Baez, Albert V.

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NOTES, NEWS & COMMENTSSome Educational Implications of the WorldConservation StrategyThe IUCN-UNEP-WWF World Conservation Stra-tegy attempts to reconcile the human need to develop theEarth in order to live, with the human need to conservethe Earth in order to survive. It argues that conservationand development can be mutually reinforcing, and setsthe scene for conservation-minded people and develop-ment-minded people to unite, finally, in a common ef-fort towards survival.It claims that, for keeping the Earth habitable, the firstpriority is to see that the essential ecological processesand life-support systems of the Earth continue in goodfunctioning order, the second priority is the preservationof genetic diversity, while the third priority is the sustain-able utilization of species and ecosystems.There are, of course, other reasons for preserving spe-cies and ecosystems. Simple human compassion is one,and the extraordinary beauty of natural forms is another.Perhaps most importantly, we are morally obliged to ourdescendants not to leave the Earth less alive, less interest-ing, and less wondrous, as a result of our having beenhere.Because of the devastating impact of the human spe-cies on the environment, it is said that insufficient em-phasis is given in the Strategy to the overwhelming im-pact of the problem of human population and its relent-less growth. My own list of major global concerns: pop-ulation, pollution, poverty, and proliferation of nuclearweapons—the 4 Ps—has always put population first.There is no question that Man has had the most devastat-ing impact on The Biosphere of any species, and that thiswill continue to get worse as long as population growthcontinues to outstrip all indexes of economic growth anddevelopment.The behavioural changes proposed in the Strategy areso sweeping that they amount to a new environmentalethic. It says:'Ultimately the behaviour of entire societies towards the bio-sphere roust be transformed if the achievement of conserva-tion objectives is to be assured. A new ethic, embracing plantsand animals as well as people, is required for human societiesto live in harmony with the natural world on which theydepend for survival and well-being. The long-term task ofenvironmental education is to foster or reinforce attitudesand behaviour compatible with this new ethic'Towards a World Environmental Education Strategy?Several strategies are needed to solve the global crisis:a strategy for peace and a strategy for population con-trol, for example, as well as a strategy for conservation.I think the time has also come to consider the need fora world environmental education strategy.As the World Conservation Strategy poses (but doesnot solve) its educational problems, and leaves it to thereader to invent solutions, I have approached the prob-lem from two points of view: personal and institutional.I shall first give personal reflections about some aspectsof environmental education which merit special atten-tion, and then I shall consider what actions the Com-mission on Education of IUCN might be able to take.Individual personal action should not be discounted,as individuals can act in at least three ways which mayhave positive results. Thus they can: make decisions, passjudgements, and exercise an influence by example.Consequently, before considering a global strategy forenvironmental education, I would like to make two re-commendations involving individual action.First, recognizing that the greatest possible environ-mental devastation, including the extinction of manyspecies, would occur in or as a result of a nuclear holo-caust, it behoves all environmentalists and lovers of lifeand the Earth to participate in activities which wouldminimize the probability that a holocaust will occur. Asthis is still subject to different interpretations, no clear-cut recommendation such as voting for a nuclear freezeis given here. But certainly men and women of good willeverywhere should act in such a way as to reduce the riskthat a nuclear exchange takes place. Proliferation ofnuclear weapons is, in my estimation, 'a holocaust look-ing for a place to happen'.Second, if you are not already doing so, I suggest thatyou start to live your daily life following an environment-al ethic as currently conceived by you. This would in-clude taking steps to conserve natural resources and tominimize the extinction of plant and animal species.Band together with other like-minded people to reinforceone another and to learn more. Hold seminars, reflectiongroups, and study-sessions based upon the World Con-servation Strategy, in order to develop your own per-sonal educational strategy. Try to expand the boundaryconditions of your environmental thinking so that theybroaden daily to the point where you are, indeed, think-ing about the global implications of what you once con-ceived as merely local environmental problems. By shar-ing your thoughts, the basis of a world environmentaleducation strategy may be created.Next, let me express the results of my reflections con-cerning compassion as a basis for an environmental ethic.To improve the quality of life, education must generatecuriosity, creativity, competence, and compassion—the4 Cs. As time has gone on, the importance of compassionhas, in my judgement, increased. It is needed more thanever to effect change at this turning point in history.When I first wrote about the role of compassion ineducation I had only fellow-feeling and social respon-sibility in mind. I now believe that a feeling of com-passion, and even affection, must be extended to all livingthings, plants and animals, and to the entire Biospherewhich teems with life, if we are to animate an environ-mental ethic. The fifth C—conservation—can be a di-rect consequence of compassion.The Role of Science in Environmental EducationI would like to make a special plea for the role ofscience in environmental education. Although thegeneration of humane attitudes towards living things isof the utmost importance, these attitudes must rest onaccurate knowledge—the firm scientific foundation ofecology. The subject of ecology, upon which many of thearguments of the Strategy are based, is largely a biologi-cal science which, in turn, leans heavily on chemistry andphysics. The concepts of ecosystems, species, and geneticdiversity, for example, require a thorough understandingof genetics and several other aspects of biology. Theconcept of The Biosphere, which links the laws of ther-modynamics with the requirements of living things, alsoillustrates the interdisciplinary nature of the scientificbase which underlies environmental studies.As both ecology and environmental education arewidely interdisciplinary, it is only natural that the en-vironment has already been chosen as the integratingconcept in many integrated science courses. This wasrecognized a decade or so ago in the science education165Environmental Conservation, Vol. 10, No. 2, Summer 1983—© 1983 The Foundation for Environmental Conservation—Printed in The Netherlands.https:/www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0376892900012297Downloaded from https:/www.cambridge.org/core. University of Basel Library, on 11 Jul 2017 at 12:41:31, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at166 Environmental Conservationsector of UNESCO, even before a formal environmentaleducation programme was started there. Throughout thedecade of the 70s, many integrated science courses weregenerated around the world in which the environmentwas used as the integrating factor.Let us consider why Man-environment impact is a keyeducational issue of the 80s. Man prides himself in beingthe most intelligent animal on the Earth; yet he is the onlyone that has caused such vast devastation of The Bio-sphere. In less than a thousand years, which is the blinkof an eye in geologic time, he has consumed a largeproportion of the fossil fuels which took Nature millionsof years to produce. The air we breathe is full of noxiousfumes and radioactive particles of his making.Man has placed millions of tons of concrete and ce-ment on roads and cities where there were once forestsand wildlife. At least 3,000 square kilometres of primefarmland is disappearing each year under buildings androads in developing countries alone. Thousands of mil-lions of tons of soil are being lost each year as a resultof deforestation and poor land-management. Hundredsof millions of rural people in developing countries areforced to strip their land of vegetation in order to findwood for cooking and heat. Each year 4,000 million tonsof dung and crop residues are burned for fuel whichcould otherwise regenerate soils. And now Man has thecapability of generating a nuclear holocaust which coulddevastate The Biosphere and make life on Earth extinct.A new sense of humility must be born in mankind. Weshould realize that if human beings could be removedfrom the Earth, it could probably heal itself and becomeonce again a planet where the oceans were clean, the airpure, and the forests green and full of wildlife. Rememberthat the Earth, its plants, and its animals, can survivewithout us, but we cannot survive without them!There may be those who would believe that such aworld environmental education strategy would be toograndiose a scheme. But what, short of that, is going toreverse the trends that are driving us to damage theplanet further and even further? I believe that Man isintelligent enough to generate an environmental ethic,through education, which can point the way to achieve-ment of the goal of the World Conservation Strategy,namely, sustainable development for Mankind.ALBERT V. BAEZ, ChairmanIUCN Commission on EducationWorld Conservation CentreAvenue du Mont-Blanc1196 Gland, Switzerland.Mrs Indira Gandhi becomes HonoraryChairman of the IUCN Commissionon EducationThe International Union for Conservation of Natureand Natural Resources (IUCN) is pleased to announcethat Mrs Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India, hasaccepted to become honorary chairman of its Com-mission on Education. This was conveyed by personalletter to Dr Albert V. Baez, the Chairman of the IUCNCommission on Education.The Commission on Education is one of IUCN's old-est, having been established in 1949, a year after thefounding of the Union, and comprises an international,voluntary group dedicated to enhancing the quality oflife through educational programmes that promote con-servation and sustainable development throughout theworld. Its broad aim is to help the general public tounderstand the need to protect the environment and usenatural resources wisely, and to motivate participation inactivities which will attain this goal to the benefit ofpresent and future generations.The Commission on Education's activities are directedtowards policy-makers and planners, educators, youngpeople, and the public in general. Commission memberscurrently total 293, drawn from 89 countries. They areactive in all aspects of environmental education, andinclude policy-makers, scientists, educators, mass com-municators, museum directors, youth leaders, andothers.Virginia Environmental Endowment —A Cooperative ApproachThrough a unique decision in 1977 by a United StatesDistrict Court, a penalty for environmental pollutionwas turned into a constructive, ongoing programme forenvironmental improvement. This precedent case, whichoccurred in the Commonwealth of Virginia, USA, hasresulted in a most innovative, productive programmedirected by the Virginia Environmental Endowment.In 1977, Allied Chemical Corporation was fined $13.2millions for polluting the James River in Virginia withKepone, a highly toxic and persistent insecticide. In anagreement with the federal court, Allied paid a voluntarycontribution of $8 millions to create the Virginia En-vironmental Endowment. In just over five years, theEndowment has awarded $2.3 millions in grants andloans for over 80 projects to improve the environment ofVirginia.Four Main PrioritiesTo attract proposals which address some of the State'smost critical environmental problems, the Endowmentfocuses its grant-making on four priorities: (1) the effectsof toxic substances on human health and the environ-ment, (2) environmental law, (3) community improve-ment, and (4) environmental mediation.Two guiding principles have helped the Endowment tocarve an effective role as a catalyst for State and localenvironmental activity. First, it recognizes that environ-mental concerns are global in scope but local in theireffect on people's lives. Many of the Endowment's grantprogrammes have been designed to help people to trans-late national policies into local action.Another principle which the Endowment follows isthat people can accomplish more by working togetherthan they can when working separately. New coalitionsof business, government, citizens, and conservationists,are finding practical, long-term solutions to problems ofkeeping communities safe and liveable.The following results of several grant awards in theEndowment's four priority areas illustrate the success ofthis direct, cooperative approach:The discovery of the release of Kepone into Virginia'sprimary waterway was precipitated by the diagnosis ofsevere illness in chemical workers who were exposed tolarge quantities of Kepone in their workplace. With sub-stantial support from the Endowment, research workershttps:/www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0376892900012297Downloaded from https:/www.cambridge.org/core. University of Basel Library, on 11 Jul 2017 at 12:41:31, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at

Some Educational Implications of the World Conservation Strategy

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