UNESCO
FES implements the Earth Charter
The Foundation for Endangered Species has endorsed the Earth Charter Initiative as it concerns many issues relevant to our work, including sustainable living, sustainable development and ecological integrity. We are thus a stakeholder in some important international plans whose eventual aim is to solve the long-term and complex problems involved in conserving animals threatened with extinction.
FES founder and chief executive Andy Mydellton was a delegate to the Earth Charter + 5 Conference in Amsterdam in November 2005. As a result of that conference, FES will build its policies and promote its programmes on the principles of the Earth Charter.
FES at the front line
There were only three UK delegates at the Amsterdam conference, and FES was the only UK conservationist NGO represented. We are therefore able to offer a unique set of experiences and potential.
Tiahoga Ruge Scheffer, from the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources of Mexico, said, in answer to one of my questions: "NGOs [such as FES] are very important for frontline action at grassroots level, especially because of their experiences and expertise. They are more permanent than governments, which change so often."
the three-times Dutch Prime Minister, who said: "The Earth Charter is forging ahead in new areas ... it is important that you make new alliances in your specific area. Now that you have endorsed the Earth Charter Initiative it is better for us that you become activists and enforcers in your field of expertise rather than be general."
FES projects in Nepal
Taking this advice, we are building international relationships that will bring benefits to all. Our Chitwan Collaboration project in Nepal helps to protect wildlife and habitats through eco-tourism, as well as harvesting natural excess while keeping the ecological balance.
Another good example of this type of project is the initiative to protect the one-horned rhino in Nepal by the Poverty Reduction and Environmental Management Programme (PREM) - an institute for environmental studies funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Other Earth Charter NGOs such as Earth Society Nepal and the Rural Centre for Community Development - with whom we first established contact at Amsterdam 2005 - are our official Earth Charter International partners in Nepal.
Change through education
Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende gave us a rousing speech on the last day of the conference. It included the message that "Social Development comes from within a community ... and change is the hardest thing to do." It is here that the fight for conservation is at its most critical.
In particular, the Foundation for Endangered Species offers transformative education that creates fundamental changes that will lead to sustainable living mind-sets. We use the Earth Charter as a framework for our educational plans and activities.
Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (UNDESD) in all of its projects. Changing mind-sets is ultimately the way to solve so many environmental and wildlife problems. The Earth Charter has defined sustainability as "environmental practices that value and sustain biodiversity and life-supporting ecological processes" where society, the environment and the economy are interconnected.
Millennium Development Goals
FES is also a stakeholder in Earth Charter's enforcement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) declared in the year 2000 by the United Nations. In 2002 the UNESCO agency declared that UNDESD should start in 2005 and that Earth Charter International would be the enforcer. The Foundation's specific focus and commitment to the MDG related to Goal 7, which is to "Ensure environmental sustainability".
Much of our work has been in sustainable living and sustainable development, and has been carried out under the direction of Earth Charter International (ECI). More recently, however, as the UK Commission has developed since the UK rejoined UNESCO in 2005, our efforts seem to be involved more with the UK group than with ECI.
Our recent work in Nepal, especially the Chitwan Collaboration, straddles both portfolios, although the more appropriate links lie now with our partners in UNESCO. The Chitwan Collaboration and its intentions are described elsewhere. Moreover, as FES is concerned with protecting and promoting the physical and natural environment, we feel we must tackle all of these related issues - especially as they directly or indirectly affect the impending Mass Extinction of Species.
United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (UNDESD)
FES has supported and actively worked with the UNDESD initiative since December 2005, when Andy Mydellton attended its official UK launch in London. Our main interests have been to raise public awareness of UNDESD and its overall aims.
Now, working within the UNESCO Schools project, FES is taking on a more formal educational role. However, we maintain our public support for UNDESD in a number of ways - for example, on the weekly radio programme The Andy Mydellton Wildlife Zone, in published articles, via the internet, and in public presentations.
Andy Mydellton, the Associate Schools' Group Adviser for the UK Commission in UNESCO and Ron Bishop visited the UNESCO Palace at Geneva. Binod and Surmilla Neupane were also there for the three day Conference. There were also more meetings especially arranged for the Foundation at the IUCN headquarters at Gland and the CITES group of UNEP at Geneva. For more information, please visit the Conserving Wildlife magazine, issue number 3.