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22 Info. Rep.: Animal Welfare Inst. 1 (1973)

handle is hein.animal/awiqu0022 and id is 1 raw text is: INFOMAIN January, February, March, 1973 TREATY TO PROTECT THREATENED WILDLIFE CONCLUDED The United States convened a plenipotentiary con- ference February 12 to March 3, 1973 to bring inter- national protection to wild fauna and flora in danger of extinction due to commerce, Ninety-two nations were represented. The treaty which they concluded must be ratified by ten nations in order to go into effect. Secretary of the Interior Rogers C. B. Morton set the tone of the conference in his opening address to the delegates. He said: It i's a great pleasure for me to welcome the dele- gates to this important conference. You are here today not merely as the representatives of individual nations, but in a true sense as the representatives of mankind in a meeting with his own conscience. In our molding the world to fit human needs, we tave taken upon our conscience the responsibility for the other species that we threaten, yet are privileged to share the boun- ties of this planet. Their evolution down the centuries has not equipped them to contest man's supremacy: if they are to survive it must be owing to man's self-con- trol. Today, all men share the bond of concern for the future of our planet. That bond is impervious to geo- graphic, cultural, or ideological influences. Last year at the Stockholm Conference, we crossed the threshold of an era where all nations and all men agree to work together to save our natural heritage and protect our environment. What you do at this conference is an im- portant part of that new international endeavor. For the threat to the wildlife of our earth-the leopards of the Serengeti. the polar bear of the Arctic, the whales under the sea-is in a sense a part of the threat to mankind from the degradation of his en. ironment. It is ironic that men can move so rapidly in doing harm to the environment and so slowly in protecting it. This conference had a long incubation period, going back at least a decade to the original efforts of the In- ternational Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources in 1063. But time is moving on and for many species, it is moving against the fiutire of orli wildlife- The rate of extinction has been on ihe ise dranmatich . 0 )f the recorded extinictions of mainnals over the last two thousand years, fully half have met their final fate within the last sixty years. It is sad to acknowledge to ourselves that during the ten years we have been preparing fur this meeting, perhaps eight percent of all recorded mammal extinctions have taken place. My fellow citizens of the world our task is urgent. Our task is by its very nature a truly international endeavor. In the final analysis, caci country must carry the burden of protecting its own w ildlife. But we have found that so long as international trade in wildlife is not conti olled, the individual country, acting alone, is not able to iet effectively to protect its native species which are threatened or endangered. If the demand is not controlled, the supplier nation cannot move effec- tively to protect' itself. And even if one country acts to control its own demands-as the United States has in its Endangered Species Protection Act of 1969 and the ILacey Act-the demand will merely move from that country to another, and the market still creates the same insoluble problem for the supplier country. Ex- perience makes it clear: Unless we all act together to control trade in the endangered species, none of us will be able to act as effectively as we must to protect what is precious and is our own. Therefore, you do have a vital and urgent task before you at this Conference. In concluding this Con- vention, you are performing an honorable duty before future generations. You are showing man's responsi- bility in safeguarding the fragile legacy of the wild species of our world. In welcoming you on behalf of the United States Government, I assure you that the people of this coun- (Cont. on page 2) ANHIAL WELFARE INSTITUTE P.O. Box 3650, Washington, D. C. 20007 Vol. 22, No. 1 ALBERT SCHWEITZER MEDAL PRESENTED TO RUSSELL TRAIN Chairiman of the Council on Environmental Quality, Russell Train, was the Schweitzer Medallist at a cereimony held in the Smithsonian Institution's Hall of Life in the Sea November 21, 1972. Secretary of the Smiihsoian, Dillon Ripley, made the presentation. Chairman Train played a leading role in obtaining the 53-0 vote at the Stockholm Conference in favor of a ten-year international moratorium on commercial killing of whales. At the International Whaling Com- mission meeting which followed soon after in London, he proposed that the press be admitted to the hitherto secret sessions, but no country seconded his motion, so, after the voting, Mr. Train called a press confer- ence at the American Embassy and reported on how the representatives of the different countries voted on the U.S. proposal for a moratorium. Before turning his efforts to whales Russell Train brought help to the land animals in Africa through the African Wildlife Leadership Foundation. Later, as Chairman of CEQ, he and his associates played a major part in bringing about that most humane Executive Order, the barring of poison for predator control on the public lands. His achievements in the fight against ocean lumping and in the development of the World Heritage Trust convention, will make it possible for countless creatures to have a place where they can survive. Following are the remarks of Secretary Ripley and Chairman Train. Remarks of S. Dillon Ripley, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution Thank you very much, Christine Stevens, for your generous and kind introduction of me this afternoon for a purpose which could not he more pleasurable. One of the things that I am pleased about this meeting of the Animal Welfare Institute being held here in the Smithsonian is to emphasize to all of you once again the essential unity that exists between people who are trained in natural history and those of you who are concerned witi the care of animals. It is riot so much a question of training a it is of natural instincts, I think, for most people, like myself, who becorne drawn into the field of natural history do so essentially for poetic or romantic or somewhat sentimental reasons. I had no intention of being a natural historian, as the phrase might be, when I was a small boy-not at all. I liked the ouit-of-doors and I liked everything to do with it but I was told faithfully and religiously and seriously by my family that you had to fight the good fight in life and you had to go out and do serious and sensible things and not indulge yourself in your whims and fancies and aberrations and it wasn't until later when I was in College where in the college yearbook I had announced firmly that I was going into business via the Law that I suddenly began to realize that it all sounded terribly boring and that what I really wanted to do was do what I wanted to do, which was, in ef- fect, to become a biologist, and to become a biologist interested in field biology and the out-of-doors and this caused a great deal of consternation among my friends and associates in New York, my relatives, and so on; and so I think somehow in the same way that Russell, our beloved friend, who is here this after- noon must have thought from time to time when he gradually began to abandon his serious, worthwhile and utterly sensible career in the Law and take up his in- creasing interest in conservation. What is it about conservation; what is it about animal welfare, that has suddenly begun to seem so sensible? Why after all these years, for people of my own age, for example, or people now somewhat younger, because I'm begin- ning to feel now somewhat over the hill myself, but why is it that all of sudden we are realizing that we were absolutely right and that the things that we were interested in, fascinated by, and moved by were, in- deed, the essential verities. And so I have had an enor- mous sense of accomplishment and pleasure these last

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