Copyright 1991 International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources/ United Nations Environment Programme/WWF- World Wide Fund For Nature. Reproduction of this publication for educational and other non- commercial purposes is authorized without prior permission from the copyright holders. Reproduction for resale or other commercial purposes is prohibited without the prior written permission of the copyright holders. Any redistribution of this work, in whole or in part, must contain this copyright notice. Caring for the Earth A Strategy for Sustainable Living Published in partnership by IUCN-The World Conservation Union UNEP-United Nations Environment Programme WWF-World Wide Fund For Nature Gland, Switzerland, October 1991 page i Sponsors CIDA - Canadian International Development Agency Canadian Wildlife Federation DANIDA - Danish International Development Assistance FINNIDA - Finnish International Development Agency International Centre for Ocean Development Ministere de l'Environnement du Quebec, Ministry of Environment of Quebec The Johnson Foundation Inc. Ministero degli Affari Esteri, Direzione Generale per la Cooperazione allo Sviluppo, Italy Netherlands Minister for Development Cooperation NORAD - Royal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Norway SIDA - Swedish International Development Authority Collaborators Asian Development Bank FAO-Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations IIED-International Institute for Environment and Development ILO-International Labour Office ICHM-Istituto Superiore di Sanita OAS-Secretariat: Organization of American States United Nations Centre for Human Settlements - Habitat UNDP-United Nations Development Programme UNESCO-United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization UNFPA-United Nations Population Fund The World Bank WHO-World Health Organization WMO-World Meteorological Organization WRI-World Resources Institute Second World Conservation Strategy Project Project Director: David A. Munro Senior Consultant and Writer: Robert Prescott-Allen Production: Peter Hulm and Nikki Meith Secretary: Margrith Kemp Cover and graphics: Kurt Brunner/Art Center College of Design (Europe) Final text edited by David A. Munro and Martin W. Holdgate English ISBN 2-8317-0074-4; French ISBN 2-8317-0075-2; Spanish ISBN 2-8317-0076-0; Earthscan edition 1-85383-126-3 Citation: IUCN/UNEP/WWF. (1991). Caring for the Earth. A Strategy for Sustainable Living. Gland, Switzerland. page ii CHAPTERS 1-4 Contents Foreword User's guide to Caring for the Earth 3 PART I Principles for Sustainable Living Chapter 1 Building a sustainable society 8 Chapter 2 Respecting and caring for the community of life 13 Chapter 3 Improving the quality of human life 18 Chapter 4 Conserving the Earth's vitality and diversity 27 Chapter 5 Keeping within the Earth's carrying capacity 43 Chapter 6 Changing personal attitudes and practices 52 Chapter 7 Enabling communities to care for their own environments 57 Chapter 8 Providing a national framework for integrating development and conservation 64 Chapter 9 Creating a global alliance 77 PART II Additional Actions for Sustainable Living Chapter 10 Energy 89 Chapter 11 Business, industry and commerce 96 Chapter 12 Human settlements 104 Chapter 13 Farm and range lands 110 Chapter 14 Forest lands 122 Chapter 15 Fresh waters 137 page iii Contents Chapter 16 Oceans and coastal areas 150 PART III Implementation and Follow-up Chapter 17 Implementing the Strategy 165 Annex 1 Net primary production pre-empted or destroyed by human activities 186 Annex 2 Classification of 160 countries by income 188 Annex 3 Average life expectancy at birth in 160 countries 190 Annex 4 Categories and management objectives of protected areas 192 Annex 5 Classification of countries by consumption of commercial energy per person and total fertility rate 194 Annex 6 Indicators of sustainability 198 Annex 7 Estimated cost of implementing major aspects of this Strategy 202 Annex 8 Strategies for sustainability 204 Glossary 210 Notes and sources 213 Acknowledgements 223 page iv Foreword This strategy is founded on the conviction that people can alter their behaviour when they see that it will make things better, and can work together when they need to. It is aimed at change because values, economies and societies different from most that prevail today are needed if we are to care for the Earth and build a better quality of life for all. Over a decade ago our organizations published the World Conservation Strategy. It stated a new message: that conservation is not the opposite of development. It emphasized that conservation includes both protection and the rational use of natural resources, and is essential if people are to achieve a life of dignity and if the welfare of present and future generations is to be assured. It drew attention to the almost limitless capacity of people both to build and destroy. It called for globally coordinated efforts to increase human well-being and halt the destruction of Earth's capacity to support life. ---------------------------------------------------------------- The World Conservation Strategy and its successors The World Conservation Strategy was published in 1980. It emphasized that humanity, which exists as a part of nature, has no future unless nature and natural resources are conserved. It asserted that conservation cannot be achieved without development to alleviate the poverty and misery of hundreds of millions of people. Stressing the interdependence of conservation and development, the WCS first gave currency to the term "sustainable development". Sustainable development depends on caring for the Earth. Unless the fertility and productivity of the planet are safeguarded, the human future is at risk. The World Conservation Strategy therefore emphasized three objectives: - essential ecological processes and life-support systems must be maintained; - genetic diversity must be preserved; - any use of species or ecosystems must be sustainable. Since 1980, the World Conservation Strategy has been tested by the preparation of national and subnational conservation strategies in over 50 countries. In 1987, in its report Our Common Future, the World Commission on Environment and Development advanced our understanding of global interdependence and the relationship between economics and the environment. It contributed significantly to the growing recognition of the need for sustainable development and international equity. Also in 1987, governments adopted an Environmental Perspective to the Year 2000 and Beyond, which defined a broad framework to guide national action and international cooperation for environmentally sound development. In June 1992 they will meet in Rio de Janeiro to agree an agenda for environment and development in the 21st Century. -------------------------------------------------------- page 1 Foreword In the decade since 1980 the complexity of the problems we face has become clearer, and the need to act has become more pressing. In this new document we set out the broad principles, and an array of consequent actions, upon which we believe the future of our societies depends. We accept that the actions called for in this Strategy will not be taken easily. Inertia is strong within human societies. Governments have to balance the gains of change against the inevitable costs of upheaval, and tend to develop policies through a succession of cautious steps. People cling to what they have, especially if they perceive that change threatens their personal power and wealth. It will be difficult for many communities to switch resources from war to peace, national to global advantage, or immediate gain to future welfare. But the conflicts, famine and strife that persist in an over- stressed world show how essential it is to seek a new approach. This reinforces our conviction that this Strategy must go ahead. Caring for the Earth has been prepared through a wider process of consultation than was possible when we wrote the World Conservation Strategy a decade ago. It is intended to re-state current thinking about conservation and development in a way that will inform and encourage those who believe that people and nature are worth caring about and that their futures are intertwined. It is also intended to persuade people at all levels that they can do something, or help cause something to be done, that will lead to better care for the Earth. The actions of our organizations and others will have to be reshaped if we are to ensure speedy and efficient implementation of this Strategy. We urge all governments, intergovernmental organizations, non-governmental groups, and individuals to help achieve that essential goal. Martin W. Holdgate Director General IUCN -The World Conservation Union Mostafa K. Tolba Executive Director UNEP -United Nations Environment Programme Charles de Haes Director General WWF -World Wide Fund For Nature page 2 User's guide to Caring for the Earth The aim of Caring for the Earth is to help improve the condition of the world's people, by defining two requirements. One is to secure a widespread and deeply-held commitment to a new ethic, the ethic for sustainable living, and to translate its principles into practice. The other is to integrate conservation and development: conservation to keep our actions within the Earth's capacity, and development to enable people everywhere to enjoy long, healthy and fulfilling lives. It extends and emphasizes the message of the World Conservation Strategy, published by the same organizations in 1980. Caring for the Earth is intended to be used by those who shape policy and make decisions that affect the course of development and the condition of our environment. This is a much larger group than might at first appear. While it must include politicians, and executives in the public and private sectors at the national and international levels, it also includes leaders, business people and other citizens in communities and settlements everywhere. Caring for the Earth is everyone's business. Structure of the text The text has three parts. Part I, The Principles for Sustainable Living, begins with a chapter that defines principles to guide the way toward sustainable societies. The principles are: respect and care for the community of life, improve the quality of human life, conserve the Earth's vitality and diversity, minimize the depletion of non- renewable resources, keep within the Earth's carrying capacity, change personal attitudes and practices, enable communities to care for their own environments, provide a national framework for integrating development and conservation, and forge a global alliance. The following eight chapters recommend activities that will give substance to the principles. Part II, Additional Actions for Sustainable Living, describes corresponding actions that are required in relation to the main areas of human activity and some of the major components of the biosphere. These chapters deal with energy; business, industry and commerce; human settlements; farm and range lands; forest lands; fresh waters; and oceans and coastal areas. Each chapter begins with a brief survey of the issues with which it deals. This is followed by a series of recommended priority actions. Part III, Implementation and Follow-up, consists of one chapter which proposes guidelines to help users adapt the strategy to their needs and capabilities and implement it, and sets out how the sponsors propose to follow up the Strategy and involve the community of users in its follow-up. It also contains a listing of all the recommended priority actions and suggested targets. While the text has three parts and comprises 17 chapters, this should not obscure the reality that environmental, social and economic issues are joined in a network of sobering complexity. Thus no single chapter really stands alone, and while linkages are indicated by a system of cross references, it is an imperfect system and it would be useful to read at least Part I in full and preferably the whole text. page 3 User's guide to Caring for the Earth -------------------------------------------------------------------- Gambling with survival or living sustainably? This strategy is based on three points. The first is simple and obvious. It is that we, the world's people, want to survive; but more than that, we want a satisfactory life for all of us and for our descendants. To achieve that goal we need a new kind of development, and we must learn to live differently. The second is that we depend on the resources of the Earth to meet our basic and vital needs; if they are diminished or deteriorate we risk that our needs and those of our descendants will go unmet. Because we have been failing to care for the Earth properly and living unsustainably, that risk has become dangerously high. We are now gambling with the survival of civilization. The third point is that we need not lose. We can eliminate the risk by ensuring that the benefits of development are distributed equitably, and by learning to care for the Earth and live sustainably. Gambling with survival Our civilizations are at risk because we are misusing natural resources and disturbing natural systems. We are pressing the Earth to the limits of its capacity. Since the industrial revolution, human numbers have grown eight-fold. Industrial production has risen by more than 100 times in the past 100 years. This unprecedented increase in human numbers and activity has had major impacts on the environment. The capacity of the Earth to support human and other life has been significantly diminished. In less than 200 years the planet has lost six million square kilometres of forest; the sediment load from soil erosion has risen three-fold in major river basins and by eight times in smaller, more intensively used ones; water withdrawals have grown from 100 to 3600 cubic kilometres a year. Atmospheric systems have been disturbed, threatening the climate regime to which we and other forms of life have long been adapted. Since the mid-eighteenth century, human activities have more than doubled the methane in the atmosphere; increased the concentration of carbon dioxide by 27%; and significantly damaged the stratospheric ozone layer. Pollution of air, soil, fresh waters and the oceans has become a serious and continuing threat to the health of humans and other species. Humanity is causing emissions of arsenic, mercury, nickel, and vanadium that are now double those from natural sources; zinc emissions are triple and those from cadmium and lead are respectively five and eighteen times higher than natural rates. Most astonishing of all, the 5.3 billion people now on Earth are already using 40% of our most elemental resource - the energy from the sun made available by green plants on land. Yet despite this vast takeover of nature, hundreds of millions of people struggle in poverty, lacking a tolerable quality of life. One person in five cannot get enough food properly to support an active working life. One quarter of the world's people are without safe drinking water. Every year millions of children die from malnutrition and preventable disease. Such conditions are grossly unjust. They also threaten the peace and stability of many countries now, and of the whole world eventually. The resources of the Earth are overtaxed now. but without calamitous loss of life the continued . . . page 4 User's guide to Caring for the Earth global human population cannot stabilize at less than 10 billion. It may reach 12 billion. How can this vast increase in human numbers be supported without doing irreversible damage to the Earth? Clearly not by going on living as we are now. Clearly not by a policy of business as usual. Living sustainably The change to living sustainably and caring for the Earth will be a major one for most people. For a start we will need to understand and accept the consequences of being part of the great community of life and to become more conscious of the effects of our decisions on other societies, future generations and other species. We will need to perfect and promote an ethic for living sustainably. Living sustainably must be a guiding principle for all the world's people, but it never will be while hundreds of millions live without enough of even the basic essentials of life. To make it possible for us all to think of the welfare of later generations and other species, we need a new kind of development that rapidly improves the quality of life for the disadvantaged. The Earth has its limits; with the best technology imaginable, they are not infinitely expandable. To live within those limits and see that those who now have least can soon get more, two things will need to be done: population growth must stop everywhere, and the rich must stabilize, and in some cases, reduce, their consumption of resources. Ways exist to do this without reducing the real quality of life. Sustainable living must be the new pattern for all levels: individuals, communities, nations and the world. To adopt the new pattern will require a significant change in the attitudes and practices of many people. We will need to ensure that education programmes reflect the importance of an ethic for living sustainably and that information campaigns are mounted to disseminate it. Local communities are the focus for much that needs to be done in making the change to living sustainably, but there is little they can do if they lack the power to act. Subject to vital interests of the larger community, they must be enabled to manage the resources on which they depend and to have an effective voice in the decisions that affect them. Progress towards sustainability has been slow because of the belief that conservation and development are opposite. Legal, social, economic and technical measures aimed at sustainability must be integrated in planning and action at all levels, particularly in national governments which have the main levers for strategic action. Much of what needs to be done if we are properly to care for the Earth is of global significance and requires a global response. The framework exists for the cooperation, monitoring and management that are necessary, but programmes are poorly coordinated and rarely integrated. Funding is far from equal to the task. A new alliance of all the countries of the world is needed to effect needed reforms and improve the quality of life in the less developed areas of the world. ----------------------------------------------------------------- page 5 BLANK page 6 Part I The Principles of a Sustainable Society page 7 1. Building a sustainable society This is a strategy for a kind of development that provides real improvements in the quality of human life and at the same time conserves the vitality and diversity of the Earth. The goal is development that meets these needs in a sustainable way. Today it may seem visionary, but it is attainable. To more and more people it also appears our only rational option. Most current development fails because it meets human needs incompletely and often destroys or degrades its resource base (see pp. 4-5: Gambling with survival or living sustainably). We need development that is both people-centred, concentrating on improving the human condition, and conservation-based, maintaining the variety and productivity of nature. We have to stop talking about conservation and development as if they were in opposition, and recognize that they are essential parts of one indispensable process. Caring for the Earth sets out a broad and explicit world strategy for the changes needed to build a sustainable society. We need such a strategy because: - the most important issues we face are strongly interlinked, and therefore our actions must be mutually supportive and aimed at a common goal; - the changes we must make in the ways in which we live and develop will be fundamental and far-reaching: they will demand our full dedication. The task will be easier if we work together; - no single group can succeed by acting alone. Any strategy has to be a guide rather than a prescription. It cannot be followed slavishly. Human societies differ greatly in culture, history, religion, politics, institutions and traditions. They also differ importantly in wealth, quality of life and environmental conditions, and in their awareness of the significance of these differences. Nor are these features fixed in time: change is continual. For these reasons, the principles and actions in this Strategy are described in broad terms. They are meant to be interpreted and adapted by each community. The world needs a variety of sustainable societies, achieved by many different paths. Principles of a sustainable society Living sustainably depends on accepting a duty to seek harmony with other people and with nature. The guiding rules are that people must share with each other and care for the Earth. Humanity must take no more from nature than nature can replenish. This in turn means adopting life-styles and development paths that respect and work within nature's limits. It can be done without rejecting the many benefits that modern technology has brought, provided that technology also works within those limits. This Strategy is about a new approach to the future, not a return to the past. page 8 Chapter 1. Building a sustainable society The principles of a sustainable society are interrelated and mutually supporting. Of those listed below, the first is the founding principle providing the ethical base for the others. The next four define the criteria that should be met, and the last four directions to be taken in working towards a sustainable society at the individual, local, national and international levels. The principles are: Respect and care for the community of life. This principle reflects the duty of care for other people and other forms of life, now and in the future. It is an ethical principle. It means that development should not be at the expense of other groups or later generations. We should aim to share fairly the benefits and costs of resource use and environmental conservation among different communities and interest groups, among people who are poor and those who are affluent, and between our generation and those who will come after us. All life on earth is part of one great interdependent system, which influences and depends on the non-living components of the planet - rocks, soils, waters and air. Disturbing one part of this biosphere can affect the whole. Just as human societies are interdependent and future generations are affected by our present actions, so the world of nature is increasingly dominated by our behaviour. It is a matter of ethics as well as practicality to manage development so that it does not threaten the survival of other species or eliminate their habitats. While our survival depends on the use of other species, we need not and should not use them cruelly or wastefully. Improve the quality of human life. The real aim of development is to improve the quality of human life. It is a process that enables human beings to realize their potential, build self-confidence and lead lives of dignity and fulfilment. Economic growth is an important component of development, but it cannot be a goal in itself, nor can it go on indefinitely. Although people differ in the goals that they would set for development, some are virtually universal. These include a long and healthy life, education, access to the resources needed for a decent standard of living, political freedom, guaranteed human rights, and freedom from violence. Development is real only if it makes our lives better in all these respects. Conserve the Earth's vitality and diversity. Conservation-based development needs to include deliberate action to protect the structure, functions and diversity of the world's natural systems, on which our species utterly depends. This requires us to: Conserve life-support systems. These are the ecological processes that keep the planet fit for life. They shape climate, cleanse air and water, regulate water flow, recycle essential elements, create and regenerate soil, and enable ecosystems to renew themselves; Conserve biodiversity. This includes not only all species of plants, animals and other organisms, but also the range of genetic stocks within each species, and the variety of ecosystems; Ensure that uses of renewable resources are sustainable. Renewable resources include soil, wild and domesticated organisms, forests, rangelands, cultivated land, and the marine and freshwater ecosystems that support fisheries. A use is sustainable if it is within the resource's capacity for renewal. page 9 Chapter 1. Building a sustainable society -------------------------------------------------------------------- Box 1. Sustainability: a question of definition Caring for the Earth uses the word "sustainable" in several combinations, such as "sustainable development", "sustainable economy", "sustainable society", and "sustainable use". It is important for an understanding of the Strategy to know what we mean by these terms. If an activity is sustainable, for all practical purposes it can continue forever. When people define an activity as sustainable, however, it is on the basis of what they know at the time. There can be no long-term guarantee of sustainability, because many factors remain unknown or unpredictable. The moral we draw from this is: be conservative in actions that could affect the environment, study the effects of such actions carefully, and learn from your mistakes quickly. The World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) defined "sustainable development" as "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs". The term has been criticized as ambiguous and open to a wide range of interpretations, many of which are contradictory. The confusion has been caused because "sustainable development", "sustainable growth" and "sustainable use" have been used interchangeably, as if their meanings were the same. They are not. "Sustainable growth" is a contradiction in terms: nothing physical can grow indefinitely. "Sustainable use" is applicable only to renewable resources: it means using them at rates within their capacity for renewal. "Sustainable development" is used in this Strategy to mean: improving the quality of human life while living within the carrying capacity of supporting ecosystems. A "sustainable economy" is the product of sustainable development. It maintains its natural resource base. It can continue to develop by adapting, and through improvements in knowledge, organization, technical efficiency, and wisdom. A "sustainable society" lives by the nine principles outlined in this chapter. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Minimize the depletion of non-renewable resources. Minerals, oil, gas and coal are effectively non-renewable. Unlike plants, fish or soil, they cannot be used sustainably. However, their "life" can be extended, for example, by recycling, by using less of a resource to make a particular product, or by switching to renewable substitutes where possible. Widespread adoption of such practices is essential if the Earth is to sustain billions more people in future, and give everyone a life of decent quality. Keep within the Earth's carrying capacity. Precise definition is difficult, but there are finite limits to the "carrying capacity" of the Earth's ecosystems - to the impacts that they and the biosphere as a whole can withstand without dangerous deterioration. The limits vary from region to region, and the impacts depend on how many people there are and how much food, water, energy and raw materials each uses and wastes. A few people consuming a lot can cause as much damage as a lot of people consuming a little. Policies that bring human numbers and life-styles into balance with nature's capacity must be developed alongside technologies that enhance that capacity by careful management. page 10 Chapter 1. Building a sustainable society Change personal attitudes and practices. To adopt the ethic for living sustainably, people must re-examine their values and alter their behaviour. Society must promote values that support the new ethic and discourage those that are incompatible with a sustainable way of life. Information must be disseminated through formal and informal educational systems so that the policies and actions needed for the survival and well-being of the world's societies can be explained and understood. Enable communities to care for their own environments. Most of the creative and productive activities of individuals or groups take place in communities. Communities and citizens' groups provide the most readily accessible means for people to take socially valuable action as well as to express their concerns. Properly mandated, empowered and informed, communities can contribute to decisions that affect them and play an indispensable part in creating a securely-based sustainable society. Provide a national framework for integrating development and conservation. All societies need a foundation of information and knowledge, a framework of law and institutions, and consistent economic and social policies if they are to advance in a rational way. A national programme for achieving sustainability should involve all interests, and seek to identify and prevent problems before they arise. It must be adaptive, continually redirecting its course in response to experience and to new needs. National measures should: - treat each region as an integrated system, taking account of the interactions among land, air, water, organisms and human activities; - recognize that each system influences and is influenced by larger and smaller systems - whether ecological, economic, social or political; - consider people as the central element in the system, evaluating the social, economic, technical and political factors that affect how they use natural resources; - relate economic policy to environmental carrying capacity; - increase the benefits obtained from each stock of resources; - promote technologies that use resources more efficiently; - ensure that resource users pay the full social costs of the benefits they enjoy. Create a global alliance. No nation today is self-sufficient. If we are to achieve global sustainability a firm alliance must be established among all countries. The levels of development in the world are unequal, and the lower-income* countries must be helped to develop sustainably and protect their environments. Global and shared resources, especially the atmosphere, oceans and shared ------------------------------------------------------------------- * With the adoption of broader concepts of development, reflecting social and ecological as well as economic conditions, conventional classifications of countries as "developed" or "developing" have become less useful. Throughout this document therefore, countries are grouped by income (lower-income, upper-income, etc.) following a classification set out in Annex 2. page 11 Chapter 1. Building a sustainable society ecosystems, can be managed only on the basis of common purpose and resolve. The ethic of care applies at the international as well as the national and individual levels. All nations stand to gain from worldwide sustainability - and are threatened if we fail to attain it. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Action 1.1. Develop new strategies for sustainable living, based on the nine principles -------------------------------------------------------------------- The nine principles outlined in this chapter are far from new. They reflect values and duties - especially the duty of care for other people, and of respect and care for nature - that many of the world's cultures and religions have recognized for centuries. The principles also reflect statements that have appeared in many reports about the need for equity, for sustainable development, and for conservation of nature in its own right and as the essential support for human life. The need now is to build practical strategies for sustainable living around these principles. Governments should review and adjust their national development plans and conservation strategies in the light of the imperative for sustainability. They should cooperate, directly and within international organizations, to ensure that sustainability is achieved at the global level. (See Actions 8.2, 9.2, 9.4, 17.7 and 17.8). Page 12 2. Respecting and caring for the community of life This Strategy proposes that the respect and care we owe each other and the Earth be expressed in an ethic for living sustainably. A framework for this ethic - a set of consistent and morally-compelling principles to guide human conduct - is set out in Box 2. The ethic is founded on a belief in people as a creative force, and in the value of every human individual and each human society. It recognizes the interdependence of human communities, and the duty each person has to care for other people and for future generations. It asserts our responsibility towards the other forms of life with which we share this planet. It also recognizes that nature has to be cared for in its own right, and not just as a means of satisfying human needs. An ethic is important because what people do depends on what they believe. Widely shared beliefs are often more powerful than government edicts. The transition to sustainable societies will require changes in how people perceive each other, other life and the Earth; how they evaluate their needs and priorities; and how they behave. For example, individual security is important, but people need to understand that it will not be attained solely (or even largely) through indefinite growth in their personal level of consumption. We need to re-state and win support for the ethic of living sustainably because: - it is morally right; - without it the human future is in jeopardy; poverty, strife and tragedy will increase; - individual actions are, perhaps for the first time, combining to have global effects; and since these worldwide problems arise from today's conflicting aspirations and competition for scarce resources, the ethical principles enabling us to resolve them must also be agreed globally; - no major society yet lives according to a value system that cares properly for the future of human communities and other life on earth. Establishment of the ethic needs the support of the world's religions because they have spoken for centuries about the individual's duty of care for fellow humans and of reverence for divine creation. It also needs the backing of secular groups concerned with the principles that should govern relationships among people, and with nature. Such alliances will be timely and right even if the first purposes of religions and humanist groups are not the same as those of this Strategy. An ethic defines both rights and responsibilities. Thus each human individual has a responsibility to respect the rights of others. Statements of human rights, and especially the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, have played an important part in defending the individual from subjugation in the name of some "common good". The need to defend individual rights is a great as ever. At the same time, concerted action is required to protect and preserve common needs and shared resources. The obligations of individuals must be emphasized just as much as their rights. People in many societies need to change their attitudes towards nature, because it can no page 13 Chapter 2. Respecting and caring for the community of life longer meet their demands or withstand their impacts. We have a right to the benefits of nature but these will not be available unless we care for the systems that provide them. Moreover, all the species and systems of nature deserve respect regardless of their usefulness to humanity. This is the central message of the World Charter for Nature and the Declaration of Fontainebleau. This belief also links many religions and non- religious groups. Respect for other forms of life is easiest in those cultures and societies that emphasize that humanity is both apart from and a part of nature. It is most evident in those communities whose lives are lived in close contact with nature, and whose traditions of care for it endure. This is the basis of the special contribution that indigenous peoples can make to the rediscovery of sustainable living by the world community. Priority actions Winning support for the ethic for living sustainably will require action on a broad front. It is not enough to publicize and teach the new approach, because well-informed people do not necessarily take the right decisions. Since value systems determine how people pursue political, legal, economic or technological goals, values associated with the ethic must pervade all spheres of human action if it is to succeed. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Box 2. Elements of a world ethic for living sustainably Every human being is a part of the community of life, made up of all living creatures. This community links all human societies, present and future generations, and humanity and the rest of nature. It embraces both cultural and natural diversity. Every human being has the same fundamental and equal rights, including: the right to life, liberty and security of person; to the freedoms of thought, conscience, and religion; to enquiry and expression; to peaceful assembly and association; to participation in government; to education; and, within the limits of the Earth, to the resources needed for a decent standard of living. No individual, community or nation has the right to deprive another of its means of subsistence. Each person and each society is entitled to respect of these rights; and is responsible for the protection of these rights for all others. Every life form warrants respect independently of its worth to people. Human development should not threaten the integrity of nature or the survival of other species. People should treat all creatures decently, and protect them from cruelty, avoidable suffering and unnecessary killing. Everyone should take responsibility for his or her impacts on nature. People should conserve ecological processes and the diversity of nature, and use any resource frugally and efficiently, ensuring that their uses of renewable resources are sustainable. Everyone should aim to share fairly the benefits and costs of resource use, among different communities and interest groups, among regions that are poor and those that are affluent, and between present and future generations. Each generation should leave to the future a world that is at least as diverse and productive as the one it inherited. Development of one society or generation should not limit the opportunities of other societies or generations. The protection of human rights and those of the rest of nature is a worldwide responsibility that transcends all cultural, ideological and geographical boundaries. The responsibility is both individual and collective. ------------------------------------------------------------------ page 14 Chapter 2. Respecting and caring for the community of life -------------------------------------------------------------------- Action 2.1. Develop the world ethic for living sustainably. -------------------------------------------------------------------- While the broad philosophy of the world ethic for living sustainably is clear, much still needs to be done to develop it to the point where it can be promoted and applied. Action is therefore needed to: - establish purposeful communication among religious leaders and thinkers, moral philosophers, leaders of organizations concerned with conservation and development, and politicians and writers concerned with the principles of human conduct; - continue the process by which major religions have begun to identify and emphasize the elements of their faiths and teachings that establish a duty of care for nature; - involve people in development of the world ethic through existing religious and citizens' groups and through environmental and humanitarian non-governmental organizations; - establish new coalitions of groups concerned with respecting and caring for the community of life, and with the consequent personal and social obligations. These coalitions should be formed nationally, and linked in a simple and inexpensive international network through which each can learn how the others are progressing. Existing partnerships such as WWF's Network on Conservation and Religion and IUCN's Ethics Working Group should be brought within this framework. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Box 3. Two potential conflicts between human well-being and the world ethic for living sustainably The obligation to respect every species independently of its worth to people may conflict with human interests, if a species endangers human health or survival. Many people feel that it is morally justified to eradicate a human pathogen that is not present in any other host and is responsible for considerable loss of human lives, poor health and disability. Such species include human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV-I, HIV-II), smallpox virus, poliomyelitis virus, Plasmodium falciparum (the cause of malignant malaria), and guineaworm. Many people also feel that it is ethically justified to eradicate other harmful species - such as carriers of an animal disease communicable to people - if this is the only way to save human lives. Some would go further and extend this proposition to pathogens that attack livestock. But it can also be argued that while control of harmful species may be justified, in no case is it right to seek the extinction of a species. Perhaps we should keep the last surviving pathogens in internationally controlled laboratories, as happened with the smallpox virus. The obligation to protect all creatures from cruelty, avoidable suffering and unnecessary killing can also conflict with the requirement that no people should be deprived of its means of subsistence. The campaign against the fur trade has deprived indigenous peoples in Greenland and northern Canada of a major source (and for some communities, the only source) of income, even though they were harvesting those resources sustainably. Elephant conservation may have been made more difficult in several southern African countries because they can no longer obtain a financial return from the animals they have to cull. The ban under CITES of trade in elephant products could thus reduce the perceived value of elephants to communities that are well aware of the damage that this species can cause. Perhaps there is no other issue over which human rights and animal rights have collided with such emotional force. Such conflicts reveal radically different cultural interpretations of the ethic for living sustainably. Ethical principles need to be developed to resolve these dilemmas. --------------------------------------------------------------------- page 15 Chapter 2. Respecting and caring for the community of life One result of this action should be the further development of the principles in Box 2, clarifying the relationships between human obligations, human rights and the rights of nature, and helping to resolve any conflicts among them (see Box 3). The statements of principle should go beyond the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the World Charter for Nature, emphasizing individual and social obligations towards future generations and defining the ethical treatment of other species. They should lead to codes of practical conduct that implement the world ethic within the cultural context of each society. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Action 2.2. Promote the world ethic for living sustainably at national level. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Governments should: - adopt a Declaration and Covenant that commits States to the world ethic for living sustainably and defines their rights and responsibilities accordingly (see Action 9.4); - incorporate the principles of the world ethic, and the obligations incurred under this Covenant into their national legislation, or where appropriate, their Constitution (see Action 8.4). --------------------------------------------------------------------- Action 2.3. Implement the world ethic for living sustainably through action in all sectors of society. --------------------------------------------------------------------- The effective implementation of the world ethic will only be possible if it is taken up by all sections of the community. The range of actions that could be taken is very large, but should include: - parents teaching their children to act with respect for other people and other species; - educators incorporating the world ethic into their teaching; - children helping their parents to become aware and change their behaviour by explaining at home the new ideas they have learned at school; - artists in all media using their creative skills to inspire people with a new understanding and respect for nature, and a wish to conserve it; - scientists improving understanding of ecosystems, their sensitivity to human impact, and their capacity to meet human needs, and at the same time ensuring that findings are communicated accurately and applied responsibly; - lawyers evaluating the legal implications of the world ethic, and drafting the laws required to support it; - technologists, economists and industrialists entering into dialogue with the coalitions and groups created under Action 2.1, and establishing new technologies and business approaches to implement the world ethic; - politicians, other policy makers and public administrators working similarly to evaluate the changes needed in public policy, and then to put them into effect. page 16 Chapter 2. Respecting and caring for the community of life --------------------------------------------------------------------- Action 2.4. Establish a world organization to monitor implementation of the world ethic for living sustainably and to prevent and combat serious breaches in its observation. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Promoting the world ethic will inevitably be slow and uphill work. Many people will not see the need for change, and others will resist it because they think it threatens their personal interests. Hence, some special machinery is needed to confront the most stubborn obstacles. This could be provided by a world organization with a role analogous to that of Amnesty International in defending human rights. The goal would be to secure observance of the world ethic in every country. The world organization would explain the links between human rights and the rights of nature, and emphasize human responsibilities, including those towards future generations. It would be an independent people's movement, whose members would be committed to observing the ethic in their own lives, and doing what they could - through letter-writing and other campaigns - to publicize, prevent, and reverse serious breaches of it. A first task would be to define serious breaches of the ethic and decide which ones the organization would concentrate on. The members would be linked by national organizations, working closely with the coalitions and international networks established under Action 2.1. page 17 3. Improving the quality of human life The purpose of development is to enable people to enjoy long, healthy and fulfilling lives. As Chapter 1 emphasized, development has to be both people-centred and conservation-based. Otherwise it will not achieve this purpose and investment will be wasted. This chapter focuses on the people-centred aspects of development, while Chapter 4 examines the actions needed to conserve the environmental resources on which it must be based. Indicators of development range from explicit statistics, such as those relating to life expectancy, literacy and the availability of basic necessities, through measures of the enjoyment of goods and services that enable escape from drudgery, to less measurable evidence of environmental quality and cultural and spiritual fulfilment. Most lower-income countries have achieved improvements in some indicators over the past decades. Life expectancy has risen from 46 to 62 years, although there are still 19 countries where it is less than 50 years (see Annex 3). There has been a rise in the provision of water and sanitation. By 1987, 80% of the urban population in the lower-income countries (and 55% of people overall) had access to safe drinking water and 59% had sanitation services. Food production per head had kept pace with or outstripped population growth in all continents except Africa, where it fell by 8% between 1978 and 1988. Such figures should not lead to complacency. The world's basic needs for food, shelter and health are still not being met. The number of people living in absolute poverty is likely to increase from 1 billion to 1.5 billion by the end of the century. The biggest increase is expected in Africa, from about 270 million to 400 million. Although global food production has increased, the surpluses are accumulating where they are not needed, while starvation brings suffering and death elsewhere. Quality of life also depends on the opportunity and capacity to play a meaningful part in the community. Illiteracy and unemployment lock the poor into poverty. Although there has been some progress (the adult literacy rate in lower-income countries rose from 43% in 1970 to 60% in 1985), a quarter of the adult men and half the adult women in those countries (900 million people in all) still cannot read and write. Unemployment and under-employment remain serious problems in many countries, wasting human resources, provoking social unrest and preventing personal fulfilment. The international economic situation weighs heavily on the poor. The purchasing power of lower-income country exports has declined in recent decades, as a result of both the way world markets work and the burden of debt (see Chapter 9). Between 1970 and 1988 the commodity price index fell from around 120 to under 80 while the indebtedness of the developing world soared from around 200 to over 1000 billion dollars. The poorest and most debt-ridden countries have the greatest difficulty in securing the resources for human development - and the greatest need. Many of them have above-average rates of human population growth, yet government revenues and average incomes are declining. In many of these countries, living conditions are becoming intolerable. As a consequence of human desperation, pressures on natural resources are increasing, and too page 18 Chapter 3. Improving the quality of human life many countries are suffering from a vicious spiral of degradation which will further undermine their long-term prospects. Many countries cannot (or do not) invest as much in social or environmental programmes as is needed. There are many causes of this shortfall. Some of them, including failure to institute an equitable taxation system, corruption, capital flight, inefficiency and deliberate choice to invest in other sectors, could be dealt with by the countries themselves. Other causes such as lack of export earnings, high interest payments on loans, and insufficient development assistance, can only be dealt with by changes in global economic relationships. Greater international financial assistance is needed for social purposes and to support the conservation and rehabilitation of nature and essential natural resources. Aid for social purposes is more important than that for major capital development. Debt cancellation and improving conditions of trade offer other ways forward (see Actions 9.5 and 9.6). All governments need to review their budgetary priorities, and many should redistribute the wealth they have so as to finance essential human development and environmental care. Military expenditures, which in 1986 totalled some $825 billion, create no lasting benefits and are widely regarded as an obvious source of savings for redeployment (Box 4). The scope for redeploying resources from military to civil uses is considered further in Box 29 (Chapter 17). Good social policies can redistribute resources, and thereby compensate to some degree for poor income distribution (Box 5). But they cannot substitute for the economic activity needed to finance these policies over the long run. Policies to sustain or restore the economy are thus critical for all lower-income countries. Since all economies are ultimately based on natural resources and life support systems, economic and social policies and measures must be complemented by policies and measures to conserve the environment and prevent the waste of natural resources. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Box 4. Reducing military expenditure There are two key elements to reducing military expenditure. The first is to satisfy governments that the security of their frontiers and internal order can be maintained with less investment - and that their own economic health will benefit from the change. At the same time, those countries whose economies gain from the vigorous export of arms need to be persuaded that their interests will be served better by the transfer of workers and investment to other sectors. None of this will be easy, but it is certainly in the interests of the world's people. Such structural adjustments would make a major contribution to global sustainability. Actions that can be taken include: - accelerating agreements on weapons and military personnel limitations between States; - development of international agreements on the regulation of the arms trade; - development of codes of conduct that constrain international financial assistance for military activities; - development of international legal instruments that outlaw certain types of military action. Existing Conventions and agreements excluding chemical and biological warfare should be extended to cover nuclear weapons and to exclude deliberate damage to the environment as a military practice; - collaborative action to redeploy military personnel, vehicles and equipment for conservation and development projects, and to use military skills especially in disaster relief; - reduction of military expenditures and effort to the minimum needed for security. --------------------------------------------------------------------- page 19 Chapter 3. Improving the quality of human life ------------------------------------------------------------------- Box 5. Ways of ensuring that economic development helps those who need it most This usually requires a mixture of: - basic health services and education for everyone (see Actions 3.3 and 3.4); - targeted schemes for the poorest. These include income support, food subsidies, special nutrition programmes, conservation programmes and affordable credits. Countries where incomes are already distributed fairly across the population may need only to step up health and education services. Income support schemes. Sensitively planned and managed public works have provided income through employment to the poor in Chile and India (Maharashtra drought relief scheme). Direct cash payments can help households in extreme poverty and are common in richer countries. They are less suited for lower-income countries where many more families are in need and the administrative machinery is weaker. However, some lower income countries (such as Chile) have successfully used cash support programmes for needy households. Food subsidies. These need to be carefully managed. They should not reduce the incentive to food production, they should reach only those in need (perhaps by subsidizing foods mainly consumed by low-income households) and they should not impose too great a national cost burden. They can do much to stabilize food prices, transfer incomes to the poor, and maintain social and political stability. At their peak they accounted for 16% of the purchasing power of low-income families in Sri Lanka. Food subsidies increased consumption of the poorest 15% of the urban population of Bangladesh by 15% to 25% in 1973-74. They contributed about half the income of low-income families in Kerala, India, in the late 1970s. They can provide an essential social safety net in many poor societies at reasonable cost (1% to 2% of Gross National Product). In high-income countries food subsidies have often compensated for inadequate social security schemes. Special nutrition programmes. These can be designed for particular groups, such as free school lunches in primary schools (which also encourage attendance and improve concentration at school). Chile and Botswana have used such programmes to combat extreme malnutrition. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Increasing Gross National Product can provide the means to meet basic needs and improve living conditions but it does not guarantee quality of life for all citizens and should not be the main focus of development. Affluence has not protected high-income countries or the wealthy minority in poor countries from drugs, alcoholism, AIDS, street violence and family breakdown. Many fast-growing lower-income countries are discovering that high GNP growth does not automatically reduce social and economic deprivation. For that, more positively directed social policies are needed. By contrast, some lower-income countries have shown that relatively poor nations can reach high levels of human development if they use skilfully the human abilities and resources available to them. Examples are Costa Rica and Sri Lanka. Clearly, strategies for improving the quality of life will vary from country to country. For lower-income countries improving the economy will remain a high priority for some time. They will need both to increase incomes and to devote a greater proportion to social spending and environmental protection. Upper-income countries will have a different agenda, since virtually all of them have already achieved high levels of human development (exceptions are the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Libya and South Africa). The principal challenge to upper-income countries is page 20 Chapter 3. Improving the quality of human life to extend a high quality of life to all their citizens while reducing energy and resource consumption. They also need to curb excessive per capita generation of greenhouse gases and other global pollutants. They face a difficult task in making those changes and at the same time maintaining employment and industrial activity. No country has achieved development of the kind we are advocating in this Strategy. No nation has a system of resource use and social policy that is likely to be sustainable, without major adjustments. Those adjustments should begin with the steps needed to enhance the quality of human life. Priority actions Improving the quality of human life requires a strategy to redirect development priorities to give people: - access to the resources needed for a decent standard of living on a sustainable basis; - levels of health and nutrition that permit a long and healthy life; - education that allows each person to realize his or her intellectual potential, and become equipped to contribute to society; - opportunities for rewarding employment. Improving the quality of life also depends upon maintaining and enhancing the productivity and quality of the environment (see Chapter 4) and stabilizing human populations and resource consumption (see Chapter 5). ------------------------------------------------------------------- Action 3.1. In lower-income countries, increase economic growth to advance human development. ------------------------------------------------------------------- In lower-income countries faster economic growth is needed, for long enough to secure satisfactory standards of living and to finance investment in both human development and environmental conservation. The policies needed will vary according to national environmental, cultural and political circumstances. They include: - an overall strategy for sustainability (see Actions 8.2 and 17.7); - the opening of national markets. Economic performance is likely to improve if market systems are enabled to work efficiently, but measures need to be taken to prevent damage to the environment and to cushion the social impact of sudden change. Appropriate laws, taxes and charges need to be adopted, and liability, process and product standards applied; - the opening of international markets. Ensuring that the poorer countries can sell their produce at prices that give a reasonable rate of return is likely to be more effective than much development aid, and will contribute directly to internal stability and the development of other measures essential for sustainability; - investment in future skills. As an aid to further sustainable development, 15% to 20% of Gross Domestic Product should go into investment, with special emphasis on science, technology, education and training; - more equitable access to land and resources. In many countries, land is not distributed in ways that promote the best economic, social or environmental returns. Lower-income groups often depend on access to common resources, and this must be safeguarded (see Action 7.1); - allocation of more resources to rural areas to reduce rural-urban disparities; page 21 Chapter 3. Improving the quality of human life - encouragement of greater use of health and educational facilities by lower-income groups, for example through nutritional support programmes in health clinics; - action to ensure that economic development helps those who need it most (see Box 5); - action to ensure that decisions about priorities and resource allocations are made locally, and that special consideration is given to indigenous communities (see Action 7.3); - action and investment to improve the institutional and regulatory framework for environmental management (see Actions 8.5 and 8.6); - action to reduce gender disparities, and ensure that women are enabled to play a full part in the process of national development (see Box 6); - provision of greater opportunities for productive employment to raise incomes and spread the benefits throughout the population. Industrialization is urgently needed in many lower-income countries, but must be done in ways that safeguard the environment (see Chapter 11); - action to promote private initiative, for example by legislation and regulations that encourage the growth of the private sector, and the development of small and medium sized enterprises through such mechanisms as small-scale credit schemes, volunteer executive programmes and provision of venture capital; - action to promote foreign investment, for example for the transfer of technology that will allow environmentally sound industrialization (see Chapter 11); - action to help people to undertake their own development, for example by increasing their control over management of local resources and their participation in other development decisions, providing vocational training and other types of skill formation, and granting credit, particularly to the poor. Citizens' groups can promote participatory development very effectively; - monitoring the state of the environment and public health and well- being, to provide a basis for continuing adaptation of policy (see Action 8.10). -------------------------------------------------------------------- Action 3.2 In upper-income countries, adjust national development policies and strategies to ensure sustainability -------------------------------------------------------------------- Most people in upper-income countries enjoy a high material standard of living, but this is not sustainable in global terms, because of their excessive consumption of natural resources. These countries face as severe a challenge as the lower-income countries, but of a different kind. They need to find ways of maintaining their quality of life, while reducing resource consumption, energy use and environmental impact (see Chapters 5, 8 and 10). They also have an obligation to help the lower-income countries achieve the development they need (see Action 3.1). The requirements are likely to include development of a truly cross-sectoral approach in government, making care of the environment a responsibility of all departments, and incorporating environmental values and criteria as key factors in all national and business decision processes (see Actions 8.1 and 11.3). Using regulation and economic measures as appropriates governments should give high priority to: - improvements in the living standards of the poorest; - major reductions in water and air pollution, and especially curbs on the "greenhouse gases" contributing to climate change (see Action 4.3); page 22 Chapter 3. Improving the quality of human life -------------------------------------------------------------------- Box 6. Recognizing and extending women's role in the community Women are important managers of natural resources: they can restore, sustain and create liveable and productive environments. Their skills, experience and perspectives are essential for sustainability. Yet in most countries, women have limited access to and control over income, credit, land, education, training, health care and information; and they suffer the worst effects of poverty and environmental degradation. As a consequence, many lack the opportunity for self-fulfilment, and potential contributions to the community are lost. Steps that can help women to improve their status include: - extensive consultation with women (not just educated women) to find out what their present role is, what they believe their role should be and what support they need; - ratifying and upholding the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. Legislation should ensure equal pay for equal work, equal representation of women in on-the job training programmes, maternity leave benefits, and provisions for day care of the elderly, sick, disabled and children; - correcting traditional biases in the household against the young, especially girls; - providing education for women, giving priority to extending mandatory primary schooling to females in rural areas and assuring more equal representation of females in secondary schooling and vocational training; - recognition of the important role of women in the care and management of the environment; - increasing economic opportunities for women, for example, by helping women to set up their own businesses, providing training in business management, and fostering savings clubs and loan facilities for women; - reviewing laws that have an impact on family size. For example, raising the minimum legal age for marriage to 18 tends to reduce the birth rate because it shortens the reproductive span of married couples; - ensuring that health and nutrition programmes cater for the special needs of mothers, particularly during pregnancy and following birth; - giving women access to the means of controlling their own fertility and the size of their families; - providing education to change attitudes towards women's roles and especially concerning family size. In many parts of the world, the oppression of women is caused by traditions; and in some societies there are strong cultural pressures on males to have large families; - instituting reforms to give women a full voice in political, bureaucratic, and economic decision making at every level; - providing universal suffrage. ------------------------------------------------------------------ - conservation of landscape, cultural heritage and biological diversity (see Action 4.9); - public information and education campaigns that help people understand their own role in solving environmental problems and attaining sustainability (see Actions 6.1 and Box 9); page 23 Chapter 3. Improving the quality of human life - new approaches to international economic, trading and political relationships that will help the lower-income countries achieve their essential development, and reduce the risk of social stress and upheaval in those countries, and of consequent mass migration and international tension (see Chapter 9); - massive improvements in energy conservation and efficiency and a switch to renewable or non-polluting energy sources (see Chapter 10); - increased recycling and much less waste of materials in the production of consumer goods; - development of "closed" industrial processes, i.e. those that release only simple and non-polluting materials to the biosphere (see Chapter 11); - writing, phoning, faxing and other means of communication instead of business travel (see Box 21, Chapter 12). --------------------------------------------------------------------- Action 3.3. Provide the services that will promote a long and healthy life. --------------------------------------------------------------------- One of the major benefits of economic development in the lower- income countries should be improved health care. At present common and preventable infectious diseases kill millions of children each year, and parasitic infections such as malaria kill or weaken many adults and impose a heavy burden on society. Simple remedies (such as rehydration in cases of acute diarrhoea) could save many lives yet are not sufficiently available, while expensive and less effective drugs are being promoted. Primary health care needs to be strengthened in many countries as part of wider social policies, including the provision of family planning services (see Action 5.7) to bring human populations into a sustainable balance with environmental resources. The following targets for the year 2000, set by the United Nations and other international bodies, should be pursued: - Complete immunization of all children. If lower-income countries maintain past progress, most could immunize all their children against the worst childhood diseases by the year 2000. - Reduction of under-five mortality by half or to 70 per 1,000 babies born alive, whichever is lower. Most countries are now unable to meet this target, particularly in Africa. At present rates, 23 countries will not reach this goal until after 2050. Malnutrition, increasing poverty resulting from economic stagnation, and the spread of AIDS all increase child mortality. Higher female literacy, cleaner water, better sanitation, availability of rehydration therapy and broader immunization are all linked to higher rates of child survival, and in turn to population stabilization. - Elimination of severe malnutrition, and a 50% reduction in moderate malnutrition. Most countries will need to reduce malnutrition by around 5-7% a year to meet this target. This is within reach of properly targeted nutrition policies and programmes, which usually cost little and have a large payoff. - Universal access to safe water. Most lower-income countries can reach this target if they maintain past progress. Provision of safe water requires careful attention to land use practices in watersheds and thoughtful planning of human settlements development. Major capital investment must be balanced with provision for recurring expenditures for training and for maintenance of the equipment required for water supply and sanitation. User fees or community financing can cover all or some of these costs, but must be designed to avoid depriving the poor. page 24 Chapter 3. Improving the quality of human life --------------------------------------------------------------------- Action 3.4. Provide universal primary education for all children, and reduce illiteracy. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Education that fits people for living sustainably is essential in both upper- and lower-income countries. Basic needs in education are outlined below and elaborated in Chapter 6. The targets for the year 2000 include: - Universal primary schooling for all children. This is the most important human development target, because it can unleash the potential of so many people. The cost of providing primary schooling for those children that at present receive no education is estimated at $48 billion over a 10-year period, or just under $5 billion a year. This means annual increases in expenditure well over double the rates of previous years. In some circumstances, informal education can be particularly effective, and should be supported. - Ensure that enrolment in primary schools leads on to attendance. Action to end the current high dropout rates in primary schools, which sometimes climb above 70%, is crucial. Girls are particularly likely to be withdrawn from school for social reasons. Investments to keep children in schools can have a high payoff. Often the key is high quality and relevant teaching. - Halve the 1990 level of adult illiteracy, and bring female and male literacy to the same level. The target for male literacy is attainable by many countries if they maintain or somewhat accelerate current progress. The biggest problem is in populous countries with very low literacy rates. The effort required for female literacy is even greater and is hampered by male-female disparities that are deeply rooted in tradition. The target might be approachable if citizens' groups and governments collaborated to expand literacy programmes. Carrying out Actions 3.3 and 3.4 will require increased investment. But many lower-income countries put only half as much of their budgets into health and education in 1990 as in the 1970s. Budget priorities should be reordered among sectors and more international assistance should be made available for social programmes to help achieve sustainability. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Action 3.5. Develop more meaningful indicators of quality of life and monitor the extent to which they are achieved . --------------------------------------------------------------------- National and international statistics record some of the parameters of quality of life (e.g. health care provision, life expectancy, disease incidence, water and sanitation provision, settlement conditions, food availability, levels of environmental pollution and degradation, employment and education). But there is no established overall Quality of Life Index that compares with GNP in the economic field and provides a better measure of the success of development. Governments, international organizations, and the academic community should: - develop and integrate economic and environmental accounting systems to create sustainable income accounts (see Action 8.7); - review the parameters (including environmental quality measures) that might be combined to measure the quality of life; - support the improvement of the Human Development Index prepared by the United Nations Development Programme; - undertake surveys to determine where and how far policies are succeeding in enhancing the quality of life, and what the obstacles are to better performance; page 25 Chapter 3. Improving the quality of human life - improve systems of social statistics (coverage; reliability; breakdown of data by sex, income group and area; accessibility). --------------------------------------------------------------------- Action 3.6. Enhance security against natural disasters and social strife. --------------------------------------------------------------------- As populations increase, more and more people are living in flood plains, coastal zones and areas vulnerable to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Climate change may increase these risks in future. A high-quality life is impossible if there is constant fear of disaster. While it is impossible to prevent settlement in vulnerable areas, much can be done to reduce risk (see also Action 15.8). Governments, local authorities and citizens' groups should: - assess the vulnerability of settlements in various regions to natural disaster; - as far as possible, discourage settlement in the areas of highest risk; - pay particular attention to the vulnerability of low-lying coastal areas to climate change and sea-level rise; - avoid increasing the risk by inappropriate development such as deforestation of upland catchments, destruction of mangroves, coral reefs and other natural sea defences, and canalization of rivers; - provide early warning, shelter and adequate relief facilities, training members of citizens' groups to play their part in an emergency. War and oppression bring other, no less terrible, threats. Both are exacerbated by weaknesses in the organization of human society. Governments, international organizations and non-governmental organizations should: - work constructively to resolve frontier disputes peacefully; - respect and protect the rights of ethnic minorities and other sub- groups within their national communities; - reduce military expenditures and effort to the minimum needed for security (see Box 4). page 26 4. Conserving the Earth's vitality and diversity Chapter 1 emphasized that development must be conservation- based as well as people centred. Development will only succeed if it maintains the productivity, resilience and variety of the biosphere. On the other hand, conservation will provide lasting benefits only when it is integrated with the right kinds of development. Because the Earth is continually changing, conservation must maintain the capacity of ecosystems and the human communities that depend on them to adapt. In practical terms, this is a matter of: - conserving the life-support systems that nature provides; - conserving the diversity of life on Earth; - ensuring that all uses of renewable resources are sustainable. Life-support systems are the ecological processes that shape climate, cleanse air and water, regulate water flow, recycle essential elements, create and regenerate soil, and keep the planet fit for life. Human activities are radically altering these processes through global pollution and the destruction or modification of ecosystems. "Greenhouse" gases, mainly produced by burning fossil fuels, clearing forests, and raising crops and livestock, are accumulating in the atmosphere, intensifying its heat-trapping properties. If present trends continue, and if current models of Earth's climate are correct, the average temperature of the planet is expected to increase by 1 C between 1990 and 2025 and by 3 C before the end of the next century. This may not sound much, but it is a faster change than has occurred over the past 10,000 years. If it continues, climatic regions will shift; precipitation patterns will change; sea-levels will rise; and crippling droughts and storms could increase in frequency and intensity. The shield of stratospheric ozone is being depleted, mainly by chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which are also greenhouse gases, and which are produced exclusively by human action. The ozone layer filters out ultra-violet rays from the sun that would otherwise reduce the productivity of the seas, suppress human immunity to disease, and cause eye damage and skin cancer. Climate change and ozone depletion are new global threats. At the same time, old pollution problems that once were local in scale now affect large regions. Over much of Europe and North America acid rain pollutes water, kills aquatic life, acidifies soils, kills trees and corrodes buildings and materials. Photochemical oxidants cause severe damage to crops, forests and natural vegetation. Many soils and groundwaters have been so contaminated by heavy metals and persistent organic compounds that they have become unusable. The productivity and diversity of surface waters are threatened by pollution, clearance of forests in upper catchments and on flood plains, the damming and channelling of streams, drainage of wetlands, and introduction of non-native species. Coastal ecosystems are rapidly deteriorating in many areas due to intense and mounting human pressure, including poorly controlled urban, industrial, commercial, tourist and agricultural development, and uncontrolled waste disposal. Human inputs of nutrients into page 27 Chapter 4. Conserving the Earth's vitality and diversity some coastal waters already equal those from natural sources. Within 20-30 years they are likely to be several times greater, causing excessive growth of marine plants, and, in particular, more frequent "red tides" of poisonous micro-organisms. Biological diversity is the total variety of genetic strains, species and ecosystems. It is continually changing as evolution gives rise to new species, while new ecological conditions cause others to disappear. Human activities are now accelerating the depletion and extinction of species and changing the conditions for evolution and this is a matter of considerable concern. Biological diversity should be conserved as a matter of principle, because all species deserve respect regardless of their use to humanity (see Chapter 2) and because they are all components of our life support system. Biological diversity also provides us with economic benefits and adds greatly to the quality of our lives. Plants and animals, evolving over hundreds of millions of years, have made the planet fit for the forms of life we know today. They help maintain the chemical balance of the Earth, and stabilize climate. They protect watersheds and renew soil. We are only beginning to understand these roles, and know too little about the relative importance of different ecosystems or of the species that compose them. All societies, urban and rural, industrial and non- industrial, continue to draw on a wide array of ecosystems, species and genetic variants to meet their ever-changing needs. The diversity of nature is a source of beauty, enjoyment, understanding, and knowledge - a foundation for human creativity and a subject for study. It is the source of all biological wealth - supplying all of our food, much of our raw materials, a wide range of goods and services, and genetic materials for agriculture, medicine and industry worth many billions of dollars per year. People spend additional billions of dollars to appreciate nature through recreation and tourism. Prudence dictates that we keep as much variety as possible. But natural diversity is more threatened now than since the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. The trend is steadily downward, as more habitats are converted to human uses. While we are still uncertain about how many species now exist, some experts calculate that if present trends continue, up to 25% of the world's species could become extinct, or be reduced to tiny remnants, by the middle of the next century. Many more species are losing a considerable part of their genetic variation. The most threatened ecosystems - those with the smallest proportion remaining in a nearly natural condition - are those of fresh waters, wetlands, coral reefs, oceanic islands, Mediterranean- climate areas, temperate rain forests, temperate grasslands, tropical dry forests, and tropical moist forests. Since tropical moist forests contain the greatest proportion of the world's species, their continuing destruction will cause the biggest losses (see Chapter 14). Renewable resources are the base of all economies: people cannot live without them. They include soil; water; products we harvest from the wild such as timber, nuts, medicinal plants, fish, and the meat and skins of wild animals; domesticated species raised by agriculture, aquaculture and silviculture; and ecosystems such as those of rangelands, forests and waters. If used sustainably, such resources will perpetually renew themselves. But because much present-day fishing, exploitation of forests and use of grazing lands are not sustainable, the future of many human communities is threatened. An estimated 60-70,000 sq km of agricultural land is made unproductive each year by erosion - more than twice the rate in the past three centuries. Badly managed irrigation schemes, leading to waterlogging, salinization and alkalinization, have ruined large areas of formerly fertile soils and are still reducing the productivity of an additional 15,000 sq km each year (see Chapter 13). Global water withdrawals are believed to have grown more than 35-fold during the past three centuries, and are still rapidly increasing. Many arid and semi-arid areas already suffer serious water shortage. Growing competition among water users is threatening the page 28 Chapter 4. Conserving the Earth's vitality and diversity sustainability of established development, and taxing the management skills of institutions. Waterborne pathogens are the biggest cause of death and illness in lower-income countries (see Chapter 3). Every year, an average of 180,000 sq km of tropical forests and woodlands is cleared. Some of this is for shifting cultivation (in which case the land may later revert to forest), and some for more permanent agriculture. Logging, much of it unsustainable, is reducing the diversity of another 44,000 sq km a year. Much woodland in dry regions is cut for fuelwood. Temperate and boreal forests are stable in extent, but air pollution, logging and urbanization are degrading and fragmenting these resources (see Chapter 14). Overfishing combined with natural fluctuations has caused the decline of some fisheries and greater instability in others. Most fisheries are exploited beyond levels that are likely to be sustainable in the long term. Priority actions To conserve the Earth's vitality and diversity, in its own right and as an essential foundation for human development, action is needed to: - prevent pollution; - restore and maintain the integrity of the Earth's ecosystems; - conserve biological diversity; - ensure that renewable resources are used sustainably. A number of the following actions will contribute to more than one of these objectives. Preventing pollution Pollution is the process of overloading the Earth's ecosystems with damaging materials or waste energy. It has grown from a local nuisance to a global menace. Action now has to be taken by governments, municipalities, and industries in both upper- and lower-income countries. Both regulatory and economic instruments should be used. High priority should be given to the protection of river systems (especially international ones), and to preventing the pollution of the sea from land-based sources. Special attention should also be given to sewage treatment, to minimizing the run-off of fertilizers and livestock wastes from farmland, and to curbing the discharge of persistent organic substances and heavy metals. Many actions are needed, but the following are the most vital. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Action 4.1. Adopt a precautionary approach to pollution. -------------------------------------------------------------------- All governments should adopt the precautionary principle of minimizing, and wherever possible preventing, discharges of substances that could be harmful and of ensuring that products and processes are non-polluting. Upper-income countries should intensify their efforts to clean up existing emissions. Lower-income countries should ensure that they do not create problems for themselves by accepting new industrial development that emits pollution that will be intolerable in future (see Chapter 11). Action should be taken in four key areas: - Governments in all countries should adopt an integrated approach to pollution prevention, employing a mix of economic and regulatory measures. Discharges to air, rivers and the sea, and the disposal of solid wastes, should be controlled by a single agency, with adequate powers and resources to enforce high standards. Integrated pollution control avoids the risk that polluting materials will simply be transferred from one medium to another. The same agency should have the power to control the use of page 29 Chapter 4. Conserving the Earth's vitality and diversity chemicals in agriculture, and potentially polluting household products such as sprays an detergents. It should set standards for vehicles, and ensure that the environmental impacts of all new development is assessed. Governments in lower-income countries have a great opportunity to create an effective integrated control system before they proceed with new industrialization . - Municipalities and public utilities should be given powers, resources and direction to maintain air quality in their areas, and to bring sewage treatment works up to modern standards. This is particularly important in many cities in lower-income countries, where air quality is deteriorating and waterborne diseases, many of them linked to inadequate sanitation, are a major problem (see Action 12.2). - Industries can do much to prevent pollution by good design. They should always use the best available technology (it being understood that availability has to be assessed in economic as well as technical terms). Industries should continue to develop new process that do not release pollutants, better methods of reclaiming useful or hazardous material from wastes, and non-polluting consumer goods (see Action 11.3). - Farmers should use agricultural chemicals sparingly, and should where possible adopt integrated pest control methods (they need advice and help to this end). Run-off of fertilizers and livestock wastes from agricultural land should be minimized (see Actions 13.7 and 13.8). -------------------------------------------------------------------- Action 4.2. Cut emissions of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, and hydrocarbons. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Europe and North America account for 80% of the world's emissions of these pollutants, which are the causes of acid rain and oxidant smog. Some lower-income countries are also at risk from acid rain. As these countries industrialize, the problems will get worse, threatening the sustainability of their development. China is particularly vulnerable: already it is the third largest emitter of sulphur dioxide, after the Soviet Union and the United States. Other East Asian countries are in the path of the prevailing northwesterly winds that carry pollutants from major sources such as Beijing. Motor vehicles are major sources of carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides. Badly tuned or maintained engines (including diesels and two-strokes) are especially polluting. This pollution, and the oxidant smog it creates under still, sunny conditions, is increasingly prevalent in the cities of both high- income and low-income countries. It is a hazard to human health, and damages forests and crops. Action is necessary in four particular areas: - Governments in Europe and North America should commit themselves under the ECE Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution to at least a 90% reduction of sulphur dioxide (based on 1980 levels) and a 75% reduction in emissions of nitrogen oxides (based on 1985 levels) by the year 2000. Eastern European countries will need help to meet these targets. - The same governments should strengthen the protocol on nitrogen oxides by agreeing reduction targets; develop a second phase of the sulphur protocol to further reduce emissions; and finalize and adopt the draft protocol on volatile organic compounds (hydrocarbons). They should continue work to define the tolerance of ecosystems to acid deposition and develop new standards and controls that ensure that these "critical loads are not exceeded. All parties should report annually on national action to reduce emissions. page 30 Chapter 4. Conserving the Earth's vitality and diversity - Governments in other regions threatened by air pollution should consider adopting regional conventions on the prevention of trans- boundary air pollution. Higher-income countries should help with the transfer of the technology that will be needed. - All Governments should impose the highest standards practicable under their national circumstances to curb pollution from motor vehicles. Catalytic converters are the best present technology, but industry should intensify efforts to produce less polluting ("lean burn") engines, and improve fuel efficiency. Governments should use both economic and regulatory measures to encourage fuel economy (see Actions 10.4 and 12.3). ------------------------------------------------------------------- Action 4.3. Reduce greenhouse gas emissions. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Climate change, induced by the addition of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, is one of the greatest threats to sustainability. Action to limit it must focus on the phasing out of chlorofluorocarbons and the curbing of emissions of carbon dioxide. Responsibility for reducing carbon dioxide emissions must fall especially on the industrialized countries, since they are the source of some three- quarters of total carbon dioxide emissions to date, and also have the economic resources and technical skills for corrective action. The governments of all high- and medium-energy countries (see Annex 5) should commit themselves to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions by at least 20% (from 1990 levels) by 2005, and by 70% by 2030. Ultimately, permissible emissions should be defined in per capita terms rather than as reductions from an arbitrary base. Technically feasible and cost-effective ways of reducing emissions already exist. - Governments should use publicity campaigns, regulations and economic incentives to promote more efficient energy use in homes, offices, industry and transport (see Actions 10.4 and 12.3). Incentives should be provided in this way to industry to develop more energy-efficient processes and vehicles. - Industry and public utilities should, where practicable, substitute natural gas for coal. The petroleum industry should as far as possible eliminate the wasteful burning ("flaring") of gas during oil extraction. Government and industry should accelerate the development and adoption of solar and other low-impact renewable energy systems, and more efficient energy storage devices (batteries) (see Action 10.2). - Governments should ensure that the impact of new greenhouse gas sources - such as new power plants - is offset by conservation that cuts current carbon dioxide emissions by the amount that the new source will emit; by closing older and more polluting facilities; or by establishing tree plantations to fix an equivalent amount of carbon. Forests should be maintained, or where possible expanded because they are both major absorbers of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and important reservoirs of biological diversity (see Action 4.8). - All governments should implement the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, as revised in London in June 1990, and eliminate chlorofluorocarbon production and use. This will protect the stratospheric ozone layer and eliminate one of the most powerful and long-lived groups of greenhouse gases. As agreed at the London meeting, governments of high-income countries should assist lower-income countries to introduce substitutes for the chemicals to be eliminated. - Governments and research institutions should cooperate to develop ways of reducing methane emissions, and governments should prepare and implement action plans. Actions could include recovery and use of methane from coal mining and fossil fuel storage; better maintenance of oil and natural gas production systems to reduce methane leakage; recycling or incinerating wastes; better maintenance of landfills; and better management page 31 Chapter 4. Conserving the Earth's vitality and diversity of livestock wastes. Higher-income countries should develop and use systems to recover methane from landfills and wastewater treatment plants. - Governments should also develop and implement national plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture. Actions could include reducing nitrous oxide emissions by using improved fertilizers, animal manures and compost, and better technologies and practices for applying fertilizers. Cultivated areas that are marginally suitable for annual cropping could be converted to perennial cover crops or forests (thereby increasing carbon uptake) (see also Actions 4.7 and 4.8). --------------------------------------------------------------------- Action 4.4. Prepare for climate change. --------------------------------------------------------------------- There is a broad scientific consensus that even if action is taken at once to curb emissions of greenhouse gases, some warming of the Earth's climate is inevitable. Adaptive measures therefore require urgent consideration. Governments should: - review their development and conservation plans in light of the most plausible scenarios of climate change and sea-level rise; - adjust their criteria for long-term investments and zoning, and other aspects of land use planning, in the light of these reviews; - prepare for likely changes in agriculture, by assembling stocks of crop plants likely to be more suited to future conditions, reviewing irrigation schemes, and developing guidance to farmers and village communities whose cropping or livestock husbandry systems may have to change; - adopt stringent measures to protect vulnerable low-lying coastal areas, for example by prohibiting the destruction of offshore coral reefs, safeguarding mangrove vegetation and sand dunes, and other action to maintain natural defences for which no engineered substitutes are possible at acceptable cost (see Action 16.2); - review their plans for dealing with emergencies and disasters, especially those related to climate (see Actions 3.6 and 15.8). International agencies should offer help in the preparation of such reviews, plans and actions, as well as in disaster relief and rehabilitation (see Action 3.6). Restoring and maintaining the integrity of the Earth's ecosystems The following actions need to be taken within development plans and processes aimed at increasing the sustainable production of natural and modified systems (see Fig. 1). ------------------------------------------------------------------- Action 4.5. Adopt an integrated approach to land and water management, using the drainage basin as the unit of management. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Water links the activities of human communities to each other and to communities of animals and plants. All uses of land and water within a drainage basin may affect water quality and flow, and hence have an impact on other uses downstream and in coastal zones. Governments and their agencies, especially integrated pollution control agencies, and water agriculture and forestry authorities, should as far as possible use drainage basins as the natural units for land and water management. They should evaluate the full economic value of each page 32 Chapter 4. Conserving the Earth's vitality and diversity basin's ecosystems, taking into account their role in regulating water quality and quantity, and in controlling productivity of agriculture and coastal and floodplain fisheries. Water policy should be based on evaluation of drainage basin carrying capacity. It should provide for the full range of appropriate uses. Development of water resources should be integrated with maintenance of ecosystems that play a key role in the water cycle, such as watershed forests and wetlands (see Actions 15.5 and 15.6). -------------------------------------------------------------------- Action 4.6. Maintain as much as possible of each country's natural and modified ecosystems. -------------------------------------------------------------------- There are virtually no ecosystems in the world that are "natural" in the sense of having escaped human influence. Natural ecosystems as defined in Fig. 1 have largely disappeared from most upper-income countries and densely populated lower-income countries, and are under pressure wherever they remain. Forests, wetlands, scrublands and grasslands are all being converted to agriculture, and much high- quality farmland is being built on (Chapter 12). This is being done to meet compelling human needs, or to satisfy what are perceived as human interests. It will be very difficult to halt such activity, when human populations and needs are increasing so greatly. But many of these conversions are reducing diversity and productivity and are unsustainable. Striking the right balance between alternative uses of the environment is the most difficult task for conservation today. Sustainability depends on converting to intensive human use only the areas able to support such use, while retaining natural systems where they provide the greatest benefits or are essential to maintain diversity and ecological functions. Care is needed because once land has been converted to cultivation, restoration to a diverse natural system like a mature forest can take centuries, while urbanization may take even longer to reverse. Governments should therefore: - protect remaining natural ecosystems, unless there are overwhelming reasons for change; - work out ways of using such ecosystems sustainably, thereby improving their economic and social value; - maintain as large an area as possible of modified ecosystems to support a diversity of sustainable uses and species; - take the full social costs and benefits into account when considering converting land to agriculture and urban systems. Local communities and land owners and occupiers should be encouraged to maintain as much diversity as possible in these systems, for example by preserving areas of wetland, woodland and species-rich meadow within blocks of intensively-used farmland or even in urban zones; and by raising diverse crop and livestock mixes. Urban gardens and trees should be encouraged both for their role in conservation and as an important contribution to quality of life; - restore or rehabilitate degraded ecosystems. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Action 4.7 Take the pressure off natural and modified ecosystems by protecting the best farmland and managing it in ecologically sound ways. ------------------------------------------------------------------- The Earth may have to support more than twice as many people a hundred years hence. There are no great unused resources of cultivable land that can safely be taken from nature. Consequently, the land now used for agriculture will need to be cropped more intensively. page 33 Chapter 4. Conserving the Earth's vitality and diversity -------------------------------------------------------------------- Fig. 1. Classification of ecosystem conditions [FIGURE 1 GOES HERE] [Legend:] 1. The main conditions of ecosystems are shown in the shaded boxes: Natural systems. Ecosystems where since the industrial revolution (1750) human impact (a) has been no greater than that of any other native species, and (b) has not affected the ecosystem's structure. Climate change is excluded from the definition, because human- caused climate change is likely to affect all ecosystems and eliminate all natural ecosystems as defined here. Modified systems. Ecosystems where human impact is greater than that of any other species, but whose structural components are not cultivated. Most of the planet is now modified, including land and sea areas usually considered "natural". For example, naturally regenerating forest used for timber production, naturally regenerating range land used for livestock production. Cultivated systems. Ecosystems where human impact is greater than that of any other species, and most of whose structural components are cultivated: e.g. farmland, sown pasture, plantations, aquaculture ponds. Built systems. Ecosystems dominated by buildings, roads, railways, airports, docks, dams, mines, and other human structures. Degraded systems. Ecosystems whose diversity, productivity and habitability have been substantially reduced. Degraded land ecosystems are characterized by loss of vegetation and soil. Degraded aquatic ecosystems are often characterized by polluted water that can be tolerated by few species. 2. The arrows on the left indicate that the slope from natural systems to built systems represents a change from self-regulation toward regulation by humans, a decline in the diversity of native species, and a rise in the diversity of introduced species. 3. Main steps today in the conversion of natural ecosystems to other conditions are shown by the heavy lines: other significant steps by the light lines. 4. Potentially sustainable ecosystem conditions are above the dotted horizontal line. Potentially sustainable uses of each ecosystem condition are summarized to the right of the shaded boxes. Uses of an ecosystem are sustainable if they are compatible with maintenance of the ecosystem in that condition. Unsustainable uses lead to conversion of the ecosystem to some other condition. 5. Living sustainably calls for protection of natural systems + sustainable production of wild renewable resources from modified systems + sustainable production of crops and livestock from cultivated systems + development of built systems in ways that are sensitive to human and ecological communities + restoration or rehabilitation of degraded systems. By Robert Prescott Allen -------------------------------------------------------------------- page 34 Chapter 4. Conserving the Earth's vitality and diversity Today's losses of soil and productivity through erosion, salinization, desertification and misuse are intolerable in such a context. The development of techniques for more intensive, more sustainable agriculture applicable at the local level in the lower- income countries has highest priority. Governments should map and monitor the more productive areas of farmland. They should ensure that the best farmland is not lost to other uses. Market forces cannot be relied on to achieve this. Management of cultivated lands should aim to: - improve the soil conditions for root growth and crop production in ways that also conserve water and soil, and avoid salt accumulation (see Action 13.3); - keep pests and weeds down in an economically efficient and ecologically sound manner; pesticides and herbicides should be specific, non-persistent, and used selectively in support of other means of control (see Action 13.7); - conserve the habitats of crop pollinators and the natural enemies of pests (see Action 13.7); - encourage integrated plant nutrition systems, raise the efficiency of synthetic fertilizer use, and promote effective low-input systems (see Action 13.5). -------------------------------------------------------------------- Action 4.8. Halt net deforestation, protect large areas of old growth forest, and maintain a permanent estate of modified forest. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Governments should establish explicit long-term goals for national forest policy, and prepare, publish and implement national forest plans (see Chapter 14). These should: - be based on inventories of their old growth woodlands, and assessment of how much remains in each ecological region and habitat-type; - define criteria for protection and how much should be protected, but in any event include provision for safeguarding large areas of old-growth forest in reserves. These should represent the full range of variation among the forests (see Actions 14.1 and 14.2); - give priority to the establishment of reserves in regions or ecological systems where less than 20% of the original forest remains, or where old-growth forest is most at risk; - ensure that, wherever practicable, the strict forest reserves are surrounded by large tracts of modified forest or of modified plus planted forest, used sustainably; - review national policy, and existing concessions for logging in each region, considering explicitly whether logging should be halted, slowed, or directed elsewhere; - review other uses of the national forest estate. Local communities should be involved in forest policy, and enabled to earn sustainable livelihoods without damaging old-growth forest that should be protected (see Action 14.6). Governments and forest management authorities should use regulations and economic incentives to: - encourage industries based on multiple-use forestry, in areas assigned for this purpose in the national plan; - eliminate excessive or destructive harvesting; - encourage management to ensure sustainability of yields. Governments should press ahead with the negotiation of an international legal instrument that will support concerted action to conserve the world's forests. This is important because of the value of forests as a resource; their importance in maintaining biological diversity; and their role as a major carbon store. The aim of global action should be to: page 35 Chapter 4. Conserving the Earth's vitality and diversity - maintain a total global forest area no smaller than in 1990; - ensure that where essential conversion takes place, it is compensated for by the extension of forests in other regions; - conserve the diversity of the world's forests (see Action 14.2); - ensure that human exploitation is made more concentrated and efficient by the establishment of long-rotation plantations to store more carbon, and short-rotation plantations to provide fuelwood. Plantations should be managed to high standards of land, water and soil conservation so that they maintain vegetation cover, use nutrients efficiently, and support a high biomass (see Action 14.4). Conserving biological diversity Biological diversity should be conserved by a combination of measures to safeguard species and genetic stocks, the establishment and maintenance of protected areas, and wider strategies that combine economic activities and conservation over entire regions. In addition to the actions described below, governments should consider designating areas of special importance for their biological diversity as Biodiversity Conservation Regions (BCRs). In these regions an overall strategy would be developed by local communities, government agencies and corporate and other interests, to provide for human development in ways that conserve biological diversity. More detailed action to conserve biodiversity is set out in the IUCN, UNEP and WRI Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Action 4.9. Complete and maintain a comprehensive system of protected areas. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Protected areas are established to safeguard outstanding examples of the natural or cultural heritage, for their own sake, for the conservation of life-support systems and biological diversity, and for human enjoyment. There are many kinds of protected area (see Annex 4), each providing distinctive benefits (Box 7). Every country should establish a comprehensive national system of protected areas, which will include examples in many categories. Governments should establish or maintain professional agencies to provide leadership, a management infrastructure, trained staff, and the funds for them to plan, designate and care for the national network of protected areas. Without adequate resources, the protected areas system will be little more than a list on paper, and will eventually be destroyed. Already, protected areas have been degraded in many countries, and priority should be given to their restoration. Every national system also requires: - a sound legal and administrative base, which allows flexibility in design and management Managers must be able to respond to advances in scientific understanding, and to protect the system from arbitrary changes and pressures; - an overall plan setting out the objectives of the national system, its coverage of ecological regions and habitat types, and a timetable for filling gaps. National systems of protected areas should be governed by an explicit policy that: - ensures that each protected area has an up-to-date and adequate management plan, which is effectively implemented; - ensures citizen involvement in establishing and reviewing national protected areas policy; page 36 Chapter 4. Conserving the Earth's vitality and diversity - ensures the effective participation of local communities in the design, management and operation of protected areas; - maintains a sustainable economic return from protected areas but makes sure that much of this goes to manage the area and returns to local communities; - encourages local communities, including especially communities of indigenous peoples, and private organizations to establish and manage protected areas within the national system; - ensures that protected areas safeguard the full range of national ecosystem and species diversity; - provides for use of the protected area system to establish comprehensive in situ (on the spot) protection of populations of the main genetic variants of the wild relatives of plant and animal domesticates and other important wild genetic resources (see Action 4.12 and 13.11); - ensures that the protected areas do not become oases of diversity in a desert of uniformity, by providing for their integration within policies for the management of surrounding lands and waters. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Box 7. Functions and benefits of a protected area system A system of protected areas is the core of any programme that seeks to maintain the diversity of ecosystems, species, and wild genetic resources; and to protect the world's great natural areas for their intrinsic, inspirational and recreational values. A protected area system provides safeguards for: - natural and modified ecosystems that are essential to maintain life- support systems, conserve wild species and areas of particularly high species diversity, protect intrinsic and inspirational values, and support scientific research; - culturally important landscapes (including places that demonstrate harmonious relationships between people and nature), historic monuments and other heritage sites in built-up areas; - sustainable use of wild resources in modified ecosystems; - traditional, sustainable uses of ecosystems in sacred places or traditional sites of harvesting by indigenous peoples; - recreational and educational uses of natural, modified and cultivated ecosystems. Protected areas can be especially important for development when they: - conserve soil and water in zones that are highly erodible if the original vegetation is removed, notably the steep slopes of upper catchments and river banks; - regulate and purify water flow, notably by protecting wetlands and forests; - shield people from natural disasters, such as floods and storm surges, notably by protecting watershed forests, riverine wetlands, coral reefs, mangroves and coastal wetlands; - maintain important natural vegetation on soils of inherently low productivity that would, if transformed, yield little of value to human communities; - maintain wild genetic resources or species important in medicine; - protect species and populations that are highly sensitive to human disturbance; - provide habitat that is critical to harvested, migratory or threatened species for breeding, feeding, or resting; provide income and employment, notably from tourism. ------------------------------------------------------------------- page 37 Chapter 4. Conserving the Earth's vitality and diversity All governments and national conservation agencies should evaluate, and if necessary extend, their protected area systems to ensure that they are adequate to maintain species diversity under likely future climatic conditions. To do this, the systems must allow for changes in species' distribution. They will be most likely to achieve this, if the systems: - protect the diversity of physical environments; - include as wide a topographic diversity and altitude range as possible in each protected area; - ensure that protected areas are linked to other areas by corridors of suitable habitat along which species can disperse. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Action 4.10. Improve conservation of wild plants and animals. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Each country should do all it can to prevent the extinction of any species, accepting particular responsibility for endemic species confined to its territory. Threatened species should be restored to safe levels. Non-threatened stocks should not be allowed to decline significantly. Many species can be conserved through management of their habitats in protected areas, providing these are large enough to hold populations that are viable in the long term. However, others, especially the larger and commercially more valuable ones, often require more intensive management techniques. Many countries lack the expertise for such management, or have it in short supply. Important actions for governments, to which NGOs can contribute, include: - development and implementation of national recovery plans for threatened species, with quantifiable targets. International plans should be agreed by countries that share threatened populations; - adoption and enforcement of strict measures to prevent the release into the wild of nonnative species of animals, plants and pathogens. Invasive introduced species are a major cause of loss of biodiversity, and they can be very difficult, if not impossible, to control. In preventing invasions by exotics, countries should give particular attention to monitoring and developing codes of conduct for aquaculture facilities and to enforcing import, export and quarantine regulations; - development of techniques to manage small populations of plant and animal species, taking into account the need to prevent inbreeding and to prevent local extirpation resulting from accidents, ecological catastrophes and climate change; - special training in important wildlife management techniques, including animal capture and translocation, management of crop- raiding animals, veterinary diagnosis and management of diseases (including enforcement of quarantine regulations), operation of culling programmes, development and management of village-level use of wild species, management of sport-hunting and associated industries, including taxidermy (see Action 4.13), implementation of re-introduction programmes for both plants and animals, and programmes to exterminate damaging introduced and invasive species (in particular plants, rodents and predators); - adherence to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), and strong action to improve its effectiveness; - development of strong national and local conservation authorities, with well-trained staff and adequate resources; page 38 Chapter 4. Conserving the Earth's vitality and diversity - improvement of management techniques to eliminate the illegal and unsustainable taking of animals and plants, especially from protected areas - such anti-poaching schemes always involving local people and providing them with an incentive for maintaining their wild resources; - special action to protect species along migration routes when these cannot be included in protected areas. This can involve the control of hunting, pollution regulation, and thorough environmental impact assessment of proposed developments. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Action 4.11. Improve knowledge and understanding of species and ecosystems. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Knowledge of the status and distribution of many animal and plant species, especially in tropical countries, is still very poor. So long as it remains so, conservation measures will be less than adequate. Similarly, the impacts of human actions on ecosystems remain poorly understood. The amount and quality of biological monitoring and research should be increased, so that each country can make the best possible decisions when seeking to conserve its biological diversity. The world is suffering from a decline in taxonomic and systematic expertise at the very moment that it is most needed. There are also a number of new and improved survey and census techniques that are not being widely applied. This further reduces the effectiveness of conservation. Important actions include: - giving strong support to taxonomic and systematic research and relevant training throughout the world; - establishing national surveys and inventories of species and ecosystems, making full use of indigenous expertise from national universities, museums and conservation authorities; - developing linkages between universities and museums in upper- income countries and their counterparts in lower-income countries to support and develop survey and inventory programmes, and to provide training in taxonomic skills; - developing and implementing mechanisms for the rapid assessment of biological diversity in key areas, through censuses of some highly visible environmental indicator species; - developing regional cooperation for sharing expertise, especially in the taxonomy of plants and invertebrates, as well as sharing between countries all data that might assist them in conserving shared species and ecosystems; - developing expertise in aerial and ground census techniques, and in interpretation of their results, for key groups of animal species; - including in surveys an assessment of actual and potential contributions of species and ecosystems to national economies; - documenting, as a matter of urgency, all traditional uses of wild resources, giving highest priority to retrieving knowledge that seems likely to be rapidly lost; - incorporating the results of all surveys in national conservation databases on natural resources, to be used for setting priorities and making conservation-related decisions; - designing all national conservation databases so that they can be linked with each other and the World Conservation Monitoring Centre, which should become the global repository for all data relating to biological diversity; this should permit the sharing of information on biological diversity among all countries and conservation organizations; page 39 Chapter 4. Conserving the Earth's vitality and diversity - undertaking research on the effects on biological diversity of habitat fragmentation, logging and firewood collection in forests, and different fire regimes. The nature of sustainable use for selected important species and ecosystems, and the extent to which such uses can contribute to increasing species diversity in a variety of habitats, should also be studied. Results should be used to assess conservation priorities for species and ecosystems on a regional and global, as well as a national basis. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Action 4.12. Use a combination of in situ and ex situ conservation to maintain species and genetic resources. --------------------------------------------------------------------- The highest priority for the conservation of biological diversity is in situ conservation of species in their natural habitats. However, in certain circumstances, habitats have become so degraded or population sizes have fallen so low that is not possible to guarantee the survival of certain species in the wild. Under these circumstances, a comprehensive genetic conservation programme for such species should include both in situ and ex situ elements, the latter being established before populations become critically low. Management considerations should include: - close integration between ex situ and in situ programmes, with captive breeding and propagation programmes designed to support programmes aimed at conserving the species in the wild, and providing specimens for reintroduction where appropriate; - management of captive populations to ensure that they are genetically and demographically viable and do not require continuous addition of wild specimens; - management of captive populations collaboratively by a number of institutions so as to maximize demographic security and genetic diversity; - in captive breeding programmes of threatened species, emphasis on the benefit to the species, and avoidance of commercial transactions. Zoological and botanical gardens have a key role in maintaining ex situ populations of animals and plants respectively. All botanic gardens should contribute to the implementation of the Botanic Gardens Conservation Strategy and join the Botanic Gardens Conservation Secretariat. All zoos should join the network established by the IUCN/SSC Captive Breeding Specialist Group (CBSG) and should work with the CBSG in developing and implementing a Zoological Gardens Conservation Strategy. For a number of groups of species, in particular birds, fish, reptiles and certain plants, important populations of globally threatened species are held in private collections. These should take full part in the regional and international agreements. Countries should adopt legislation that prevents private individuals from keeping internationally threatened species, unless the collections are attested, after inspection, as meeting high professional standards, are properly integrated in national and international breeding schemes, or it can be demonstrated that their specimens are surplus to the overall requirements for captive breeding programmes and reintroductions to the wild. Both ex situ and in situ conservation are also important for wild relatives of domesticated animals and crop plants, and for races of domesticated species that are in danger of being Lost. Crop and livestock breeders continually draw on these resources for the development of new strains, and these will be even more important in future. Appropriate measures are dealt wit] in detail in Actions 13.10 and 13.11 but the main needs are for: - national plant genetic resources systems and regional cooperation among them; page 40 Chapter 4. Conserving the Earth's vitality and diversity - national monitoring and evaluation of indigenous and threatened livestock breeds; - a World Watch system on indigenous livestock breeds; strengthening of the Animal Genetic Resources Data Bank; and completion of the system of Regional Animal Gene Banks (FAO); - use of protected area systems to maintain important need genetic resources; - support for grassroots associations of farmers and gardeners for conservation of traditional and local varieties and breeds; - exchange of information and germplasm among grassroots, national and international agencies. Using biological resources sustainably Biological resources are renewable if used sustainably and destructible if not. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Action 4.13. Harvest wild resources sustainably. --------------------------------------------------------------------- In most countries wild species and uncultivated ecosystems are an important resource. Harvests need to be regulated if they are to be sustainable. Local needs should have priority over external commercial and recreational uses. Management of wild resources for sustainable use requires: - an ability to assess stocks and productive capacities of exploited populations and ecosystems, and keep use within those capacities; - establishment of harvest levels that allow for ignorance and uncertainty about the biology of harvested species, the condition of the ecosystems on which they depend, and other uses of (and impacts on) the species and ecosystems; - ensuring that where many species are harvested at once (as in some fisheries) harvest rates are sustainable for the species most vulnerable to overexploitation; - ensuring that harvest of a resource does not exceed its capacity to sustain exploitation. This can be done by regulating access (for example, by limiting the number and size of fishing boats and the duration of the "open season") or by catch quotas (rights to catch a specific quantity of fish, the sum of individual quotas being no more than the sustainable yield of the stock); - conservation of the habitats and ecological processes supporting the resource. In assessing whether use is sustainable, governments need to take four sets of factors into account: - the status of the resource itself; - the status of the ecological processes and biological diversity that support the resource; - the impacts of harvesting and processing on other renewable resources, human health, life-support systems, and biological diversity; - the main socioeconomic influences on the sustainability of the resource sector concerned. Many of these factors may not be known today, and it is important that research and monitoring, as an aid to sound management, are given due priority by governments and supported by international aid agencies. Emphasis should be on species that are important economically, play a central role in ecosystems, or are severely depleted. Social and economic influences on resource use can generally be evaluated as part of a national or subnational strategy for sustainability (see Action 17.7). page 41 Chapter 4. Conserving the Earth's vitality and diversity --------------------------------------------------------------------- Action 4.14. Support management of wild renewable resources by local communities; and increase incentives to conserve biological diversity. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Incentives to use natural resources sustainably depend on the property rights of users. People with an exclusive right to a fishery have an incentive to limit their harvests to conserve the resource, whereas those in a competitive open-access fishery do not. Someone whose rights to graze livestock extend far into the future has an incentive to manage the rangeland for continued productivity, whereas a grazier whose rights are limited to one season does not. Thus the exclusivity, duration and other characteristics of property rights profoundly influence the incentives of users to conserve resources. Governments and local communities should jointly develop policy for renewable resource management. Local communities should be granted secure land tenure and property rights, and encouraged to develop strong community institutions. These are particularly important for indigenous peoples and other groups with a long attachment to a particular area. Economic return to local communities is important. Those that successfully conserve wildlife stocks should be enabled to export the sustainable surplus and to receive the revenues earned. Combinations of incentives can promote conservation by local communities. They can include shares of entrance fees to a protected area, the proceeds of fines for illegal use of wild resources, and compensation for wildlife damage. Indirect incentives include exemptions from taxes, food security, and assistance for community development. Social incentives include measures to maintain strong communal organizations for resource management (see Chapter 7). Governments, development aid agencies, and conservation organizations should support projects that combine rural development and the conservation and sustainable use of wild species and ecosystems. To succeed, the projects should: - provide a direct, immediate, legally guaranteed and sustainable economic return to the communities concerned (see Action 7.6); - make use of native species of plants or animals, applying the knowledge of local communities to select the species; - provide increased revenue for local government. This increases commitment and management capacity; - recognize and integrate existing land rights and uses with conservation activities (see Action 7.1); - establish a locally-adapted system of indicators and monitoring to ensure that populations of the species being used are maintained or enhanced. page 42 ------------------------------------------------------------------- This electronic version of Caring for the Earth produced from the orginal Earthscan Edition by the Puget Sound Chapter of the Society for Conservation Biology. Care has been taken to preserve the original, and any inaccuracies not found in the original are the responsibility of the PSC-SCB. Special thanks to Shari Baker for proofreading the electronic text. If you have questions about this document, please contact: Preston Hardison (pdh@u.washington.edu) for information. .