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Man and Nature in the 21st Century – 13 Theses
1. To satisfy the growing needs of an ever-increasing humanity while at the same time insuring the ecological balance that is the very basis for the survival of mankind represents one of the biggest challenges to human civilisation today – a challenge that is becoming more and more difficult to answer by our national governments.
2. The dramatic anthropogenic changes in global environmental conditions (climate change) unavoidably lead to a profound distortion within human society. In this dilemma the protection of nature, i.e. the natural basis of our very existence, takes on a fundamental importance in the very own interest of mankind.
3. Until now, the functional efficiency of the earth’s biosphere – as a living space for us humans – is being ensured to a large extent by so far unused, not yet substantially affected ecosystems. In this context, recycling and carbon fixation, groundwater formation and cooling, the increase of productivity and a continual increase of biodiversity resulting from evolutionary processes are among the basic benefits. No repair or restoration is required.
4. In all aspects of land use, the preservation or restoration of the functional efficiency of ecosystems must have absolute priority. There is no reason to instrumentalise nature conservation, i.e., the insurance of our basic needs, and to turn it into a social battlefield.
5. A crucial key factor to safeguarding our future lies in the valorisation of the ecological benefits, especially those of the natural ecosystems, which means they need to be included in our pricing system. (The more so, since these are goods that are becoming scarcer as a result of increasing anthropogenic changes/destruction.) Since this is not yet the case, we are currently limited to preserving the last remaining natural ecosystems through the creation of extensive reserves that are deliberately excluded from any material utilisation and alteration.
6. However, the vast majority of nature reserves in Germany, as in all of Central Europe, is currently under a system of managed care use aimed at preserving historical land use practices that often lead to the degradation of the natural environment. In forest reserves, the land use is often only slightly more environmentally friendly than in unprotected areas. To date, extensive reserves left entirely to nature’s own devices are the exception.
7. Ultimately we need both an enduring and sustainable, environmentally compatible land use system with stable social structures in rural regions as well as areas where nature is allowed to follow its own dynamic processes and where its “capital stock“ is left untouched by the human urge for dominion and design.
8. The highest conservation priority must be given to so-called “root habitats”, i.e. ecosystems that have a unique place within our ecoregion. These have given rise to specific biocoenoses that are not found anywhere else on earth. In Central Europe, these include deciduous forests interspersed with bogs, lakes and streams with their associated riparian belts, as well as the coastal landscapes of the North Sea and the Baltic Sea.
9. Therefore, the main objective of governmental, non-governmental and increasingly private conservation agencies must be to give more room to “nature development areas” with an expanding amount of wilderness. In Germany, the recently initiated “National Nature Heritage” programme offers for the first time the possibility to keep at least 5% of the country’s territory out of human utilisation. This has allowed Germany to make its long overdue contribution towards the observance of the biodiversity convention.
10. The conscious renunciation of human use of nature and the acceptance of wilderness – at least in Western Europe this represents a largely new approach to nature conservation that deeply affects people’s consciousness. More than any other century, the 20th century was characterised by the progressive destruction or cultivation of all things natural, accompanied by an unprecedented alienation from nature. On the other hand, it was also characterized by an increasing longing for an untouched, unregulated nature and for a co-existence between civilisation and wilderness.
11. Wilderness, i.e. natural landscapes, which exists by itself, does not need man, but the people of today’s technocentric world need wilderness, not least as a guideline for their own moderation and humility. Wilderness offers an alternative to an increasingly urbanised world. In a time of growing disorientation and uprooting, the experience of an unspoiled, intact nature can lead us to spiritual well-being, artistic inspiration and hope, but also to a new reverence for nature, a new spirituality and modesty. In this sense the preservation of wilderness is not a luxury but a cultural task of human society.
12. If we leave nature untouched, we cannot exist; if we destroy nature, we will perish. Our society can only successfully walk the fine and narrowing line between change and destruction if it acts entirely within the framework of ecological balance and ethically identifies itself as a part of nature.
13. Let us practise conservation and sustainability, let us allow nature to take its space and let us give it time – for the sake of our own future!
About the Speaker
Michael Succow was born in 1941 and graduated in biology from the University of Greifswald in 1965, where he became scientific assistant. In 1969, because of his sympathies with the Prague Spring, Succow left his post at the university, but continued working on nature conservation issues at home and abroad. With perestroika in 1989 came Succow's opportunity. Appointed as a deputy minister in the first post-Communist government, working with his colleagues Knapp, Freude and Jeschke, a system of six biosphere reserves and five national parks was set up during the last months of the GDR. In 1990 Succow became Vice-President of the German BirdLife International partner Naturschutzbund (NABU) Deutschland.
Then followed an extraordinary period, still ongoing, when Succow travelled all over the former Soviet Union, and some other countries, helping to advise the new governments on land use and setting up biosphere reserves, national parks and World Heritage Sites. In all this work Succow and his colleagues have sought to build up environmental NGOs in the relevant areas and to ensure the full participation of the local population.
At the University of Greifswald, Succow has developed a new integrated curriculum for teaching land use and sustainable development. The University of Greifswald is setting up an ambitious new international programme ‘to prepare landscape ecologists for the challenges of the 21st century’.
As a member of the expert advisory committee to the Federal Environment Committee, Succow has helped design a general reform of land-use policies in Germany, which would promote an environmentally sound agriculture, limit urban areas, establish wilderness, bring economic and social stability to rural areas and redirect EU subsidies to ecologically productive services.
In 1997 he was granted the Right Livelihood Award, the prize money building the basis of the Michael Succow Foundation for the conservation of nature. In 2002, he was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit 1st class.
Michael Succow is member of the board of trustees of the Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt (DBU) and the Naturschutzbund Deutschland (NABU) as well as ambassador of the federal state Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in the governmental network ‘Pro MV’.
Links
Michael Succow Stifung
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