RESOLUTION OF THE INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP ON CONSERVATION IN PUBLIC AWARENESS: ETHICAL AND CULTURAL ASPECTS (TRIBUNE-8)
On May 27-30, 2002, Kiev University hosted the International Workshop
on Conservation in Public Awareness: Ethical and Cultural Aspects (Tribune-8).
The workshop was organized by the Kiev Center for Ecology and Culture, the
Biodiversity Conservation Center (Moscow) and the IUCN World Commission
on Protected Areas (WCPA/UNDP) with the support of the John D. and Catherine
T. MacArthur Foundation and the Vidrodzhennie International Fund.
The 70 participants came from nature reserves, national parks, public, scientific and governmental organizations in Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. The workshop program included over 40 reports, 4 discussions (The Ethics of Conservation; An Ethical Examination of Scientific Research in Reserves and National Parks; Eco-Tourism in Nature Reserves: Right or Wrong?, Prospects for Protection of Sacred Natural Monuments). Participants also took part in an extended meeting of the editorial board of a humanitarian environmental magazine, listened to presentations by the Kiev Center for Ecology and Culture and the Biodiversity Conservation Center, and viewed various video-materials.
Moral principles are critical when it comes to conservation. Protected natural areas should take into consideration all manner of different objectives - conservation, scientific, ethical, spiritual, aesthetic, cultural - not only utilitarian ones. The PNA system should not contradict ethical and other non-material assets for whose sake it was created.
The workshop participants called for a return in the CIS to the ethical and aesthetic approach to conservation developed in the late 19th and early 20th century by I.P. Borodyn, A.P. and V.P. Demenov-Tyan-Shansky, G.A. Kozhevnikov, V.I. Taliev, D.N. Anuchin and other of Russia's pioneer conservationists. This approach focuses on the ethical value of wild nature, the right of wild nature, plants and animals to exist regardless of their benefit to mankind.
Organizational ethics and aesthetic principles of conservation and wildlife protection could prove efficacious both in developing a philosophy and ideology and in working to protect wildlife.
At present, ethical, spiritual, aesthetic and cultural aspects of conservation and the non-material assets of nature reserves and other PNAs receive little consideration.
We live in difficult times: market relations seem to have penetrated all spheres of human life, including the spiritual sphere. Thus the popularization of conservation ethics and PNA non-material assets is of paramount importance. Conservation ethics could reduce utilization pressure on reserves and other PNAs, encourage the designation of new areas, provide wider public support, improve reserve management and wildlife protection, promote environmental education and establish new conservation traditions.
In order to develop ethical principles in the sphere of conservation and
to increase the significance of PNA non-material assets, the workshop participants:
Recommend that PNA experts use the ethical principles proposed by the Kiev
Center for Ecology and Culture (amended and approved at the workshop) in their
daily work.
Recommend that nature reserve and national park staff use the Approximate
Statement for an Ethical Examination of Scientific Research in Reserves and
National Parks developed by A. A. Nikolsky (modified and approved at the workshop).
Urgently recommend that reserves and national parts use sparing methods
of scientific research in protected areas.
Recommend that PNA specialists use the Guidelines Protecting Sacred Natural
Monuments (developed and approved at the workshop).
Urge that Sacred Natural Monuments be made a category in the CIS Register
of PNAs.
Urge that designations and studies be made of sacred natural monuments (sacred
groves, trees, springs, mountains, etc.) and that a Sacred Natural Monuments
Inventory be started. To do this a suitable method for their identification
and inventory will first have to be developed.
Appeal to religious confessions for assistance in receiving public support
for PNAs and biodiversity conservation.
Recommend that the organizers of conservation conferences and workshops
include sections on ethical, spiritual and other non-material assets of PNAs.
Urge that chapters on ethical principles and the non-material assets of
PNAs be included in courses and textbooks on environmental protection and
conservation.
Ask conservationists and ecology experts to participate in the development
of a Professional Code of Ethics.
Warn reserve and national park directors that all tourism (including "eco-tourism")
is considered commercial use of natural resources. Tourism is not permissible
in protected areas where economic activities are restricted in accordance
with the conservation regime. Tourism in PNAs should be primarily for purposes
of environmental education and nature conservation. The use of tourism at
state reserves to solve financial problems is inadmissible since it conflicts
the reserves' own aims.
Recommend developing a National Strategy for Tourism Development in PNAs
that would spell out where and to what degree tourism is permissible within
the PNA system. Tourism development is primarily acceptable in national park
zones for recreation and economic activity, in the buffer zones surrounding
nature reserves and in the biosphere zones (zones of collaboration) of biosphere
reserves.
The workshop participants urge:
The Ukrainian Government to forbid the construction of bridges through natural
and historical sites of global importance (the Isle of Khortitsa in Zaporozhye)
and to establish a National Nature Park in Khortitsa.
The Kiev Center for Ecology and Culture and the Biodiversity Conservation
Center in Moscow to organize a round-table discussion on biodiversity conservation
for members of various confessions and environmental organizations.
The Kiev Center for Ecology and Culture to hold regular international (within
the CIS) wildlife conferences relying on the experience of U.S. and Canadian
colleagues.
CIS Conservationists to promote the Humanitarian Ecological Journal and
the Humanitarian Ecology and Eco-ethics website (www.ecoethics.ru).
International and Russian environmental foundations to support the BCC journals:
Nature Conservation, and Nature Reserves and National Parks.
The leaders of the Student Nature Guards Movement in the CIS to incorporate
the ideas of ethics in the programs of their vocational schools and workshops.
The editorial boards of CIS biology journals not to publish studies based
on cruel research techniques (where alternative research techniques exist).
The Kiev Center for Ecology and Culture to go back to drafting A Concept
for the Natural Rights of Animals and Plants and A Declaration of Freedom
for Wild Nature.
The Participants support:
The proposal of the Kiev Center for Ecology and Culture to establish an
International Wildlife Confederation in the CIS.
The Initiative of the Darvinsky Reserve to collaborate with the Russian
Orthodox Church to provide spiritual and environmental education and training.
The proposal of the Azerbaijan Animal Protection Society to encourage close
collaboration between environmental organizations and animal protection organizations.
The proposal of the Azerbaijan Animal Protection Society and the Kiev Center
for Ecology and Culture to conduct the next Workshop, Tribune-9, on Wildlife,
Plant and Animal Rights in Kiev in the spring of 2003.
The proposal of the IUCN Moscow office to make 2003 the year of Protected
Natural Areas in the CIS.
The idea of holding the Eighth Wildlife World Congress in Kamchatka (Russia).
The proposal to create an Association of Natural Scientists for a Human
Approach to Nature.
The workshop participants wish to thank:
The CIS conservation periodicals Zapovidna Sprava v Ukraini, ISAR Moscow
Bulletin, Gravitation Force, Berkut journals, Zapovedni Vestnik, Zapoveni
Ostrova, and Green World papers for their coverage of ethical, spiritual and
aesthetic aspects of nature conservation; and O. Morozenko (Moscow), V. Levchenko
and N. Vasilyeva (St. Petersburg) for their founding of environmental websites.
The Kiev Center for Ecology and Culture, the Biodiversity Conservation Center
in Moscow and the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas for their excellent
organization of the Tribune-8 workshop.
