The Survival Service Commission

Extract

In August, 1949, the International Union for the Protection of Nature held a conference at Lake Success, U.S.A., under the good offices of UNESCO. The conference was attended by representatives from thirty-two countries and from all the continents. The first subject to be studied was education in nature protection. The second was ecology and this was divided into sections of which Section f, under the chairmanship of Mr. Harold J. Coolidge, was devoted to “Emergency Action for preserving vanishing species of flora and fauna”. The deliberations of this section resulted in Resolution No. 15 of the main conference which reads: “That the International Union for the Protection of Nature should establish a ‘Survival Service’ for the assembling, evaluation, and dissemination of information on and the study of, all species of fauna and flora that appear to be threatened with extinction, in order to assist governments and appropriate agencies in assuring their survival.”