Scriabine, Raisa

Wachtel, Paul

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350 Environmental Conservationpre- and post-Conference regional workshops on whatneeds to be done locally 'to save our region' in thecontext of a global 'march to survival'.)4. Multilingual Glossary of Environmental TermsIt is understood that work on this project has con-tinued with the support of the Pergamon Press, Oxford,England, and it is understood that production by themat least in English, French, Spanish, and German, will beon a database system facilitating continuous updating.5. Other Journals, etc.(a) Means are desired to encourage and help otherneeded journals through sponsorships, memberships, orgrants, an example being Environmental Awareness, or-gan of the Indian Society of Naturalists (INSONA), ofwhich the President and his Wife are Patrons.(b) Preparation and subvention towards publication(with new coloured fold-out map or maps) of a complete-ly revised edition of Introduction to Plant Geography andSome Related Sciences, to include new sections on pollu-tion effects and ecology, plant conservation, introduc-tions and their effects, competition, continental drift, andthe role of plants in environmental conservation.(c) Environmental Monographs & Symposia: Meansare desired to support special cases with a leading in-ternational Publisher and possibly start another series totake care of less 'crisply scientific' works or potentiallyimportant volumes of doubtful sales potential.6. World Education Concerning The BiosphereWith the object of promoting world-wide knowledgeof The Biosphere and appreciation of how humans arean integral part of it and utterly dependent on it, and yetare threatening it with their ever-increasing numbers andpressures on its finite resources, there were proposed inEnvironmental Conservation successively an 'Internation-al Year of the Biosphere' which was soon extended to'The World Decade of The Biosphere, 1982-92' but thenredesignated and subsequently declared as 'The WorldCampaign for The Biosphere 1982-', which the Founda-tion initiated and continues to sponsor but hopes willsoon be taken over by a new ad hoc world body sup-ported by various other ones.7. Research ProjectsVarious worthy ones have been encouraged, inter aliawith publication of their results, but a budgetary item tohelp future ones financially would be welcomed. As aspecific item it is thought that a project on Nature in aconcrete Jungle could be promoted with little specialfinancing, at least in its early stages. Another proposal isof still-needed national or regional floras, and yet an-other is of an illustrated volume on Vegetation Types ofEurope (which, however, it is understood is now in anadvanced stage of preparation).8. Other Items(a) Feasibility study of a proposed International As-sociation (or World Council or Academy) of Environ-mentalists; also of a comparable educational body, andof a Who's Who in the Environmental World.(b) Endowment of the Baer-Huxley Memorial Lec-tures on topics of contemporary environmental concern,of which the first, on 'The International Community andthe Environment', was given by Maurice F. Strong inReykjavik, Iceland, during the Second InternationalConference on Environmental Future, and was first pub-lished in Environmental Conservation (Vol. 4, No. 3,pp. 165-72, Autumn 1977); the second is to be given bya leading environmentalist at the 3rd ICEF (see item 3above).(c) Endowment of a prize for the best paper publishedeach year in Environmental Conservation, and ultimatelyof a major award or awards for environmental achieve-ment and/or enterprise.(d) Funds to convene working groups of leading spe-cialists to pronounce quite freely on major environmen-tal threats. An endowment of $5 millions or SFr. 10 mil-lions would suffice for this and meanwhile cover some ofthe above needs from income.Further projects are under consideration, including ur-gent research proposals, a major World Heritage Seriesof volumes, establishment of a biennial award for de-monstrated environmental concern and concomitant ac-tion by a multinational corporation, and fostering theestablishment of associated foundations etc. in otherparts of the world. With the demise of the Pahlavi Prizeand the opening of the Tyler Prize to energy concerns, amajor award for environmental leadership is an urgentneed—if possible on a par with the Nobel Peace Prize(for which, incidentally, the nomination of leading en-vironmentalists seems particularly desirable).OPERATION AND NEEDSWith the running costs already contributed, and in theabsence of any institutional overheads and taxes otherthan those that continue to be paid privately, the Foun-dation constitutes what has been called a uniquely eco-nomic vehicle for support of the environmental/conser-vational movement—whether generally or through spe-cific projects which can be put in train as soon as fundsbecome available. Contributions are warmly welcomedand individually acknowledged, and can be received inany negotiable currency by cheque made out to theFoundation for Environmental Conservation, c/o Ban-que Populaire Suisse, 1 Quai des Bergues, 1211 Geneva,Switzerland, or sent to the Foundation's address endingthe opening paragraph of this notice. (Plans for recogniz-ing special services or substantial donations to theFoundation by the award of an engraved certificate de-signed by a renowned draughtsman have been shelved inview of the urgent need of all available funds for morepressing purposes, but donors are requested to identifythemselves clearly unless anonymity is desired.)NICHOLAS POLUNIN, PresidentThe Foundation for Environmental Conservation(as approved by its Governing Board).Tropical Forest Campaign*A group of leading experts and other world notablesconcerned with tropical rain-forests and internationaldevelopment have launched an appeal to governments toalter the current course of rain-forest destruction beforeirreversible social and economic disruption occurs.* In this vital concern which is functionally at least a part ofthe World Campaign for The Biosphere, we hope we havehelped and are continuing to help with our stressing of thesetopics in past issues of our Journal, and of Parks and Reservesin this one.—Ed.https:/www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0376892900020944Downloaded from https:/www.cambridge.org/core. University of Basel Library, on 11 Jul 2017 at 13:06:29, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available atNotes, News & Comments 351'World governments have a choice: Trees now or tankslater', commented Nairobi-based Peter S. Thacher, De-puty Executive Director of UNEP (United Nations En-vironment Programme). 'Loss of tropical forests at thepresent rate will undermine future economic develop-ment and threaten social and political stability in manycountries.' Mr Thacher was speaking at a press con-ference** in Bali, Indonesia, to launch a global WWF/IUCN campaign aimed at focusing world attention onthe threat to the tropical forests and seeking funds forspecial action programmes.Other key panellists included: HE Dr Emil Salim,Indonesian Minister of State for Development Super-vision and Environment; Dr Lee M. Talbot, thenDirector-General of IUCN (International Union forConservation of Nature and Natural Resources), andCharles de Haes, Director-General of WWF (WorldWildlife Fund), who are both based in Switzerland; DrGerardo Budowski, Head of the Natural RenewableResources Department of CATIE (Regional TropicalAgricultural Center for Research and Training) in CostaRica; and Dr Kenton R. Miller, Director of the Wild-lands Management Center, School of Natural Resources,University of Michigan, and Chairman of the IUCNCommission on National Parks and Protected Areas(CNPPA). Nine top scientific experts from Asia, Africa,and Latin America, also attended the press conference toanswer technical questions.'Saving the tropical forests is not a luxury, but a prior-ity for world action', noted WWF Director-GeneralCharles de Haes. 'Unfortunately, this problem remainsa well-hidden time-bomb generally known only to ascientific elite. Mobilizing public opinion is our highestsingle priority in this campaign. Unless the public is madeaware of the seriousness of the situation, and bringspressure to bear on governments and industry, there maybe serious and irreversible consequences. These couldinclude economic disruption, political instability, famine,drought, and disruption of our basic life-support sys-tems. Already much is being done to avoid eliminatingwhat remains of one of the world's most essential re-sources, but it is clearly not enough. The governmentsmust be made to realize their obligations to futuregenerations before it is too late.'Tropical rain-forest loss in recent years has resulted in:disastrous floods in India, drought in Indonesia, reduc-tion in water-levels supplying the Panama Canal, clog-ging of Thailand's traditional waterway transport sys-tems, reduced efficiency of hydroelectric systems inPhilippines, and the devastation of Haitian farms —among other [often widely serious], consequences. Thelatest satellite studies now indicate that, at the presentrate of destruction, several Central American nations willlose their entire forest cover by the end of the century.'The problem of the tropical forests is the world's mostimportant conservation priority', Dr Talbot, thenDirector-General of IUCN, noted: ' . . . leading scientistsin the US Global 2000 Report and the World ConservationStrategy all make it clear that the tropical rain-forests,the oldest and most diverse ecosystems on Earth,moderate climate, ensure a constant supply of freshwater... and provide fibre, food, fuel, building materials,and medicines. They are an important source of food inareas of the world where increased population puts ad-ded pressure on food supply, a major source of revenuefor many tropical countries, and provide western nationswith an incredible variety of essential products — in-cluding many of our most important Pharmaceuticals.'Yet tropical forests are being destroyed at an alarmingrate: The estimated annual destruction is equal to threetimes the area of Switzerland!The Head of the Natural Renewable Resources De-partment of Costa Rica's famed CATIE Research In-stitute, Dr Gerardo Budowski, said the United States'Hamburger Connection' was destroying large portionsof Central America's tropical rain-forests: 'Vast areas ofproductive tropical rain-forest are being cut down toprovide pastures, productive for 5-7 years at most, forcattle that provides less than 2% of America's beef. TheUS doesn't need the small amount of cheap beef they getin this way, but the countries of Central America do needtheir valuable forests.'What can be done? Mobilizing public opinion on aworld scale is being given highest priority in the WWF/IUCN campaign. In addition to strategic educationaland public awareness projects in both tropical forestcountries and the developed world, WWF will launch anaggressive television-and-print advertising campaignthat will take the case for protecting the tropical foreststo those countries which are still rich in forest resources.Over a million dollars in donated space in publicationsand air-time on television and radio stations is expectedin more than 40 countries.Indonesia was chosen as the venue for the launchingof this Tropical Forest Campaign because of its imagina-tive government conservation programme and the factthat it has 10% of the world's total tropical forest re-source, being in this respect second only to Brazil.Another key reason for holding the launch in Indonesiais to tie-in with the once-a-decade World National ParksCongress, which opened the following morning at thesame venue.PAUL WACHTEL & RAISA SCRIABINEWorld Conservation CentreAvenue du Mont-Blanc1196 Gland, Switzerland.The Race Against the Arms Race*We protest the global arms-race as American citizensand citizens of the world with a deep concern for humanwell-being, for ecological balance, and for true nationaland international security. We do so because our current[national] reliance on military power as the main instru-ment of foreign policy, and the accompanying nuclearweapons-race, bring us ever closer to a nuclear conflictthat will decimate the human population, destroy itssocial fabric, and wreak havoc upon our global environ-ment.We seek an end to the arms race because it divertshuman and natural resources from pressing social andenvironmental needs. As a major portion of the econom-ic surplus of most nations, military budgets represent a** Held on 10 October 1982, before the opening of the WorldNational Parks Congress (see the 'Important Prospect' on page170 of our Summer issue and the report in a forthcoming one).—Ed.* Collective statement of about 24 persons who comprisedWorking Session No. 1 of the Conference on the Fate of theEarth, held in New York, NY, USA, 19-21 October 1982, whichwas co-chaired by the undersigned three co-authors.—Ed.https:/www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0376892900020944Downloaded from https:/www.cambridge.org/core. University of Basel Library, on 11 Jul 2017 at 13:06:29, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at

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