Life-styles and nature conservation

Abstract

One of the key papers at the Technical Meetings that accompanied the IUCN General Assembly in Zaire was Dr Dasmann's showing how the emphasis in nature conservation has shifted. No longer can the 'biosphere people'-the people of the developed nations who draw on the resources of the whole world to maintain their life-style-simply urge developing countries to 'protect' wildlife and establish national parks while at the same time pressing them to cut back their population growth. One extra person in the USA will consume more in energy and materials than 20 extra people in Tanzania. What Dr Dasmann calls the 'ecosystem people'-those who depend for all their resources on supplies within their local ecosystem-lived in balance with nature and, moreover, did not live impoverished lives, Today we can only solve our world problems by getting back to some better balance, 'the old partnership with nature that existed without people being aware of it'. What we need, he suggests, is 'conservation as if people mattered' and 'development as if nature mattered'. Nature conservation today demands new life-styles. © 1976, Fauna and Flora International. All rights reserved.