World Conservation Strategy

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The World Conservation Strategy (WCS) ( German : World Conservation Strategy ) is one of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) in close cooperation with the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) developed a strategy for the implementation of a worldwide nature and species protection.

The strategy paper was commissioned by UNEP and financed together with the WWF. The last draft of the 77-page paper was submitted to the UNEP, the WWF and also the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for assessment, provided with significant contributions and published in its final form in 1980.

Around 450 governmental and independent organizations from over 100 countries and more than 700 scientists from different and independent commissions contributed to the study, which was presented to the public in 34 capitals around the world and sent to all the world's governments via the UN in the same year at.

history

prehistory

In the early 1970s, two events shaped the global discussion about the relationship between ecology and economy . For one, it was the 1972 study The Limits to Growth , which was commissioned by the Club of Rome . With the world population growth at that time , the rapidly increasing consumption of resources and the rapidly increasing pollution of the environment , this study questioned sustained economic growth and also linked this with the question of the future of mankind. And on the other hand, the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment took place in Stockholm in June of the same year , the first conference of its kind to address the environmental problems caused by human activities. As a result of this conference, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) was founded on December 15, 1972 .

Since these two events, including the political demands that resulted from them, became known to a broad international public and as a result, environmental issues were also widely discussed publicly for the first time, the year 1972 can be seen as the start of a worldwide discussion about solution strategies for environmental issues.

The publication of the World Conservation Strategy in 1980 must also be seen in this context , which aims to:

  1. to maintain essential ecological processes and life support systems,
  2. preserve genetic diversity and
  3. ensure the sustainable use of species and ecosystems,

formulated quite roughly in their introduction.

Sustainable development

Even if the approach of a sustainable development in 1968 on the Biosphere Conference was discussed in Paris, so the term Sustainable Development ( German : Sustainable Development), which is now in its English version in German publications catchment has found the study World Conservation Strategy for the solution word under which all efforts to make human development more environmentally friendly could be summarized.

To define development and, above all, when a development can be described as sustainable, the following definition was given for the first time in the study:

“Development is defined here as: the modification of the biosphere and the application of human, financial, living and not-living resources to satisfy human needs and improve the quality of human life. For development to be sustainable it must take account of social and ecological factors, as well as economic ones; of the living and non-living resource base; and of the long term as well as the short term advantages and disadvantages of alternative actions. ”

“Development is defined here as: The change in the biosphere and the use of human, financial, living and non-living resources to meet human needs and improve the quality of human existence. In order to be sustainable for a development, it must take into account the economic as well as the social and ecological factors, the basis of living and non-living resources, and the long-term and short-term advantages and disadvantages of alternative action. "

In the Brundtland report of 1987, the concept of sustainable development was then redefined, became internationally binding with a kind of fundamental rights through the ratification of the Rio Declaration in 1992 and was given a control body via the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD), which monitors progress and should monitor compliance with Rio agreements on the concept of sustainable development.

Reactions from politics

The European Parliament unanimously supported the concept in a resolution on May 20, 1980.

Study logo

The circle symbolizes the biosphere - the thin envelope of the planet that contains and sustains life. The three interlocking and overlapping arrows symbolize the three goals of nature conservation , as described above in the history section.

Abstract of the study (translation)

World Conservation Strategy
Summary

The World Conservation Strategy is intended to initiate a more focused approach to the management of living resources and to provide the three main groups listed below with political guidelines for implementation:

  • Government politicians and their advisors;
  • Environmentalists and others directly involved with living resources;
  • Developers, including development agencies, industry and trade, trade unions.

1. The World Conservation Strategy aims to achieve the following three main goals for the conservation of living resources:

a. Maintain essential ecological processes and life support systems (soil reclamation and protection, nutrient recycling, water treatment) on which human survival and development depend;
b. Preserve genetic diversity (the range of genetic material found in all organisms in the world), on which the functioning of many of the above-mentioned processes and life support systems depends, the breeding programs necessary for the protection and optimization of cultivated plants, domesticated animals and microorganisms, and also scientific ones and medical progress, technological innovation, and the safety of the many industries using living resources;
c. Ensure the environmentally sound use of the species and ecosystems (particularly fish and other wildlife, forests and pastures) that support millions of rural communities as well as major industries.

2. These goals must be achieved as a matter of urgency because:

a. The earth's capacity to supply humanity is irreversibly reduced in both industrialized and developing countries:
- Millions of tons of land are lost every year due to deforestation or poor land management;
- At least 3000 km² of prime arable land disappear under buildings and roads every year in industrialized countries alone;
b. Hundreds of millions of rural people in developing countries, including 500 million poorly nourished and 800 million impoverished, are being forced to destroy resources to protect themselves from starvation and poverty:
- By widening strips of land around their villages, the impoverished rural population is robbing the land of trees and bushes for fuel, so that meanwhile many village communities no longer have enough wood for cooking or heating;
- The impoverished rural population is forced to burn 400 million tons of manure and crop residues every year, which are actually urgently needed to regenerate the soil;
c. The energy, financial and other costs of providing goods and services increase:
- All over the world, but especially in developing countries, the current situation is reducing the lifespan of water supplies and hydropower, often by half;
- This includes compensation payments in the event of flooding and poor harvests (for example, in India the annual flood costs range from $ 140 million to $ 750 million);
d. The resources of the most important industrial sectors are shrinking:
- The tropical rainforests are shrinking so rapidly that by the end of this century the remaining area of ​​an intact forest will be halved;
- Inshore fisheries support systems are destroyed or affected (in the US annual dormant losses are estimated at $ 86 million);

3. The main obstacles to achieving nature conservation are:

a. Believing that environmental conservation is a limited area as opposed to realizing that it is a cross-border process that must be considered by all areas;
b. The consequent failure of integrating nature conservation into development ;
c. An often inflexible and unnecessarily destructive development process due to inadequacies in environmental planning, the lack of sensible distribution approaches, and an exaggerated emphasis on short-term interests as opposed to long-term interests;
d. The lack of preservation opportunities due to inadequate legislation and enforcement; inadequate organization (especially authorities with inadequate power of attorney and incorrect coordination); the lack of trained staff; the lack of basic information about priorities, productive and generative capacities of living resources, and the coordination between one management option and another;
e. The lack of support for conservation , due to a lack of awareness (unlike in other, more superficial areas) of the benefits of environmental conservation among those who have an impact on living resources, including in many cases governments;
f. The failure to promote conservation-based development projects , especially in rural areas in developing countries.

4. The World Conservation Strategy therefore provides for the following:

a. It defines the conservation of living resources and explains their goals , their contribution to human survival and the main barriers to achieving them (sections 1–4);
b. It defines the main requirements for achieving each goal (Sections 5-7);
c. It proposes national and sub-national strategies to achieve the main requirements, describes the framework and principles of these strategies (Section 8);
d. It recommends a forward-looking environmental policy, a cross-sectoral nature conservation policy and an expanded system of national consideration of this problem to include nature conservation in the development at the legislative level (Section 9);
e. It proposes an integrated method of assessing land and water resources, complemented by environmental assessments as a means of improving environmental planning measures; and outlines a procedure for a reasonable division of land and water use (Section 10);
f. It recommends a review of living resource legislation ; suggests general principles of organization within a government , particularly ways of optimizing organizational capacities to conserve the soil and marine living resources (Section 11);
G. It suggests ways to increase the number of skilled workers , as well as more managerial research and management so that the most needed basic information is made available more quickly (Section 12);
H. It recommends greater public participation in planning and deciding how to use living resources; and proposes environmental education programs and campaigns to build support for conservation (Section 14).

5. In addition, the strategy recommends international action to promote, support and (where necessary) coordination of national action. In particular, attention is drawn to the following requirements:

a. A stronger, broader international law on environmental conservation , and increased development support for the conservation of living resources (Section 15);
b. International programs to promote necessary actions to conserve tropical forests and arid regions (Section 16), and to maintain global "common property" - the oceans, the earth's atmosphere, and Antarctica (Section 18);
c. Regional strategies to improve the conservation of commonly used living resources , especially with regard to international river basins and seas (Section 19).

6. The World Nature Conservation Strategy ends with a summary of the main requirements for sustainable development , including the priorities of nature conservation for the third decade of development (Section 20).

Note: All text passages highlighted in bold have been taken over from the original .

criticism

The fundamental criticism of the World Conservation Strategy , as well as of all subsequent papers, agreements and congresses that dealt with sustainable development, is that the protection of nature was linked to the welfare of human development.

The concept gave a new meaning to sustainability by defining "Sustainable Development" . While “sustainable” previously meant the conservation of natural resources, now the focus was on human development and had to be preserved, because it became clear that human development was also endangered by wasting and destroying resources. Instead of concern for nature, concern for development was now the priority and nature became the critical factor in it.

Another criticism, which only prevailed in later years, was that the term "Sustainable Development" and all its interpretations are not very specific and that almost everything can and will be grouped under it today.

literature

  • World Conservation Strategy - Living Resource Conservation for Sustainable Development , IUCN-UNEP-WWP, prepared by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), Gland, Switzerland, 1980. ISBN 2-88032-104-2

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Background to Sustainability . (PDF) Marine Stewardship Council , archived from the original ; accessed on January 18, 2016 (English, original website no longer available).
  2. ↑ Environment: not inherited, only borrowed . In: Der Spiegel . No. 17 , 1980 ( online ).
  3. ↑ Dennis Meadows: The Limits of Growth - Report of the Club of Rome on the situation of mankind , translated by Hans-Dieter Heck. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart, 1972. ISBN 3-421-02633-5
  4. ↑ Stockholm 1972. UNEP; Retrieved December 26, 2009
  5. ^ The Biosphere Conference - 25 years later . United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco), Paris, October 1993.
  6. ^ World Conservation Strategy . IUCN-UNEP-WWF, Gland (Switzerland) 1980, p. 18: 3.
  7. ↑ Volker Hauff : Our common future . Eggenkamp-Verlag, Greven 1987, ISBN 3-923166-16-8 .
  8. ↑ Alain Thierstein, Manfred Walser: Philosopher's Stone or Deceptive Pack? - Sustainable development as a strategy for regions . In: disP , 125, NSL - Netzwerk Stadt und Landschaft, ETH Zurich, 1996.
  9. ↑ About the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD). Retrieved December 27, 2009
  10. ↑ Printed matter 12/1784 of December 10, 1991, German Bundestag, 12th electoral period.
  11. ^ World Conservation Strategy . IUCN-UNEP-WWF, Gland (Switzerland) 1980, p. 3.
  12. ^ Translation from the original by Michael Tampier, Bochum, dated December 30, 2009.
  13. ^ Wolfgang Sachs: Sustainable Development. On the political anatomy of an international model - In: U.Beck, KWBrand, E. Hildebrandt (Ed.): Sustainable Development: A Challenge to Sociology , Volume 1. Leske + Budrich Verlag, Opladen 1997, pp. 94–110.
  14. ^ Carl Mitcham: The Concept of Sustainable Development . In: Technology in Society , Vol 17, No. 3, Elsevier Science, Maryland Heights, 1995, p. 323.