Office of Public Information and Communications
Columbia University
New York, N.Y.   10027
(212) 854-5573

Anne Canty, Director of Communications

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, Thursday, May 9, 1996

Four years after the signing of the Rio Convention on Biodiversity, an international group of environmental leaders today issued "The Morningside Declaration: A Call for Action," a document which urges specific global actions to curtail the continued loss of animal species throughout the world.

The signatories to the declaration, who represent countries in Latin America, Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe, are participants in the first Environmental Leaders' Forum, a two-week strategic planning session for senior environmental managers, sponsored by the Center for Environmental Research and Conservation (CERC) at Columbia University. All the signatories to the Morningside Declaration represent countries that signed the 1992 Convention on Biodiversity.

Don Melnick, Director of CERC and Professor of Anthropology and Biological Sciences at Columbia University, said in an opening statement, "The continued decline of the world's ecosystems and the species they contain is related in an ever-increasing way to water-borne and insect-borne disease epidemics and to a general trend toward internecine and international armed conflicts."

"Four years after the signing of the Convention on Biological Diversity (Rio, June 1992)," reads the Declaration, "we still face the rapid loss of biological diversity, the non-sustainable use of these fundamental natural resources, and the lack of partnerships for equitable distribution of their resulting benefits." The Declaration stresses that "We do not have time to lose in meeting our obligations to present and future generations."

The Declaration's main points were read by Jorge Caillaux of Peru, President, Sociedad Peruana de Derecho Ambiental (the Peruvian Society for Environmental Law), at a press briefing today at Columbia University. The key urgent actions include:

• A call for all nations that have not yet signed the Convention on Biological Diversity, including the United States, to ratify it immediately
• Increased funding for important conservation projects, access to which should not be impeded by bureaucracies
• More widespread development of strategic management plans - reflecting the concerns of all stakeholders - for natural protected areas and the extension ofthose plans beyond already protected areas
• Better access for wildlife managers and government policymakers to the latest academic research, including on topics such as long-term climate prediction and the link between the loss of biodiversity and human health
• Greater investment by governments, NGOs, multilateral agencies, and corporations in training and education concerning environmental protection
• Increased development of locally-based conservation strategies, incorporating the concerns of indigenous people
• Creation of more mechanisms to ensure that existing environmental legislation is enforced

Forty-five fifth- and sixth-grade students from Manhattan's Bank Street School were present at the reading of the declaration and asked questions of the international experts. The students, along with 120 schools worldwide, participate in an online conservation curriculum called The Wild Ones, run by Wildlife Preservation Trust International, a member of the CERC consortium.

The Environmental Leaders' Forum will be an annual event for senior environmental and conservation professionals from around the world. This program is part of CERC's Morningside Institute, which also offers on-going training sessions and programs for mid-level environmental practitioners. In addition to issuing the Morningside Declaration, participants developed strategic plans for their home countries.

CERC is an interdisciplinary consortium of five premier scientific research organizations, four of them New York City-based: Columbia University, the American Museum of Natural History, the New York Botanical Garden, the Wildlife Conservation Society (based at the Bronx Zoo) and Wildlife Preservation Trust International.

Through research, education, and professional development (such as the Environmental Leaders' Forum), CERC's mission is to bring scientists and policymakers together to make informed recommendations. CERC is establishing research field stations around the globe, including two already in place in Brazil and Indonesia. The center also offers graduate and undergraduate academic programs at Columbia.

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