IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature

Co-Chairs: Brendan Mackey and Klaus Bosselmann

There is a common theme in the current work of the Ethics Specialist Group (ESG), i.e. the Earth Charter. The Earth Charter was adopted at the World Conservation Congress in Bangkok as a guide for IUCN’s programme and policy development. ESG has dedicated a number of projects to implement the Earth Charter and advance IUCN’s policies in order to foster IUCN’s aspiration for global moral leadership in the area of biodiversity conservation.

Such a broad approach has made it necessary to work across Union and collaborate with members from all Commissions. In a way, ESG has become a hybrid. While firmly embedded as a Specialist Group within CEL with tremendous support from the CEL Chair and the Environmental Law Centre, ESG has also been a platform for the Union at large. This dual function is not surprising given the fundamental, cross-disciplinary nature of biosphere ethics. Respect for the community of life is, after all, the basis of everything the Union and its members are trying to achieve.

In 2007 significant progress was made in four areas:

• the understanding and legal exploration of Earth Charter principles (1);
• the application of the precautionary principle (2);
• the biosphere ethics project (3); and
• the governance for sustainability project (4).

1) ESG members – lawyers, philosophers and scientists – have contributed to the growing body of academic literature on the Earth Charter. A number of conference papers, articles and books have developed, for example, the legal status of the Earth Charter, its importance as a covenant, and the meaning of its principles and values with respect to justice, human rights and the precautionary principle. The IUCN Academy of Environmental Law has adopted an ESG proposal for collaborative research projects related to the Earth Charter. On behalf of IUCN, Klaus Bosselmann attended a UNESCO workshop in Tripoli/Libya in June to launch the ‘Arabian Network of
Environmental Ethics’ (ANEE). The workshop with participants from the Arabic region adopted the ‘Tripoli Declaration’ referring to the Earth Charter and further adopted a working programme for developing and implementing relevant values and principles in Arabic countries.

2) Consultation within the Commission on Environmental Law resulted in a commentary on the Guidelines for applying the precautionary principle to biodiversity conservation and natural resource management. The purpose
of the consultation was to place the guidelines more closely within the context of IUCN’s vision of ‘a just world that values and conserves nature.’ ESG has stressed the inherent links between sustainability and the precautionary principle.

3) Following the successful Planning Meeting at the IUCN HQ in September 2006, the Steering Group of the ‘Code of Ethics for Biodiversity Conservation’ prepared a report that identified key issues and outlined the further working agenda. At a workshop in Halifax in June 2007, it was decided to extend the scope of the Code project to incorporate foundational concepts of human-nature relationships.
The broader approach is reflected in the new title ‘The Biosphere Ethics Project.’ In September 2007 a four-day workshop under this title was held in Windblown Hill near Chicago. It was jointly organized by IUCN-ESG
and the Centre for Human and Nature, Chicago/New York. A final report on the project will be presented to the 2008 World Conservation Congress in Barcelona.

4) A project on governance for sustainability was commissioned by the Chair of CEL to provide guidance in the area of environmental governance at global, national and local levels. The project aims for an ethically based concept of good governance reflecting the normative characteristics
of sustainability. The project was advanced at a research workshop of the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law in Ottawa in April, a workshop during
the 5th Academy Colloquium in Rio/Paraty in early June, a meeting during an ecological integrity conference in Halifax end of June, and the above-mentioned workshop in Windblown Hill in September. The overall objective is a comprehensive report to be presented at next year’s Barcelona Congress.