B I O D I V E R S I T Y

• by Alexandru R. Savulescu

  The World Conservation Congress (WCC), jointly organized by IUCN and Parcs Canada, gathered over 3000 delegates from across the globe in Montreal, Canada, between October 13-23, 1996.

  The world's most populous country, China, and one of the world's most powerful economies, Japan, joined the union on this occasion, raising the number of member states to 75. The union is continuously growing - it now has over 900 members worldwide, more than 700 of which are NGOs, remarks David McDowell, director general of IUCN. "Until these two countries joined, the union was not truly global," he says, adding that "we are now ready to step up two or three gears and accelerate towards the new millennium."

  As adopted at the previous IUCN General Assembly in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the union's mission is "to influence, encourage, and assist societies throughout the world to conserve the integrity and diversity of nature".

  According to McDowell, IUCN's mission is right, and the union is now close to getting the structures and representation right in the various countries. However, he adds, the struggle to conserve biodiversity is far for being won and suggests that IUCN must become more focused, convey its messages more effectively, mobilize more funds and human resources, and better serve its members.

  As a major step in urging decisionmakers towards sustainability, McDowell announced at the WCC that IUCN will open a representation office at the European Union's "capital," Brussels. Also, a consolidated office for the European Program will be opened in the Netherlands. While there is only one pan-European Program, the Western and Eastern part of the "old continent" have certain degrees of independence within IUCN.

  "I would like to see IUCN go as far as it can in eliminating the differences between Eastern and Western Europe," says Frantisek Urban, of the Czech Republic, the newly-elected IUCN councilor for Eastern Europe, North and Central Asia. "But the conservation problems of the two regions are different, and they must be addressed separately," he adds.

  It is generally agreed that the rigid and inefficient centrally-planned economies of Central and Eastern Europe lead to considerable environmental problems. And there are some areas, such as the Black Triangle and the Black Sea, where urgent action is needed. But "it would be a gross misjudgement to consider Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) as a big environmental disaster," says Wojciech Jankowski, president of the Polish Society of Wildlife Friends pro Natura.

  "Eco-colonialism," as Erzsebet Smuck, president of the Hungarian National Society of Conservationists, calls the introduction of Western consumerist patterns, "is the real danger" that the CEE countries are facing.

  Indeed, Angheluta Vadineanu, president of Earthkind Romania questions, "is it only the CEE countries that are in transition? The human system is dynamic, therefore everything related to it is in transition." The only problem is the trajectory. "We must orient ourselves towards sustainable development," he adds.

  While IUCN is often misidentified as an exclusive club of biologists, the WCC's program included many "untraditional" issues including sustainable development, climate change and environment and security.

  Closing elections at the congress saw Yolanda Kakabadse selected as the first Latin American president of IUCN. Another woman, Bettina Laville, IUCN councilor for Western Europe, invited the participants to the congress to meet again in two years at Fontainebleau, France, birthplace of the union in 1948.