1973 iucn yearbook

the French Committee appointed to organize the 1948 Conference
met with serious technical and fundamental obstacles, the latter
often being the more difficult to overcome. At last the French
Government, jointly with UNESCO, decided to invite the governments
of all countries to send representatives to a Conference
which was to take place at Fontainebleau from September 30 to
October 7, 1948, to establish the International Union for the
Protection of Nature. The Provisional Union was asked to send
the same invitation to all private, national, or international bodies
concerned with Nature Protection.
The Conference of Fontainebleau is fresh in our memories.
On 5 October 1948, the IUPN was born. An immense and magnificent
task lies before it. Those deserving or fortunate persons
who assisted in the constitution of the Union will be the first to
support it in its efforts. But others, many others, will join them,
for all the signs from our 20th century tend towards the certainty
that our efforts can only be crowned with success when scattered
forces unite in a vast common action to defend a great ideal.
Fontainebleau
On 5 October 1948, meeting in the Galerie des Colonnes of the Palace
in Fontainebleau, representatives of 18 governments, 7 international
organizations and 107 national nature protection organizations signed
the Constitutive Act of the Union.
This Constitution (Statutes) still governs the affairs of the Union.
The original Preamble* and Article I, Objects, as redrafted from the
Constitution approved at Brunnen for the Provisional Union, are
reproduced here, in their original form.
Preamble
Whereas the term "Protection of Nature" may be defined as the
preservation of the entire world biotic community, or man's
natural environment, which includes the earth's renewable natural
resources of which it is composed, and on which rests the foundation
of human civilization;
* Drafted by the USA delegation to Fontainebleau.
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