1973 iucn yearbook

National and International Environmental Policy
If conservation is to be an effective instrument it must be more than an
emotional and ethical expression of individual interests; these individual
and very personal responses must find form in the policies and laws of
those who govern. Generally speaking this has occurred long ago to
some degree in most societies. But the process is a continuous one, or
certainly should be, with revised policies and revised or new laws
appearing in response to environmental needs.
These matters of involvement of governments with environmental
issues are related to the work of the Commission on Environmental
Policy, Law and Administration, and to the IUCN Environmental Law
Centre at Bonn, Federal Republic of Germany. They incorporate a wide
range of activities and involve various levels of political action, from
those concerning the individual to international cooperation.
Environmental policy
In the area of environmental policy, several issues that arose at the
Stockholm Conference were brought under study. Position papers to
clarify the issues and point to desirable action are being prepared and
one was issued during the year in the IUCN Environmental Policy and
Law Papers series. This was handled by a small Task Force linked to
the Commission on Environmental Policy, Law and Administration
(CEPLA). The following subjects have been considered:
The concept of "additionality", i.e., additional financing for
developing countries to cover taking environmental considerations
into account in development programmes;
The associated question of "compensation" which is linked to
redressing adverse effects on the trading position of developing
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