CONSERVATION POLICIES OF THE WILDLIFE SOCIETY

The Wildlife Society

1988

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In addition to national and international bodies, professional organizations, such as the Wildlife Society, also issue environmental policies. Founded in 1937, the Wildlife Society is dedicated to the wise management and conservation of the world's wildlife resources. Excerpts from the society's Conservation Policies are printed below.

Human Populations

Burgeoning human populations continue to place an overwhelming and detrimental demand on many of the world's limited natural resources. Human degradation of terrestrial and aquatic communities is biologically unadvisable. Certain of these resources are irreplaceable, and others must be either preserved intact or managed carefully to ensure the integrity of the ecosystem and humanity. These resources will continue to decline or to sustain irreparable damage, despite scientific and technological advances, if the growth of the human population is not restrained.

The policy of The Wildlife Society, in regard to human populations is to:

1. Actively support an enlightened policy of population stabilization that will encourage the conservation of natural resources and enhance the quality of human existence.
2. Promote a better understanding of mankind's role in the world's ecosystems so as to minimize the contamination and harmful alteration of the global environment.

Environmental Quality

The demands that human societies make upon the earth and its biota inevitably result in environmental change. Many ecosystems have been exploited for immediate monetary profit rather than managed for sustained biotic yields. Careless or excessive exploitation often leads to unnecessary degradation of the environment. The common aim of mankind should be to perfect processes for deriving support from the environment without destroying its stability, diversity, productivity, or aesthetic values.

The policy of The Wildlife Society, in regard to environmental quality, is to:

1. Stimulate and support educational programs that emphasize mankind's dependence on functional ecosystems, and, consequently, the necessity for living in harmony with the environment.
2. Foster research designed to elucidate the complex biotic relationships of ecosystems.
3. Encourage the development and use of methods designed to reduce environmental degradation and to reclaim and reconstitute degraded ecosystems.
4. Contribute to the development of technologies, social systems, and individual behaviors that will maintain the diversity and beauty of the environment.

The Management of Living Natural Resources

Human population growth jeopardizes mankind's existence. The continued well-being of mankind, and earth's other living natural resources, is dependent upon a healthy environment maintained through the skilled management of resources. As human populations increase, wild plant and animal habitats usually decrease. Many people presume that all wild habitats are untouched by humanity. Actually, few natural areas have escaped the influence of mankind. Often these influences have disrupted natural areas, thus requiring the need for scientific management of these areas and their associated living resources.

A "hands-off," non-manipulative policy for plant and animal resources eventually could result in reestablishing naturally-functioning plant and animal communities as wild areas, if mankind's ever-present impacts could be eliminated. In such areas the actions of nature would dominate and low-priority would be given to material human wants. Such areas have been and are being established where practicable.

Only limited amounts of land can be devoted to wild areas because of the demands of our growing human population. Land is required for housing, crops, mineral and timber production, manufacture and sale of goods, intensive recreation, and other necessary and desirable purposes. Plant and animal communities associated with these more intensive land uses, although often highly productive, are usually unnatural in that they lack the diversity and stability of unaltered communities. Applying sound land and water management practices to these altered lands can assist natural processes in providing habitat suitable for plants and animals which are forced to live in close association with human activities. Plant and animal populations also may be enhanced and optimized at levels within the land's ability to support them through proven professional resource management practices.

The Wildlife Society recognizes the serious implications of mankind's ever-increasing worldwide demands for living space, food, shelter and other products. It also recognizes a need for a policy of continued, intensified and improved management for earth's living resources.

The policy of The Wildlife Society, in regard to management of living natural resources, is to:

1. Support and strengthen scientific management as the rational instrument for maintaining, restoring, and enhancing plant and animal resources for the continued use and appreciation by humanity.
2. Encourage the development and dissemination of information to improve public understanding of the need for, and the positive benefits from, scientific management.
3. Encourage the retention or enhancement of habitat for native plants and animals on public and private lands.
4. Seek support for ethical restraints in the use of living natural resources.
5. Reaffirm our view that scientific management includes both the regulated harvest of the surplus of those species in plentiful supply, as well as the protection of those plant or animal species which are rare, threatened, or in danger of extinction.

Conservation Education

Worldwide growth of human populations is placing unprecedented demands and stresses on the world's finite natural resources. Satisfying human needs for energy, food, fibers, minerals, and wood products has the potential for further destruction of wildlife habitat and aesthetic resources. If these natural resources are to be given adequate consideration in the context of human needs, a sound program of conservation education is of paramount importance.

The educational process must contain four key elements if it is to be effective in enabling people to cope with resource problems. First, it must provide basic understanding of the properties and distribution of natural resources. Second, it must provide and encourage alternatives to current degrading resource uses and promote changes in life styles that can be accommodated by the existing resources base. Third, it must provide people with an understanding of the political, economic, and social processes by which changes in resource use can be effected. And last, it must lead to positive action in behalf of resource conservation.

The policy of The Wildlife Society, in regard to conservation education, is to:

1. Assist in the development and promotion of educational programs that will disseminate ecologically sound knowledge to advance wise management of wildlife and other natural resources.
2. Promote increased cooperation and communication among all agencies and groups concerned with conservation education and resource management.
3. Encourage members of the wildlife profession (a) to interpret and make readily available those results of wildlife research that citizens require for decisionmaking, and (b) to actively participate in the implementation of sound, publicly oriented programs in conservation education.

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