Although many people still view the Arctic as little affected by human activity, the region has been the home of Man for thousands of years and its wildlife and ecology have been changed in many ways in the last four hundred years as a result particularly of the commercial and technical activities of western industrial nations. Three forces are, however, now bringing more and more attention to the use and conservation of arctic lands and seas: (a) arctic petroleum exploration and development, which is becoming increasingly extensive offshore in Alaska, Canada, and Norway; (2) The Law of the Sea Convention, which is leading to the division of the formerly open Arctic into large spheres of national jurisdiction through the declaration of Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ); and (3) the World Conservation Strategy, which is providing the conceptual basis for the international cooperation and comprehensive management that is clearly needed to introduce sustainable development in the Arctic.

It is suggested that one promising means of planning and implementing balanced use and conservation in the waters and adjacent lands of the Arctic is through the UNEP Regional Seas Programme. This institutional arrangement is already being used in similar resource-management circumstances in eleven other regions of the world. The Regional Seas Programme is action-oriented and includes four basic elements: (1) promotion of international and regional conventions, guidelines, and activities; (2) assessment of marine pollution and related effects; (3) coordination in protection, development, and management; and (4) support through training, education, and other means.

Our Biosphere, the only one known to exist, is under attack by various factors. Major culprits amongst these include fossil-fuel-produced air pollution, acidic precipitation (acid rains), and CO2. As we run out of petroleum and natural gas, the question becomes: what should the new energy-system be, so that the damage to The Biosphere and life can be stopped? In view of the rapid depletion of the main energy sources of the present, the fluid fossil-fuels, this paper analyses the various primary energy-options (such as coal, breeder reactors, fusion reactors, and solar energy), and also considers such possible energy-carriers as synthetic fossil-fuels and hydrogen. In this analysis, the environmental effects of various options are considered both qualitatively and quantitatively.

It is concluded that the Hydrogen Energy-system is the most efficient and economical energy-system possible, and that it results in the environmentally most compatible and permanent energy-system when coupled with solar energy as the primary energy-source. It is important now that this information be disseminated among the public in general, and environmentalists in particular, so that the implementation of the solar-hydrogen economy can be started without delay, in order to minimize any further damage to The Biosphere and its living components.

Miyake-jima, one of the Izu Islands of southern Japan and a part of the Fuji–Hakone–Izu National Park, has been designated by the governments of Japan and the United States of America as the site for a proposed military airport. Construction of the proposed facility would destroy lands especially designated, by the Environmental Agency of Japan and the Japan Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries, for special protection. Relocation of farmland and housing from the proposed site would result in destruction of valuable National Park land on other parts of the island.

Fish populations are classical examples of commonproperty resources and tend to decline over time. According to the conventional wisdom, they decline through a process popularly known as ‘the tragedy of the commons’, whereby selfish users are locked into a deterministic mechanism in which they are both the villains and the victims. However, the commons paradigm is not the model of reality for all fisheries. There are many sustainable fisheries, and detailed studies of some of them indicate that they do not fit the commons paradigm because there are factors which violate some of the hidden assumptions of the commons paradigm.

In many community-based and small-scale fisheries, there are unwritten regulations or customary laws that prevent individuals from maximizing their private gains at the expense of community interests. Far from being owned by no one and freely open to any user, many of the fish stocks of the world are under claims of ownership by communities of fishermen who exercise use-rights and who control access to the resource. As seen in examples from Oceania and North America's west coast, open-access and common property conditions were created, and the ‘tragedy’ started only after the destruction of such traditional marine tenure systems.

The presence of water beneath the High Plains of Texas was widely known of by the first decade of the twentieth century, but it could not be abstracted economically until efficient pumps and engines were developed in the 1930s. Irrigation on the High Plains expanded rapidly during the late 1940s and early 1950s. At this time most people believed that the underground water-resources in the Ogallala Aquifer were limitless, and this led to the belief that water conservation measures were unnecessary. Given the perceived abundance of water, it was felt that control over the resource should reside at the local level and not be subject to the constraints of state or federal authorities. By the late 1950s and early 1960s, as well-water levels declined, it became apparent to a growing number of farmers that the reserves of the Ogallala Aquifer were finite and that they were being depleted at a rapid rate. This led to the voluntary introduction of water conservation techniques of which perhaps the best example was the spread of sprinkler irrigation.

Even more important, however, was the realization that if large-scale irrigation on the High Plains was to continue into the twenty-first century, it would only be able to do so on the basis of imported water, rather than by extraction of water from the Ogallala Formation. This seems to have dramatically changed the attitude of the local farmers— from a belief that the State had no part to play in water-resource management on the High Plains, to one in which the State is regarded as almost having a duty to supply the water needs of all its citizens. It is not suprising, therefore, that the farmers of the High Plains pressed strongly for the adoption of the Texas Water Plan in the mid-1960s. One of the main objectives of the Plan was to provide water from the Mississippi drainage basin via a major aqueduct through northern Texas to the Great Plains. Although the basic structure of the Texas Water Plan was accepted as a flexible framework for developing the water resources of the State in the late 1960s, it became obvious in the 1970s that the citizens in other parts of Texas were not willing to commit themselves to a massive water development scheme of enormous cost without its being widely felt to be absolutely essential.

By the early 1980s, many of the farmers of the High Plains had accepted that the State of Texas might not be willing, or even able, to supply the full water-needs of all its citizens and in particular the high irrigation needs of northwest Texas. Over the last few years, rising energy-costs have meant that it has become increasingly expensive to pump water from the ground, and this has forced farmers to employ water-conservation measures which in future may lead to less and less water being used—which in turn will permit the resource to be utilized for a prolonged period. In the long term, though, it does seem that increased emphasis will have to be placed on a return to dry-farming on the High Plains—such as alone existed before the 1930s—and that the irrigation boom of the late twentieth century will have been a temporary land-use phenomenon lasting for only a few decades.

On the basis of the results of the First International Biosphere Reserve Congress, jointly convened in Minsk in 1983 by UNESCO and UNEP in cooperation with FAO and IUCN, at the invitation of the USSR, and of consultations with conservation specialists and scientists which have since taken place, an Action Plan for Biosphere Reserves was adopted by the International Coordinating Council of the Programme on Man and the Biosphere at its eighth session (Paris, 3–8 December 1984) and is presented in this document as a programme framework. This framework identifies a range of actions for consideration by Governments and concerned international organizations in developing the multiple functions of Biosphere Reserves within the overall context of the MAB Programme. Those actions concretely serve the implementation of the World Conservation Strategy. While a number of actions are of a permanent nature, the stress is placed on activities which can be carried out in the period 1985–89—see the following Table.

In summary, Governments and international organizations are invited to undertake activities which will improve and expand the international Biosphere Reserve network, to develop basic knowledge for conserving ecosystems and biological diversity, and to make Biosphere Reserves more effective in linking conservation and development in fulfilling the broad objectives of MAB.

One of the most isolated islands on Earth, Rodrigues in the Indian Ocean stands as a modern-day ‘morality play’ of the consequences of environmental abuse. This tiny piece of land on the fringe of the tropics, emerged as an island through volcanic action some 1.5 million years ago, and acquired its biota mainly by long-distance dispersal from the west. Rodrigues was not inhabited by any people until 1691, and since then has always been administered from Mauritius which lies 650 km to the west.

Burning, browsing, and woodcutting, have almost completely removed the indigenous forest. Close to a third of the native plant species have disappeared, and another third are on the brink of extinction. Giant land-tortoises, sea-turtles, and the Dugong, have vanished. Only two of the ten native species of land-birds survive. The endemic Solitaire was killed off even before the human population started to grow. Forest removal opened new habitats for introduced plants and animals, some of which are now highly invasive pests.

Human impact on Rodrigues has gone beyond biotic effects. Cultivation of row-crops on the hilly terrain, and the keeping of domesticated animals in excessive numbers, led to the loss of most of the topsoil by the beginning of the twentieth century. Soil removal and compaction drastically modified the hydrology of the island, and silt deposition in the lagoon has contributed to fish decline. The inherent vulnerability of the native biota, the twin hazards of cyclones and droughts that befall the island, and demographic pressure, have all exacerbated the rate and degree of resource degradation.

The Brown Mussel (Perna perna) is an important fooditem for coastal people in the Republic of Transkei, providing some 16% of their annual protein requirements in 1978, though the energy benefit associated with the consumption of Mussels is relatively low. Uncontrolled heavy exploitation of the stocks of these Mussels resulted in reductions in both their density and size between 1978 and 1984. The reduced availability of Mussels to collectors led to increased exploitation-pressure on other, longer-lived, intertidal species: the proportion of limpets in the take of collectors rose from 7% in 1978 to 37% in 1984, while the proportion of Brown Mussels decreased from 92% to 57%.

The Doon Valley, in the foothills of the Himalayas in the State of Uttar Pradesh in India, has become the centre of major public-interest litigation in the Supreme Court of India. The conflict is centred around the utilization of the rich limestone deposits located in the Mussoorie Hills in the northern part of the Valley. The Mussoorie Hills receive an annual rainfall of some 2,000 mm, which is the second highest in North India. There is a very good water resource in the Mussoorie Hills, which is obviously connected with the water-holding capacity of the limestone belt.

For the operators of the limestone quarries, the best use of the high-grade limestone deposit lies in its physical extraction for commercial and industrial use. For the residents of the Valley, however, the best use of the limestone belt lies in its in situ functioning for the stabilization of soil and water resources. Damage to the stability of the hydrological balance of the Valley means damage to all other economic activities which, directly or indirectly, are dependent on the water resources in the Valley. These include agriculture, horticulture, tourism, animal husbandry, and knowledge-based industries etc. that together provide livelihood to the vast majority of the residents of the Valley.

The paper analyses the ecological background of the conflict. It evaluates the negative externalities of limestone quarrying in Doon Valley that damages perennial economic activities such as agriculture and tourism. The official steps taken by the State Government to control the ecological damage from quarrying having proved inadequate, the residents of the Valley looked for justice and the right to survival from the Supreme Court of India.

The concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in Earth's atmosphere has been steadily increasing since the inception of the Industrial Revolution. Believed to be due primarily to the burning of fossil fuels and the clearing of forests, this phenomenon has two potential consequences of global importance.

Many scientists believe that the CO2 increases projected for Earth's atmosphere by the middle of the next century will lead to a significant warming of the planet which could severely impact world agriculture and cause a melting of polar ice which would greatly raise sea-levels and lead to the flooding of coastal lowlands. Others, however, point to the demonstrable positive effects of elevated concentrations of atmospheric CO2 on plant productivity and wateruse efficiency, suggesting that more CO2 in the air will be beneficial to The Biosphere. Against this backlog of controversy, scientists of both persuasions have attempted the ‘first detection’ of either or both of these effects on a global scale.

With respect to the quest for a climatic ‘signal’, numerous studies conducted to date have come up emptyhanded; it is just not discernible from the natural variations inherent in the data. However, there does appear to be a manifestation of enhanced global photosynthetic activity in the yearly amplitude of atmospheric CO2 concentrations at a number of sites around the world; and the most logical explanation of that seems to be the CO2-induced enhancement of plant growth and development which has been demonstrated to occur in hundreds of laboratory and field experiments.

There is an urgent need for improved understanding of conservation attitudes in the Third World because of the increasing rate of resource depletion that is now occurring in the countries involved. Although conservation practices by traditional societies in the Third World have received much attention from research workers, the fact that some practices are intentional and others inadvertent has been largely ignored. However, it is the motivation for these intentional conservation measures and the environmental influences on the people who apply them, which is crucial to understanding variations in conservation behaviour among traditional societies.

Traditional conservation in the South Pacific was based on a complex system of resource-use taboos which prevented overexploitation in the limited island environment. These taboos contributed to the achievement during pre- European times of what appears from historical accounts to have been a state of relative equilibrium between island populations and their resources.

Predictability and extremeness are two environmental factors which are thought to affect the development of conservational behaviour. Both these factors were examined in the light of traditional conservation in the South Pacific. Droughts and hurricanes are the two main sources of environmental unpredictability in the South Pacific, although the islands vary considerably in the degree to which they are affected by them. It was concluded that a distinction between real and perceived environmental predictability was necessary before one could fully understand the influence of predictability upon the development of conservational behaviour in the South Pacific.

In view of the increasing rate of world-wide desertification in many arid and semi-arid land situations, certain plants that produce human or animal feedstuffs or industrially useful by-products under such hostile environments deserve the most serious attention.