Skip to main content
Download PDF

Conservation Compromises: The MAB and the Legacy of the International Biological Program, 1964–1974

Journal of the History of Biology volume 50, pages 133–167 (2017)Cite this article

Abstract

This article looks at the International Biological Program (IBP) as the predecessor of UNESCO’s well-known and highly successful Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB). It argues that international conservation efforts of the 1970s, such as the MAB, must in fact be understood as a compound of two opposing attempts to reform international conservation in the 1960s. The scientific framework of the MAB has its origins in disputes between high-level conservationists affiliated with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) about what the IBP meant for the future of conservation. Their respective visions entailed different ecological philosophies as much as diverging sets of political ideologies regarding the global implementation of conservation. Within the IBP’s Conservation Section, one group propagated a universal systems approach to conservation with a centralized, technocratic management of nature and society by an elite group of independent scientific experts. Within IUCN, a second group based their notion of environmental expert roles on a more descriptive and local ecology of resource mapping as practiced by UNESCO. When the IBP came to an end in 1974, both groups’ ecological philosophies played into the scientific framework underlying the MAB’s World Network or Biosphere Reserves. The article argues that it is impossible to understand the course of conservation within the MAB without studying the dynamics and discourses between the two underlying expert groups and their respective visions for reforming conservation.

Abbreviations

IBP:

International Biological Program

IBP/CT:

IBP’s Section for the Conservation of Terrestrial Communities

ICSU:

International Council of Scientific Unions

IUCN:

International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources

IUPN:

International Union for the Protection of Nature

MAB:

Man and the Biosphere Program (of UNESCO)

SCIBP:

Special Committee for the International Biological Program

UNCHE:

United Nations Conference on the Human Environment (Stockholm Conference)

UNESCO:

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

References

  • Adam, Rachelle. 2014. Elephant Treaties: The Colonial Legacy of the Biodiversity Crisis. Hanover: University Press of New England.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anker, Peder. 2001. Imperial Ecology: Environmental Order in the British Empire, 1895–1945. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Aronova, Elena, Baker, Karen, Oreskes, Naomi. 2010. “Big Science and Big Data in Biology: From the International Geophysical Year through the International Biological Program to the Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network, 1957–Present.” Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences 40(2): 183–224.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barrow, Mark. 2013. “Naturalists as Conservationists: American Scientists, Social Responsibility, and Political Activism before the Bomb.” Garlad E Allen, Roy MacLeod (eds.), Science, History and Social Activism: a Tribute to Everett Mendelsohn. Rotterdam: Springer Netherlands, pp. 217–233.

    Google Scholar 

  • Birkhead, Tim. 2011. The Wisdom of Birds: An Illustrated History of Ornithology. London: Bloomsbury.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blair, Frank. 1977. Big Biology: The US/IBP. Stroudsburg: Dowden, Hutchinson & Ross.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boardman, Robert. 1981. International Organization and the Conservation of Nature. London: Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bocking, Stephen. 1997. Ecologists and Environmental Politics: a History of Contemporary Ecology. New Haven: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boote, Robert. 2003. “Obituary: Max Nicholson. The Prime Mover of the Nature Conservancy and the World Wildlife Fund, Who Helped Inspire Nature Reserves and Ecological Research.” The Guardian. Accessed 10 December 2014.

  • Bowler, Peter and Morus, Iwan. 2005. Making Modern Science: A Historical Survey. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bramwell, Anna. 1989. Ecology in the 20th Century: A History. New Haven: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chester, Charles. 2006. Conservation Across Borders: Biodiversity in an Interdependent World. Washington, DC: Island Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clapham, A. Roy. 1975. “Letter to Geoffrey Radford,” September 24. Royal Society Archives: NHM, Box 12, Folder 9.

  • Clapham, A. Roy.1980. The IBP Survey of Conservation Sites: an Experimental Study. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clements, Frederic and Shelford, Victor E. 1939. Bio-Ecology. New York: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coleman, David. 2010. Big Ecology: The Emergence of Ecosystem Science. Oakland, CA: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Commoner, Barry. 1971. The Closing Circle: Nature, Man, and Technology. New York: Knopf.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cooper, Gregory. 2007. The Science of the Struggle for Existence: on the Foundations of Ecology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cronon, William. 1995. Uncommon Ground: Toward Reinventing Nature. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dasmann, Raymond F. 1965. Environmental Conservation, 1st ed. London: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dasmann, Raymond F.1968. A Different Kind of Country. London: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dasmann, Raymond F.1972a. Environmental Conservation, 3rd ed. London: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dasmann, Raymond F. 1972b. “Towards a System for Classifying Natural Regions of the World and their Representation by National Parks and Reserves.” Biological Conservation 4(4): 247–255.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dasmann, Raymond F. 1973a. Classification and Use of Protected Natural and Cultural Areas: A Report Prepared within the IUCN Secretariat. Morges: IUCN.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dasmann, Raymond F. 1973b. A System for Defining and Classifying Natural Regions for Purposes of Conservations: a Progress Report. Morges: IUCN.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dasmann, Raymond F. 1975. The Conservation Alternative. London: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dasmann, Raymond F., and Jarrell, Randall. 2000. Raymond F. Dasmann: a Life in Conservation Biology. Santa Cruz: UC Santa Cruz Regional History Project, University Library.

  • Di Castri, Francesco. 1976. “International, Interdisciplinary Research in Ecology: Some Problems of Organization and Execution. The Case of the Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme.” Human Ecology 4(3): 235–246.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Di Castri, Francesco, Hadley, Malcom, and Damlamian, Jeanne. 1981. “MAB: The Man and the Biosphere Program as an Evolving System.” Ambio 10(2/3): 52–57.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dice, Lee R. 1943. The Biotic Provinces of North America. Ann-Abor: University of Michigan Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dryzek, John, Schlosberg, David. 2005. Debating the Earth: The Environmental Politics Reader. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dyer, M. I., Holland, M. M. 1988. “UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere Program.” BioScience 38(9): 635–641.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ehrlich, Paul. 1968. The Population Bomb. New York: Ballantine Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ellenberg, Heinz. 1963. Vegetation Mitteleuropas mit den Alpen, in kausaler, dynamischer und historische Sicht. Suttgart: E. Ulmer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ellenberg, Heinz, Mueller-Dombois, Dieter. 1967. Internationales Biologisches Programm: IBP; Beiträge der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Bad Godesberg: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.

    Google Scholar 

  • Elton, Charles. 1927. Animal Ecology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Emmerij, Louis, Jolly, Richard, and Weiss, Thomas. 2001. Ahead of the Curve? UN Ideas and Global Challenges. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fosberg, F. Raymond. 1961. “A Classification of Vegetation for General Purposes.” Tropical Ecology 2(1–2): 1–28.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fosberg, F. Raymond. 1972. “Letter to Gina Douglas,” January 18. Royal Society Archives: NHM, Box 12, Folder 1.

  • German MAB National Committee, ed. 2005. Full of Life: UNESCO Biosphere Reserves - Model Regions for Sustainable Development. Berlin: Springer.

  • Golley, Frank. 1993. A History of the Ecosystem Concept in Ecology: More Than the Sum of the Parts. New Haven: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Graham, Edward. 1965. “A World Network of Research Reserves.” New Scientist 28: 127–129.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grebenik, Eugene. 1955. “World Population and Resources.” The Political Quartlery 26(4): 371–379.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hagen, Joel. 1992. An Entangled Bank: the Origins of Ecosystem Ecology. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hammond, Debora. 2003. The Science of Synthesis: Exploring the Social Implications of General Systems Theory. Boulder: University Press of Colorado.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hill, Harold, Kerrigan, Daniel. 1948. The Town and Country Planning Act, 1947. London: Butterworth.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holdgate, Martin. 1999. The Green Web: A Union for World Conservation. London: Earthscan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holdgate, Martin. 2003. Penguins and Mandarins: Memories of Natural and Unnnatural History. Spennymoor: The Memoir Club.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holdgate, Martin and Bardeleben, Angelika. 1983. Umwelt—weltweit: Bericht des Umweltprogramms der Vereinten Nationen (UNEP) 1972–1982. Berlin: Schmidt.

    Google Scholar 

  • Huxley, Julian. 1926. The Stream of Life. London: Watts.

    Google Scholar 

  • Huxley, Julian, Barlow, H, Dalmahoy, Thomas, and Blackett, Patrick. 1934. Scientific Research and Social Needs. London: Watts & Co.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ishwaran, Natarajan. 2012. “Science in Intergovernmental Environmental Relations: 40 Years of UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme and its Future.” Environmental Development 1(1): 91–101.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • IUCN. 1957. Proceedings and Papers: Fifth General Assembly at Edinburgh in June, 1956. London: Society for the Promotion of Nature Reserves in collaboration with the Nature Conservancy for the IUCN.

  • IUCN. 1960. Proceedings of the Seventh General Assembly, Warsaw 1960. Brussels: IUCN.

  • IUCN. 1972. 1972 IUCN Yearbook. Annual Report of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources for 1972. Morges: IUCN and UNESCO.

  • Kanie, Norichika, Haas, Peter, Andresen, Stainer, et al. 2013. “Green Pluralism: Lessons for Improved Environmental Governance in the 21st century.” Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development 55(5): 14–30.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Keller, David and Golley, Frank. 2000. The Philosophy of Ecology: From Science to Synthesis. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kingsland, Sharon. 2005. The Evolution of American Ecology, 1890-2000. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Küchler, August, Maquin, Montoya, and UNESCO. 1970. The UNESCO Classification of Vegetation: Some Tests in the Tropics. Turrialba:Instiuto Interamericano de Ciencies Agricolas.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuznick, Peter. 1987. Beyond the Laboratory: Scientists as Political Activists in 1930’s America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewis, Michael (ed.). 2007. American Wilderness: A New History. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maurel, Chloé. 2013. “L’Unesco, un pionnier de l’écologie ? Une préoccupation globale pour l’environnement, 1945–1970.” Monde(s): Histoire, Espaces, Relations 30(1): 171–192.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • M’Bow, Amadou-Mahtar. 1981. “Man and the Biosphere.” The UNESCO Courier 34(4): 4–5.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCormick, John. 1991. Reclaiming Paradise: The Global Environmental Movement. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • McIntosh, Robert. 1986. The Background of Ecology: Concept and Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Meyer, Jan-Henrik. 2010. “Saving Migrants: A Transnational Network Supporting Supranational Bird Protection Policy.” Wolfram Kaiser, Brigitte Leucht, and Michael Gehle (eds.), Transnational Networks in Regional Integration: Governing Europe, 1945–1983. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 176–198.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Meyer, John, Frank, David, Hironaka, Ann, Shofer, Evan, and Tuma, Nancy B. 1997. “The Structuring of a World Environmental Regime, 1870–1990.” International Organization 51(4): 623–651.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mitman, Gregg. 1992. The State of Nature: Ecology, Community, and American Social Thought, 1900–1950. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mueller-Dombois, Dieter. 1984. “Classification and Mapping of Plant Communities: a Review with Eemphasis on Tropical Vegetation.” G. M. Woodwell (ed.), The Role of Terrestrial Vegetation in the Global Carbon Cycle: Measurement by Remote Sensing. Chichester: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nicholson, E. Max. 1940. How Britain’s Resources are Mobilized. Broadbridge Alderley: Clarendon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nicholson, E. Max. 1964. Conservation and the Next Renaissance. The Horace M. Albright Conservation Lectureship, IV, (Berkeley, California, March 4, 1964). Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nicholson, E. Max. 1965a. “Letter to Jean George Baer,” June 15. Linnean Society Archives: EMN/IBP, Box “Relation with IUCN 1963-1972.”

  • Nicholson, E. Max. 1965b. “IBP Section CT/Conservation of Terrestrial Communities Progress Report for the Sectional Committee,” Royal Society Archives: NHM, Box 1.

  • Nicholson, E. Max. n.d., but probably 1968. “International Selection of Areas for Reserves,” University of Aberdeen Special Collections: MS. 3162.

  • Nicholson, E. Max. 1969a. “For the Record,” January 23, sent to Gerardo Budowski, Raymond Fosberg, Duncan Poore and Heinz Ellenberg on January 24, Royal Society Archives: NHM, Box 13, Folder 10.

  • Nicholson, E. Max. 1969b. “Letter to Heinz Ellenberg,” January 24. Royal Society Archives: NHM, Box 13, Folder 10.

  • Nicholson, E. Max. 1970a. The Environmental Revolution: A Guide for the New Masters of the World. London: Penguin Books, Limited.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nicholson, E. Max. 1970b, “Environment.” Columbia University Conference on International Economic Development. New York Sessions at Columbia University—February 20–21, 1970. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Linnean Society Archives: EMN/IBP, Box 4, Folder 9 (ii).

  • Nicholson, E. Max. 1973. The Big Change: After the Environmental Revolution. New York: McGraw-Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Norman, Lady Jennifer. 2014. “Conservation with Dr. Poore,” email sent to Simone Schleper on March 13, 2014.

  • Odum, Eugene P. 1963. Ecology. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

    Google Scholar 

  • Odum, Howard T. 1967. “IBP Symposium: Environmental Photosynthesis.” Science Science 157(3787): 415–416.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pepper, David, Webster, Frank, and Revill, George. 2003. Environmentalism: Critical Concepts. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peterken, George. 1967. “Letter to Ray Fosberg,” January 27. Royal Society Archives: NHM, Box 12, Folder 9.

  • Rowland, Wade. 1973. The Plot to Save the World: the Life and Times of the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment. Toronto: Clarke, Irwin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sabin, Paul. 2013. Paul Ehrlich, Julian Simon, and Our Gable over Earth’s Future. New Haven: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schwarzenbach, Alexis. 2011. Saving the World’s Wildlife: WWF—The First 50 years. London: Profile Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sheail, John. 1998. Nature Conservation in Britain: The Formative Years. London: The Stationery Office.

    Google Scholar 

  • Skyttner, Lars. 2005. General Systems Theory: Problems, Perspectives, Practice. Hackensack: World Scientific.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sluga, Glenda. 2010. “UNESCO and the (One) World of Julian Huxley.” Journal of World History 21(3): 393–418.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Talbot, Lee, and IUCN. 1960. A Look at Threatened Species: A Report on Some Animals of the Middle East and Southern Asia which are Threatened with Extermination. London: Fauna Preservation Society for IUCN.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tansley, Arthur. 1939. The British Islands and Their Vegetation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tansley, Arthur. 1942. The Value of Science to Humanity. The Herbert Spencer Lecture, Oxford University, 2 June 1942. Crows Nest: Allen & Unwin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tilley, Helen. 2011. Africa as a Living Laboratory: Empire, Development, and the Problem of Scientific Knowledge, 1870–1950. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Toogood, Mark. 2008. “Beyond ‘the Toad Beneath the Harrow’: Geographies of Ecological Science, 1959–1965.” Journal of Historical Geography 34(1): 118–137.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Udvardy, Miklos. 1975. A Classification of the Biogeographical Provinces of the World, 8 vols. Morges:International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources.

    Google Scholar 

  • UNESCO. 1963. “The Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources in Ethopia: Report by Julian Huxley, Theodore Monod, L. Swift, L., and Edward B. Worthington,” UNESCO/NS/NR/47., Accessed 18 May 2015. http://unesdoc.unesco. org/images/0013/001398/139892eb.pdf

  • UNESCO. 1970. “Inter-Agency Consultation Meeting on the Long-Term Programme Based on the Outcome of the Biosphere Conference, 23 and 24 March 1969,” Royal Society Archives: NHM, Box 72.

  • UNESCO. 1973a. International Classification and Mapping of Vegetation. Paris: UNESCO Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • UNESCO. 1973b. Expert Panel on Project 8: Conservation of Natural Areas and of the Genetic Material they Contain: Final Report. Paris: UNESCO Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • UNESCO. 1974. Task Force On: Criteria and Guidelines for the Choice and Establishment of Biosphere Reserves: Organized Jointly by UNESCO and UNEP. Paris: UNESCO Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • UNESCO. 1996. Biosphere reserves: The Seville Strategy and the Statutory Framwork of the World Network. Paris: UNESCO Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • UNESCO. 2006. Sixty Years of Science at UNESCO, 1945–2005. Paris: UNESCO Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • UNESCO. 2013. Biosphere Reserve Nomination Form. Paris: UNESCO Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • UNESCO. 2015. “Man and the Biosphere Programme.” Accessed 18 May 2015. http://www.unesco.org/new/en/natural-sciences/environment/ecological-sciences/man- and-biosphere-programme/.

  • Watt, Kenneth. 1962. “Use of Mathematics in Population Ecology.” Annual Review of Entomology 7(1): 243–260.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Watt, Kenneth. 1966. Systems Analysis in Ecology. New York: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wöbse, Anna-Katharina. 2012. Weltnaturschutz. Umweltdiplomatie in Völkerbund und Vereinten Nationen 1920–1950. Frankfurt am Main: Campus Verlag.

  • Worster, Donald. 1985. Nature’s Economy: a History of Ecological Ideas. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Worthington, Edward B. 1968. “IBP: International Goals.” Science 161(3839): 313–314.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Worthington, Edward B. 1975. The Evolution of IBP. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Worthington, Edward B. 1983. The Ecological Century: A Personal Appraisal. Broadbridge Alderley: Clarendon Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The article draws on several unpublished collections, including the Edward Max Nicholson papers at the Special Collections Centre of The Sir Duncan Rice Library at the University of Aberdeen, the Edward Max Nicholson Papers at the Linnean Society Archives, the Edward Max Nicholson Papers at the Royal Geographical Society Archive, as well as the SCIBP Papers at the Royal Society Archives. My work there has been supported by several individuals, in particular by Gina Douglas, Michelle Gait, and Lady Jennifer Norman. As part of my PhD research at Maastricht University, this article builds on numerous meetings with my supervisors Raf de Bont and Ernst Homburg. An earlier draft has been presented at the Modern Science Working Group at the Department for the History of Science at Harvard University and has benefited from the valuable comments by Janet Browne, Everett Medelsohn, Alex Czizar, Zoe Nyssa, and Geert Somsen. I thank the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive criticism. This work is part of the research program Nature’s Diplomats, which is financed by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO).

Open Access

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of History, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands

    Simone Schleper

Authors
  1. Simone Schleper
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Simone Schleper.

Rights and permissions

Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Schleper, S. Conservation Compromises: The MAB and the Legacy of the International Biological Program, 1964–1974. J Hist Biol 50, 133–167 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10739-015-9433-4

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10739-015-9433-4

Keywords

  • International Biological Program
  • Max Nicholson
  • Raymond Dasmann
  • International Union for the Conservation of Nature
  • Man and the Biosphere Program