Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
institutions and technology, while the north depended on the south for raw materials
and tropical and semi-tropical cash crops.
Whereas the World Conservation Strategy looked at global problems from the
perspectives of biological conservation and human ecology, the 1980 Brandt report
looked at developmental problems from a political perspective. As such it focused on
international trade and monetary agreements. However, pointedly it did mention the
need 'to integrate conservation with development'. Also, like the World Conservation
Strategy , the report attracted considerable media coverage. Again like the Strategy ,
because politicians actively in power at the time did not produce the report, Brandt's
impact on the ground was muted, although it did help establish a tone of political
thought. Three years later (1983) the follow-up report was very much along the same
lines.
8.1.6 TheBrundtland,WorldCommissiononEnvironmentandDevelopment
Report(1987)
The World Commission on Environment and Development was the first body to
produce an international environment and development report that had real political
credibility. Not only was it created as a consequence of a UN General Assembly resol-
ution (38/161), but it was chaired by the premiere of Norway, Gro Harlem Brundtland,
and had on it those who were either currently active senior politicians or who
worked for major organisations such as the Organization for Economic Cooperation
and Development (OECD), and leading scientific organisations and environmental
agencies.
In effect the Brundtland report, called Our Common Future (World Commission
on Environment and Development, 1987), was a synthesis of both the World Conser-
vation Strategy and the 1980 report of the Brandt Commission. On the one hand it
recognised the fundamental need to conserve biological resources and have sustain-
able development, but on the other it was aware that institutions, financial systems
and international economic relations needed a radical overhaul.
With regards to biology and (separately) climate change it made some key (for
international policy-makers at the time) observations and recommendations. On the
biological front it called for a 'Species Convention' and the preservation of genetic
diversity. It recognised the need to preserve ecosystems and have sustainable devel-
opment. As such it re-iterated the arguments of the World Conservation Strategy .The
Brundtland report has been cited as one of the first popularisers of the term biod-
iversity, although the term actually used in the chapter on species and ecosystems and
in the report's summary is biological diversity. (Walter G. Rozen, of the US Academy
of Science, used the term biodiversity in 1985 in the run up to the National Forum on
Biodiversity held in Washington DC the following year; later the ecologist Edward
O. Wilson used it as the title of his 1988 topic.)
As for energy, the Brundtland report recognised the need for energy for eco-
nomic growth and human well-being but also that much was being used ineffi-
ciently and that global warming and acid rain were major problems to be avoided. It
called for improved energy efficiencies and alternative energy sources, and a 'safe,
environmentally sound, and economically viable energy pathway that will sustain
human progress into the distant future'. It said that this was 'clearly an imperative'.
 
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