Protection

Abstract

In its early years, the conservation movement concentrated on the establishment of what the Dutch call ‘nature monuments’: tracts of land on which something beautiful grew or bred that was to be kept unharmed. From this period dates the view, still favoured by advocates of Progress, that conservation has an element of luxury, in that it results in the useless locking up of natural resources. This view is, however, obsolete. Nowadays we regard conservation as an indispensable part of the wide field also known as ‘the wise utilization of natural resources’, aiming at utilization ad infinitum. In the World Conservation Strategy (IUCN 1980) this is summed up in three points:

• 1. To maintain essential ecological processes and life-support systems.

• 2. To preserve genetic diversity.

• 3. To ensure the sustainable utilization of species and ecosystems.