Buenos Aires, Argentina - IUCN

holders. Decentralizing this authority and providing
rural people with proper resource management training
is a fundamental institutional requirement for sustainable
use of wild species. Rao suggested that the
Guidelines need to emphasize that training in local
resource management must accompany legal empowerment.
Co-management
Local participation in management is a critical institutional
element in sustainable use. Les Carpenter, an
Inuvialuit from the North West Territories (NWT),
and Derek Melton, a resource manager from the NWT
Government, explained how the Inuvialuit and Government
work as "co-managers" of the muskox and
caribou populations. Brian Child of the Department of
National Parks and Wild Life Management, Zimbabwe,
explained how co-management works in the
CAMPFIRE Programme. He noted that adaptive management
is vital in managing resources successfully; it
is a process of trying, monitoring, assessing and
retrying. The Guidelines need to emphasize process
and have an objective.
Economic Incentives
All the presentations emphasized that economic
motivation is also essential to ensuring sustainable use
and that the Guidelines do not recognize this point
adequately. David Bracket, Director General of the
Canadian Fish and Wildlife Service, explained that it
is extremely important to document the socio-economic
values of wildlife in order to justify and maintain
the financial and human resources required for effective
research and conservation programmes.
Jeff Sayer, of the Center for International Forestry
Research, Indonesia, pointed out in his presentation
that the question of forest management should
revolve around recognition that societies and individuals
will wish to optimize production of certain goods
and services, and the maintenance of functions and
components in accordance with their immediate
needs. Perception of these needs will vary greatly from
place to place and over time.
During one of the discussions, a participant asked
Brian Child if the CAMPFIRE model of wildlife management
might not destroy the balance of nature by
preferring one species over another. This could lead
communities to destroy species to obtain more benefits,
as has happened with hunting in Spain. Child
responded, "Outside national parks, the choice is not
between one antelope and another, but between habitat
and agriculture. No system will produce a perfect
balance, but local management is the only chance left
for conservation outside protected areas."
Eduardo Fuentes, UNDP GEF Biodiversity Coordinator,
warned that the opportunity costs for implementing
the Guidelines will be a major barrier for
governments and resource users. The Guidelines
should address this.
Sustainability
Several papers examined certain philosophical concepts
about ecological sustainability. They concluded
that the Guidelines oversimplify ecological sustainability
and imply that there is an easy recipe for determining
what uses are sustainable. "We will not always
be able to give simple yes/no judgements on what is
sustainable because many other factors are involved",
said Grahame Webb, of Northern Territories, Australia.
Rowan Martin, of Zimbabwe's Department of
National Parks and Wild Life Management, explained
that it is much harder to determine what is sustainable
than what is not sustainable. "Looking at what uses
are unsustainable will tell us a lot about what is
needed for sustainability", Martin said. Webb also
noted that the process is most important for understanding
sustainability. Learning from using resources
is the only way we will know how to manage them
properly.
David Cassells, a specialist in forest management
and environmental planning in Australia, described a
number of myths and misconceptions about sustainable
forestry management. For example, (a) sustained
yield equals sustainable development, (b) good forestry
practice is automatically good for the environment,
(c) temperate forests have a long history of
sustainable management, (d) sustainable management
of tropical forests is an unachievable goal, and
(e) sustainable management is not economically
viable. Cassells concludes that concepts of sustainability
are not static in time.
Ralph Roberts, a forestry expert from Canada,
pointed out that "guidelines" for ecological sustainability
have been prepared, primarily for forestry
resources. He presented a useful comparison of definitions
used in the IUCN Guidelines, such as principles,
criterion, indicator and codes of practice, with similar
definitions used in the International Tropical Timber
Organization and CSCR Guidelines. Roberts suggested
that IUCN should collaborate with other institutions
in developing guidelines to avoid confusion
of terms.
Reports from the Workshops 61