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58. Governments should investigate the prospect of agreeing to a 'Species Convention', similar in spirit and scope to the Law of the Sea Treaty and other international conventions reflecting principles of 'universal resources'. A Species Convention, such as a draft prepared by IUCN, should articulate the concept of species and genetic variability as a common heritage.
59. Collective responsibility for the common heritage would not mean collective international rights to particular resources within nations. This approach need not interfere with concepts of national sovereignty, But it would mean that individual nations would no longer be left to rely on their own isolated efforts to protect species within their borders.
60. Such a Convention would need to be supported by a financial arrangement that would have the active backing of the community of nations. Any such arrangement, and there are several possibilities, must not only seek to ensure the conservation of genetic resources for all people, but assure that the nations that possess many of these resources obtain an equitable share of the benefits and earnings derived from their development. This would greatly encourage the conservation of species. One such arrangement might be a Trust Fund to which all nations could contribute, with those benefiting most from the use of these resources contributing an appropriate share. Governments of tropical forest nations could receive payments to support the conservation of given areas of forest, with such payments rising or falling depending on the degree to which the forests are maintained and protected.[1]
61. The sums required for effective conservation are large. Traditional-type conservation needs in tropical forests alone require outlays of $170 million a year for at least five years.[2] However, the network of protected areas that the world will need by the year 2050 must include much larger areas brought under some degree of protection and a sophisticated degree of flexibility in management techniques.[3]
62. More funds will also be required for conservation activities outside protected areas: wildlife management, ecodevelopment areas, education campaigns, and so on. Other approaches of a less expensive sort include the conservation of wild gone reservoirs of special significance through 'genetic conservation areas' in countries well endowed with biological wealth. Much of this work can be carried out by citizens' groups and other non-governmental means.
63. International development agencies – the World Bank and other major lending banks, UN agencies, and bilateral agencies – should give comprehensive and systematic attention to the problems and opportunities of species conservation. Although he
international trade in wildlife and wildlife products is considerable, to date the economic values inherent in genetic variability and ecological processes have been generally disregarded. Possible measures include environmental impact analyses of development projects with particular attention to
- ↑ R.A. Sedjo, Testimony before the Subcommittee on Human Rights and International Organizations, Foreign Affairs Committee, U.S. House of Representatives, 12 September 1984.
- ↑ International Task Force, Tropical Forests: A Call for Action (Washington, DC: World Resources Institute, 1985).
- ↑ R.L. Peters and J.D.S. Darling, 'The Greenhouse Effect of Nature Reserves', Bioscience, Vol. 35, pp. 707-17, 1984.
