1973 iucn yearbook

The Union in action
The first General Assembly of IUCN began on the same day the Union
was founded, its purpose being to elect officers, appoint a secretary
general, decide the seat of the Union, and determine an initial programme
of activities for the Union.
Charles J. Bernard was elected the first President of the Union. Vice-
Presidents were Harold J. Coolidge, USA; Roger Heim, France; and
Henry G. Maurice, UK. The Executive Board members named were
Böje Benzon, Denmark; Nils Dahlbeck, Sweden; Walery Goetel,
Poland; Henri Humbert, France; Victor Van Straelen, Belgium; J. K. van
der Haagen, Netherlands; Jehan Vellard, Peru; Renzo Videsott, Italy;
William Vogt, USA; and Jose Yepes, Argentina.
Jean-Paul Harroy, Secretary-General of the Brussels-based Institute
of Scientific Research on Central Africa, was named Secretary-General
on a part-time basis, and Brussels was chosen as the site for the Union's
first headquarters.
On the second day of the General Assembly, the Programme Committee,
under the Chairmanship of Victor Van Straelen, enumerated
some of the activities to which the Union should devote its first efforts.
The following list, from the record of the Fontainebleau meeting, sets
out the chief tasks:
1. The constitution and publication of a documentation giving
a brief report of the present conditions of Nature Protection in
each country, and principally of the means used to educate the
masses in the conservation of natural resources.
2. Examination of the working value of the different laws in
force.
3. Selection of a type of legislation. Translation and diffusion
of this model legislation in numerous languages.
4. Action to induce the competent authorities to ensure that
Nature Protection is included in the programmes of teaching
establishments at all levels.
5. Production of an extensive documentation on the vanishing
zoological and botanical species.
6. Production of a card index of films likely to be useful in
popularizing the idea of Nature Protection.
It is interesting to note that over the years the IUCN programme has
contained some of these same items, although for some years the concern
has been with conservation of nature and natural resources rather
than with "nature protection".
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