1973 iucn yearbook

special international meetings at Rüschlikon, Switzerland, and
London, Ontario, Canada. The Union has developed considerable
leadership in international environmental education, and these
activities have had a significant impact on curriculum development.
A new name and a new home
As most of the contributors to the previous Chapter have remarked,
the General Assembly in Edinburgh in 1956 approved the new name of
"International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources".
This indicated no change of policy but symbolized the conviction
reached over the previous eight years that "nature", the fauna and flora
of the living world, is essentially a part of the renewable natural resources
of the planet; perhaps it also implied that social and economic considerations
must enter into the problem of conservation. The Union was in
no way turning aside from the task of maintaining intact areas of nature
for the benefit of science, education, aesthetic pleasure or simple relaxation.
Experience had shown that the words "Protection of Nature" had
been rather misleading, in some cases conjuring up a purely defensive
or even sentimental picture, which obscured the principal task that the
Union had undertaken - to conserve nature through encouraging man
to use its resources more wisely. The new title permitted no ambiguity.
While the change of name was relatively easy to accomplish, the
issue of establishing a more appropriate seat for the Union, which
came to a head four years later, was quite another matter. For some
12 years, the Union had enjoyed the hospitality of Brussels and the debt
it owed to the Belgian authorities for providing accommodation and
other assistance was greatly appreciated. Nevertheless the Executive
Board, after more than a year of investigation, had become convinced
that a move to totally "neutral" ground would now be opportune.
The proposal was brought before the 7th General Assembly at Warsaw.
Acceptance was not immediate. Indeed several delegations asked
that action be delayed until the General Assembly reconvened in Krakow.
There the proposal narrowed to Switzerland as the new seat.
Delegates from several African countries, Kenya and Sudan in particular,
supported the proposal on the grounds that headquarters should be in
a country whose government had never possessed colonial territories in
Africa. After further debate, the proposal was accepted unanimously,
giving the Executive Board authority to select an appropriate centre in
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