The Prince of Asturias Foundation
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources
Founded in 1948 in Fontainebleau (France) within the framework of an international conference sponsored by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Organization (UNESCO) and the French Government, its main objective is the development and fostering of scientific programmes for conserving and protecting Nature. Together with the United Nations, it drew up the World Strategy for the Conservation of Nature, the keystone document for the international conservationist movement. It was founded in response to the increasing deterioration of the environment, related to the disappearance of natural ecosystems and the extinction of plant and animal species.
Since its inception, the IUCN has maintained close relations with the United Nations, in particular with UNESCO, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Environment Programme (UNEP). The latter department and the "World Wide Fund for Nature" (WWF) are its main collaborators.
The IUCN has representatives in over 160 countries. Twenty-one new members were admitted in February 2005, making a total of 1,084. The organisation acting on its behalf in Spain is ADENA. The IUCN Secretariat is assisted in its work by committees of expert volunteers and advisory groups and is structured into six standing commissions: Ecosystem Management; Education and Communication; Environmental, Economic and Social Policy; Environmental Law; Protected Areas; and Species Survival. It also has three centres providing basic training and services: the Conservation Monitoring Centre, based in Cambridge and Kew (UK); the Environmental Law Centre, based in Bonn (Germany); and its headquarters, the Conservation Centre for Development, which is located in Gland (Switzerland).
The Iucn has worked with the governments of Argentina, Chile, Bolivia and Peru in the drawing up of a convention on the production, management and breeding of the vicuña; it has advised the Government of Brazil regarding the conservation of tropical wetlands; and it has jointly prepared, together with UNEP and the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), a strategy for the preservation of marine resources and processes in the Caribbean. Its consulting, nature conservation and protection activities reach all parts of the globe. In Spain, the IUCN has provided support to the Regional Government of Catalonia.
Funding for this organization depends on member contributions, donations from governments and foundations, special aid from corporations and cooperation agreements with other organisations.
Dr Monkombu S. Swaminathan was president of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources at the time of receiving the Prince of Asturias Award for Concord in 1988.
The World Wide Fund for Nature
The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is one of the organisations that have contributed most to environmental conservation all over the planet. Between 1961 and 1988, it collected more than 20,000 million pesetas to finance 4,000 projects in 130 countries. It has also participated in the creation of numerous parks and reserves around the world, including that of Doñana.
The WWF is a private, apolitical, independent organisation dedicated to the protection of Nature in all its forms.
Its President Emeritus is H.R.H. Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and it boasts over a million members grouped in twenty-six national organisations under the emblem of a panda bear, one of the most endangered animal species in the world. It is represented in Spain by ADENA.
The WWF was founded in September 1961 with the signing of a document at a meeting of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources held in the Swiss town of Morges. The so-called Morges Manifesto was signed by the world’s leading conservationists, including the British biologist Sir Julian Huxley, the first director general of UNESCO and creator of the IUCN.
The WWF has a strong operational base via which it carries out its activities, the World Strategy for the Conservation of Nature, jointly drawn up by the IUCN and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The basic principle of this plan is to harmonize the development of nations with the conservation of natural resources, i.e. to manage such resources in a planned, rational way.
At the time of receiving the 1988 Prince of Asturias Award for Concord, the World Wide Fund for Nature had carried out more than 4,000 conservation projects, funded to the sum of 20,000 million pesetas. This resulted in the creation of dozens of parks and reserves worldwide, the assurance of survival for plant and animal species as endangered as those to be found in tropical forests, in the former case, and elephants, tigers and turtles, in the latter. The protection of medicinal plants and wetlands and the fight against desertification have been other priority objectives. The WWF has also fostered the drawing up of international agreements such as the Washington Convention on trafficking and illegal trade in protected species, the Ramsar Convention on the protection of wetlands, and the Bonn Convention on the protection of migratory animal species.
His Royal Highness Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, was president of the World Wide Fund for Nature Conservation at the time of receiving the Prince of Asturias Award for Concord. This position is currently occupied by Yolanda Kakabadse, President of the Fundación Futuro Latinoamericano and former Environment Minister of Ecuador.
Up
