable was that the immediate reaction to the Strategy (a book-length report) from the press, political parties, conservation groups and governments was a consensus of support. It found, in the words of United Nations Secretary General Kurt Waldheim, "an unprecedented degree of agreement on what should be done to ensure the proper management and optimal use of the world's living resources..."
The Strategy was in large part the work of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), which had the cooperation and support of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Ultimately, more than 450 governments, international agencies, conservation groups and other non-governmental organizations were involved. Consultations were held with more than 700 scientists and development experts from more than 100 countries. The entire process took three years. "The very existence of this Strategy," said Russell Train, president of the World Wildlife Fund, "might be viewed as something of a miracle."
What the Strategy does is to set a direction and then propose means to get nations headed in that direction.
FAO's view
Typical of the response to the Strategy was the statement made by Edouard Saouma, Director-General of FAO: "I need not further elaborate on the timeliness and usefulness for the developing countries of this publication which, in clear terms, relates development to conservation issues for the needs of the present as well as future generations. You may therefore rest assured that we will assist in promoting the Strategy and bringing this document to the attention of governments and living resource users. We will also try to ensure that the various principles set out in the document are taken into consideration from the project formulation stage onward in our own work."
The immediate response of the press and of governments seems to have surprised even some of the figures who played a key role in developing the Strategy. Said IUCN Director-General David Munro, "The worldwide attention given to the Strategy far exceeded our most optimistic expectations." In Nairobi tribal dancers took to the streets waving placards bearing conservation slogans. In New Delhi billboards and banners appeared promoting the World Conservation Strategy. At the Caracas press conference launching the Strategy in Venezuela, an unannounced troop of military cadets appeared to show their support. The People's Daily, principal newspaper of China, devoted all of its front page to the Strategy and followed with long, in-depth stories over the next three days.
Press reaction
Editorial comment was abundant and almost uniformly favourable throughout the press of the world.
There was a sense that something different was involved than just one more conference report. Wrote the United Kindgom's Observer, "In the past, conservationists have put most effort into saving a few animals, like the tiger, the rhino or the scimitar oryx. Now they are beginning to address, rather belatedly, the disintegration of large patches of the web of life itself. And the Strategy draws some careful lists of priorities which accept that some species cannot be rescued, but aim at saving as much of the world's endangered natural resources as possible."
Government response followed quickly. Egypt, India, Malaysia, New Zealand, Senegal, Spain and the USSR all announced that they were drawing up national conservation strategies, actions that mark a beginning toward a realization of the Strategy's hope that national plans can be coordinated with international needs.
More direct actions were also taken. Hong Kong announced it would strengthen pollution controls and further tighten controls on trade in endangered species. Indonesia announced the establishment of a new water-basin management centre, the inauguration of five new national parks and the purchase of a fleet of helicopters to assist archipelago forest management. Jordan announced a national tree-planting programme and legislation to create 13 new national parks. The European Economic Community began consideration of an environmental fund for the Community and announced new initiatives regarding whaling, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) and environmental impact assessment studies (see articles by Sand and Alhéritière in Unasylva Vol. 31, No. 125 on the last two points).
Objectives and recommendations
The are three major objectives in the Strategy: to maintain essential ecological processes and life-support systems such as soil protection and regeneration, nutrient recycling and the cleansing of waters; to preserve genetic diversity among plants, animals and microorganisms; and to ensure the suitable utilization of species and ecosystems which support millions of rural communities as well as major industries, particularly regarding forests, grazing lands, fish an'] wildlife.
Many specifics are spelled out in the Strategy's report. Careful planning for sustained-yield forestry is recommended for both the public and private sectors. Protection programmes for habitats are encouraged, particularly for economically valuable species, endangered and unique species, unique ecosystems and representative samples of ecosystem types., Action on the problem of acid rain is called for. The need for protecting water. sheds, wetlands, estuaries and crucial coastal habitats is underscored. The Strategy recommends giving attention to such problems as urban sprawl, overgrazing and "imprudent irrigation". It states that agricultural land must be preserved, particularly in the "breadbasket" of North America, and that this need should override conflicts with urban, industrial and transportation requirements.
It is often assumed that people destroy the environment because of ignorance when, in fact' they have no other choice.
In general, the Strategy gives guidelines which it hopes individual nations will adopt in ways suited to their own particular needs. In outlines concrete kinds of legislation which governments can use as tools or models in conserving their resources. On problems affecting the "global commons"-atmosphere, oceans, Antarctica, fishing rights-it recommends international agreements. For problems concerning river basins and small seas it recommends regional action.
Development and conservation
Repeatedly the Strategy report emphasizes the simultaneous need for development and conservation, arguing that development is, in fact, often the best road to conservation. "Too often," the report says, "we assume that people are destroying the environment because they are ignorant, when in fact they have no other choice."
One of the key elements has been that non-governmental conservation organizations have been involved in the Strategy from the beginning. In the past, such groups have often had the chance only to intervene at the Last stage of a project to try to stop it. thereby casting themselves as obstacles to development and, in some cases, human welfare. In this case, however, they have had the opportunity to advocate ways of development in which productivity and economic growth cart be reconciled with the need for conservation and preservation.
Ten years ago, said Brian Johnson of the Institute for Environment and Development in London, the World Wildlife Fund would not have accepted that in many situations of conflict between using land for agriculture or wildlife, food production would have to come first. Such organizations now accept people-centred development provided that it can be done sustainably.¹
(¹ Editor's note: A special edition of Unasylva devoted to wildlife ("Game as food," Vol. 29, No. 116, 1977) stressed rational utilization of wild animals and their conservation through management. For example, one article was entitled "Both beautiful and useful." Some opposition from major international non-governmental environment and conservation organizations was anticipated. Instead, these organizations asked for additional copies l or distribution within their ranks. They were in agreement with wildlife policies that went beyond the obvious need to save disappearing species through strict protection. What is now widely appreciated among international environmentalists is the need to establish the importance of wildlife to mankind through management that includes utilization for man's benefit.)
Direction
What the World Conservation Strategy actually does is to set a direction and then to propose the means to get the nations of the world headed in that direction. This "direction" can be broken down into nine major headings:
1. To define living resource conservation and to explain its objectives, its contribution to human survival and development and the main impediments to its achievement (Section 1 through Section 4).2. To determine the priority requirement for achieving each of the objectives (Section 5 through Section 7).
3. To propose national and sub-national strategies to meet the priority requirements, describing a framework and principles for those strategies (Sect ion 8).
4. To recommend anticipatory environmental policies, a cross-sectoral conservation policy and a broader system of national accounting in order to integrate conservation with development at the policy-making level (Section 9).
5. To propose an integrated method of evaluating land and water resources, supplemented by environmental assessments, as a means of improving environmental planning: and to outline a procedure for the rational allocation of land and water uses (Section 10).
6. To recommend reviews of legislation concerning living resources; to suggest general principles for organization within government; and in particular to propose ways of improving the organizational capacities for soil conservation and for the conservation of marine living resources (Section 11).
7. To suggest ways of increasing the number of trained personnel; and to propose more management-oriented research and research-oriented management, so that the most urgently needed basic information is generated more quickly (Section 2).
8. To recommend greater public participation in planning and decision making concerning living resource use; and to propose environmental education programmes and campaigns to build support for conservation (Section 13).
9. To suggest ways of helping rural communities to conserve their living resources, as the essential basis of the development they need (Section 14).
Implementation
The framers of the Strategy recognized from the start that the document would be useless, even if it generated widespread support, unless it could be translated into real action. Special attention was therefore given to what kinds of action should be addressed. The report's main author, Robert Allen of IUCN, says that in order to understand the Strategy one must distinguish three different kinds of action: tactical, radical and strategic.
Tactical action, according to Allen, is primarily technical in nature. It includes such measures as ways to check soil erosion. establish national parks and maintain ecosystems. Sections 5-7 of the Strategy do, in fact, deal with just such tactical actions, but in general they are de-emphasized for the reason that many guidelines, manuals, articles and books on "tactical action" already exist.
Radical action attempts to change in a fundamental way certain attributes of human and political behaviour. The Strategy specifically rejected the inclusion of radical actions because it felt that any such actions would require strategies of their own as well as a great coordination of will and effort among governments and peoples around the world. Although the report has been criticized in some places for failing to address the population problem and for failing to include or consider multinational corporations, these are both examples of the kind of "radical" actions that were deliberately set aside. Other such radical actions are efforts to reduce excessive consumption among the affluent peoples and to change the economic relationships among developed and developing countries.
The Strategy gives guidelines for adaptation to the needs of nations. It outlines legislation for resource conservation.
Strategic action, examples of which are found in sections 8-14, are broad, but practicable goals and methodologies which are wide enough to permit politically diverse nations to embrace them and specific enough to focus the effort so that they mean something.
Says Allen, ". . . tactical measures, while essential, have only limited short-term effectiveness. Radical measures, while essential, will take an extremely long time to achieve. Strategic measures, by contrast, are within our grasp and can be of great long-term as well as short-term benefit."
Obstacles identified
A key part of the report identifies obstacles to the achievement of its strategic goals. These are: (a) the belief that conservation of living resources addresses only a limited sector of activity rather than being something which cuts across all sectors: (b) the consequent failure to integrate conservation with development; (c) inadequacies in environmental planning; (d) the lack of a capacity to conserve due to inadequate legislation, weak enforcement and poor organization; (e) the lack of support for conservation due to the lack of awareness of its benefits, and (f) the failure to deliver conservation-based development where it is most needed, notably the rural areas of developing countries.
Many people view conservation as something that can happen only after industrialization, when institutions and attitudes have developed sufficiently to permit people to think of things other than where their next meal will come from.
The premise of the World Conservation Strategy is that this is not realistic and that, in fact, non-industrialized countries are increasingly concerned about their natural environment and want to both conserve and manage it.
