by Munyaradzi Chenje
About four years after the Earth Summit which spawned Agenda 21, more than 2,000 people from all over the world recently gathered in Montreal, showing that “Caring for the Earth” remains high on the international agenda.
Described as the largest gathering of environmental experts since the Earth Summit or United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992, the only constituent missing at the World Conservation Union’s (IUCN) first World Conservation Congress in Canada were the heads of state.
Meeting under the theme, Caring for the Earth, the two-week Montreal gathering of members of the Swiss-based IUCN from 13-23 October, drew Participants from both government and nongovernmental Organisations to discuss various issues related to the environment. IUCN members include both governments and NGOs
Its objective is to influence, encourage and assist societies throughout the world to conserve the integrity and diversity of nature, and to ensure that any use of natural resources is equitable and ecologically sustainable.
Welcoming the participants, Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Sheila Copps expressed the hope that discussions during the congress would help “encourage the protection of biodiversity and the sustainable use of natural resources around the globe”.
Opening the congress two days later, Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien said, “The protection of endangered species is an important aspect of biodiversity conservation. Every nation must do its part. ” , Backing his words with action, Chretien announced that his government had established two new national parks in northern Canada. ‘
The parks, in the sparsely populated Arctic region, will be protected from prospecting for minerals or any other development.
Keeping with tradition, the IUCN spent the first two days discussing rules of procedure before breaking up to allow members to participate in various workshops. A total of 57 workshops discussed issues ranging from national concerns such as “managing for sustainability in Canada’s Arctic” to global and controversial ones such as “trade and sustainable development”.
Southern Africa, which has an IUCN membership of about 70, staged an artistic workshop – Guardians of Eden — which drew large crowds for about a week. Guardians of Eden is a play highlighting Africa’s problems in managing its wildlife of some international to the concept of sustainable utilisation of resources widely touted in this region.
The play has been presented to critical acclaim in Africa and Europe and won a prestigious award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
As some southern Africans tried to win over the’—_- sceptics through drama, others were elsewhere lobbying participants to block, among other things, some resolutions considered hostile to the regions interests, and the membership application by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).
The American-based organisation, whose presence is already being felt in the region, is committed to animal welfare even if that means life and death for people. A number of southern African organisations called for a ballot vote on the issue and this led to IFAW’s membership bid being defeated.
But that may be one battle not yet won as IFAW is certain to continue the struggle, campaigning through the press and other media against the exploitation of animals either for consumption or commercial gain.
IFAW’s Stanley Johnson acknowledges that large scale commercial exploitation and international trade of some wildlife “worries us …. It’s not enough to look at species as though they were items in a stamp collection.
“It’s not good enough to say ‘we needn’t worry about elephants because there are still a lot of them in Zimbabwe’. We think conserving nature means conserving abundance in practical terms, individual populations and their ecosystems as far as possible throughout their natural range.”
But controversy was not limited to the IFAW issue only. Canada objected to European criticism over the use of traps considered cruel to animals. The European Union is set to ban from 1 January 1997
“I think it’s hypocritical of the British minister for the environment to complain about Canadian fur policies when he sees no problem growing sheep in very penned quarters for sale to the European market as mutton in crowded boxcars,” Copps said at the congress.
Other controversies were generated by some resolutions such as the one on commercialisation and consumptive use of wildlife, promoted by Australian NGOs. They sought to encourage governments to restrict commercial and consumption use of animals.
African delegates were strongly opposed, describing it as an “epitome of protectionism”. In a document first prepared by the Harare-based Africa Resources Trust for members in Zimbabwe and later distributed to the Africa group, the motion was panned because it sought to “ask countries to reject any commercial use or consumptive use of wildlife except fish”. It was defeated.
While Africa helped defeat some resolutions considered hostile to its interests, it also proposed a number which were positive. Members of IUCN in southern Africa sponsored a number of successful resolutions. For example, southern African organisations such as Zimbabwe Environment Research Organisation (ZERO) and the Association of Zimbabwean Traditional Environmental Conservationists sponsored a resolution on indigenous knowledge systems which was
Perhaps the most controversial resolution for African participants was Number 110 which, among other things, called on the United Nations, the European Union, the Commonwealth, the Organisation of African Unity and other organisations to ban all trade in oil or petroleum products of Nigerian origin because of the execution in November 1995 of Ken Sara- Wiwa and eight other Ogoni leaders by the Nigerian junta.
The resolution also sought to have all external assets of the Nigerian government and Nigerian leaders frozen, diplomatic relations with Nigeria scaled down to a minimum, and all military relations with Nigeria, including arms trading, military training and attaches banned this on the basis that an environmental forum was not the appropriate place for dealing with this issue, which is already being pursued through mechanisms such as the Commonwealth.
Africa, as an IUCN region, opposed the resolution which was fully backed by the majority of northern NGOs. It was defeated with strong support from governments, particularly from the industrialised countries.
One of the highlights of the congress was the election of the IUCN President, regional councillors and chairs of commissions. For the first time since the organisation was established almost 50 years ago, a woman — Yolanda Kakabadse of Ecuador – was elected president, succeeding American Jay Hair who has hem at the helm since the last IUCN general assembly three years ago.
The IUCN members also elected 24 regional councillors to represent the following regions: Africa, Central and South America, North America and the Caribbean, East Asia, West Asia and Australia and Oceania. The election of most of these was over even before the ballots were cast as each region lobbied other regions to support certain candidates. .
For example, the Africa region lobbied other regions to vote for three of the seven African candidates who were eventually elected.
This means that candidates had to convince IUCN members from their own region first before other regions could be lobbied to support them. The election process was a mere formality,
Juliana Chileshe, coordinator of the Zambia Environmental Education Programme, is one of the three new African regional councillors, She is the first African woman to be elected to such a position. The other two are M.A. Abrougui of Tunisia and E. Edroma of Uganda.
Apart from the formal business of the congress, many organisations also took the opportunity to distribute their own brochures, newsletters, posters, pamphlets and books. Many tables were made available for organisations to place their materials for the public to select.
It was, therefore, not uncommon to see participants line up daily for a buffet of books, picking a brochure here and a book there, and putting them in their bags, the amount of paper distributed during the congress both for formal business and promotion indicates that despite the advances in communications technology and creation of the information highway, many people still feel safe travelling along the “paper trail”.
Looking at some of the issues raised during the congress, cynics could be justified in thinking that participants were more concerned about caring for their interests than the congress theme, Caring for the Earth. But the diversity of the IUCN membership allows for such divergent views. The fact that each TUCN member is concerned about the environment in one form or another means that the Caring for the Earth congress achieved its objective: it got most of those who care to come together and share their experiences. (SARDC)
