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.

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.

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.

The two best-documented studies of annual rates of clearing of tropical forests appear to come to very different conclusions; the published FAO/UNEP estimate is 7.4 × 106 ha cleared annually during the late 1970s, and the NAS (National Academy of Sciences) estimate is 22.0 × 106 ha disturbed annually during the same period. Closer examination reveals that when corrections are made for differences in forest types included in the studies, and for differences in definitions of ‘deforestation’ (FAO/UNEP) and ‘conversion’ (NAS), there appears to be general agreement on the rate of deforestation in tropical closed broad-leafed forests: 5.9 × 106 ha (FAO/UNEP) and 7.5 × 106 ha (NAS) per year for the late 1970s. ‘Deforestation’ is defined according to the FAO/UNEP report and is the transformation of closed tropical-broad-leafed forests to either land in the shifting-cultivation cycle or permanently-cleared land.

‘Deforestation’ sensu FAO/UNEP is a more restricted term than the term ‘conversion’ used in the NAS report. ‘Conversion’ includes ‘deforestation’ sensu FAO/UNEP as well as: (1) the temporary clearing of fallow-cycle vegetation from land already in the shifting-cultivation cycle for short-term subsistence agriculture; and (2) the permanent clearing of fallow-cycle vegetation and thus the removal of land from the shifting-cultivation cycle.

The Jonglei Canal Project should be weighed against its socio-economic impacts as well as environmental considerations. If taken in a short- or long-term cost-benefit perspective, the Project we think is a justified undertaking.

One might argue: ‘let everything well alone; change is another word for disaster’. We are not contending that the Jonglei Canal Project, if duly completed, would not bring about a new mode of life for both Man and domestic and other animals. We are contending that the new mode will be a more satisfactory on than that which exists at present. Sudan aims at the transformation of traditional communities to better social and economic horizons, and not the intentional destruction of the traditional way of life. Many overlook the fact that the Nilotes are already changing, and that it is beyond the powers of the political and social systems to confine them to the past.

Nevertheless there are indications that ecologists and environmentalists are far from agreed among themselves as to whether the Jonglei canal is, on balance, a good or a bad idea. But in any case we would like to stress in conclusion that the Jonglei Canal Project is being executed at a relatively fortunate time in Man's history of awareness of the way in which he should be using his natural resources.

Hydroelectric dams have markedly altered the extensive floodplain of Zambia's Kafue River Flats. Before the dams were built in the 1970s, some 6,000 km2 of floodplain were under water for several months each year, permitting a dense growth of grasses and forbs that supported large populations of ungulates and waterbirds. Now a dam at the lower end of the Flats has permanently inundated parts of the floodplain, and a dam at the upper end has reduced the seasonal flooding, so that much of the floodplain is now probably permanently dry. When the Flats was revisited in 1983, the effect of the dams was obscured by the effects of drought, hunting, and human use.

In 1983, plant growth in most places was much less luxuriant than it had been before impoundment. Bird populations seemed much smaller than formerly, and populations of at least some ungulates had declined. The most abundant ungulate, the Lechwe (Kobus leche), is reported to have declined by about half in the last eight years.

In an era of increasing land-use demands, it is getting ever-more-difficult to set aside lands for parks or equivalent units where protection rather than (multiple) use of the resource is the goal. Developing a sufficient justification for establishing an area of parkland is directly related to the proper use of well-recognized ecological principles—particularly to the fact that the area included should encompass a unique or nationally significant resource (Polunin & Eidsvik, 1979).

This paper discusses four basic criteria that were used to evaluate potential boundary and resource-management alternatives for a seven-million-ha region in south-central Alaska, much of which was eventually included in the Wrangell-St Elias National Park and Preserve. The necessity or basing the planning decisions on sound data cannot be overemphasized. The paper discusses the different data-types used in the planning process. It was the feeling of all involved in the planning process that more was known about the natural and social resources of the new Alaskan parks than had been known about any other new areas that had been added to the system. The need for good data is particularly acute when the establishment of the parks involves considerable controversy and opposition, as was the case here.