Distinguished Foreign Minister Genscher, HonoredGuests:
I have had the good fortune to spend a lifetimeactive in the wilds in order to document on film the life of animalsand the problems which they, as well as we, face from theenvironment. This experience, on all continents, has shown me thatwithin the span of one lifetime, we have done so much harm to theenvironment that we have endangered our own existence.
Fifty years ago, when I was making my first filmabout animals in East Prussia, my home and a veritable Mecca fornature lovers, there were very few cars and very few roads cutting upthe landscape. In the summer, the harvesters gathered on the largefarms and I can still see them in long rows, cutting the grain withtheir scythes, bundling it by hand, manually loading and unloadingit. At the time the three-field system was still in use, andeverywhere one looked, one saw blue cornflowers, hedgerows, andspinneys, heard the beating of the quail's wings and the song of thelark. But gradually the meadows were converted to agrarian fields.Today harvest machines drive over enormous monocultures, cutting,bundling and threshing the grain in one quick operation. In order tomake the land more profitable, 90% of the ponds and streams werefilled in.
When I was a child, there were only 1.8 billionpeople on the earth. Now there are almost 5.4 billion, and soon itwill be 10 billion, even though more than 1 billion people presentlydo not have enough to eat.
It is not just the staggering increase in theworld population which is so frightening, but the continually growingdemands which man makes on nature; we live from the yield of a layerof topsoil only 15 to 20 centimeters deep, and the survival of allplant, animal and human life depends upon this!
The balance of nature on our earth has evolvedover a period of approximately 350 million years. In just a fewdecades we have injured that balance to such an extent that Nature issending out SOS signs that are becoming more and more threatening.Just think about the hole in the ozone layer, about theever-increasing greenhouse effect, about the diminishing quality ofour drinking water, about the dying forests or the pollution of theseas.
From the Federal Institute for Botanical Studies,Ecology and Landscape Preservation comes the alarming news that halfof the approximately 490 vertebrates in Germany are threatened withextinction. The continued existence of one out of every two speciesof bird is in danger.
In the course of phylogenetic development onearth, innumerable animal species died out before the origin of man,but evolution produced a continued further development and enrichmentof living things.
Man's extermination of various animal species,chiefly by eradicating the biotype, is exactly the opposite of whatnature does, because it leads to the impoverishment of life andleaves behind a dangerous void.
When we conservationists endeavor to preserve theremaining natural landscapes and the diversity of species, we do notdo so simply because life on earth would be dull without them. We donot do so merely because we know that all living things have animportant function in the happy balance of nature. We do it becausewe recognize that by creating monocultures from forest and field, andabove all by destroying the tropical rain forests, we eradicateinnumerable plant and animal species and in so doing we destroy agenetic potential for human nourishment and for medicine which isinvaluable.
A year ago I began a television series with LutzBergmann for the new "Nature" network, work which is once againtaking me over all the continents where I was active 30 to 40 yearsago. I would like to show what we could do with our currentecological knowledge, what we must do in order to protect the lastnatural landscapes, the last wilderness, from destruction.
The consequences brought about by the populationexplosion, civilization, tourism and the destruction of nature areenormous.
In 1957, when I arrived in the Belgian Congo foran 18-month stay, the people of this giant primeval forest stilllived with the ancient rituals of a religion of nature. Today, theirforests are for the most part destroyed.
The situation is similar in the African savanna,except that since 1965 the population has doubled, and the result isthat now during years of famine, the entire world famine relief forceis hardly able to feed the starving people. Many of the animals whichonce made their home in the savanna can no longer be found except inthe national parks, and even there the animals are endangered. Inonly 10 years, 80% of the African rhinoceroses there were poachedbecause their horns are mistakenly believed to have miraculoushealing powers. The African elephants, too, have almost beeneradicated in that area for the sake of their ivory, or "whitegold."
The awesome mountain gorilla, so close to us onthe evolutionary scale, is also being threatened with extinction.When I arrived in Africa thirty years ago, there were over 1000, buttoday their numbers have dwindled to little more than 200. The reasonfor this is especially evident in Rwanda, one of the most denselypopulated countries in equatorial Africa. In order to obtain farmlandand grazing land, the people are pressing deeper and deeper into theforests, tearing the animals' living space right out from under theirfeet!
It was only thirty years ago that chain saws madetheir devastating entry into the tropical rain forests. Before thatit took days to fell a giant tree, but today the power saws can do itin thirty minutes. It has taken man only three decades to destroy 50%of the tropical rain forests. It is not just a matter of marketingthe valuable tropical wood; this could be prevented by a ban onimports.
The chief danger is overpopulation, the poverty ofthe people. Every month, tens of thousands of farmers stream into theAmazon area alone. They are often armed with little more than a chainsaw and a box of matches. Brasilian scientists have counted thenumber of fires started in order to burn clearings, through the useof satellite pictures taken at night. They reached the unbelievablenumber of 7,000 in one night. Every year, these fires send a good 2billion tons of carbon dioxide swirling into the sky over theAmazon.
During the burning of the 700 oil fires in Kuwait,often called the largest environmental catastrophe of all time, 12million tons of soot swirled into the air. As bad as this was, it isstill only equal to the air pollution which is created by the Amazonforest fires every two days.
As the rain forests die, so too does one of thelungs with which we, and our earth, breathe
We have known for a long time that internationalcooperation is required if we are to be successful in preservingnature and protecting our environment. We need only to think for aminute about the cleansing of our rivers. What good is it if thepeople who live near the upper reaches of a river make an effort tokeep it pure, if the people who live near the lower reaches dumptheir industrial wastes into the river, and into theocean.
The protection of nature and our environment is aninternational task and an international responsibility! You, ForeignMinister Genscher, have been one of the first politicians torecognize and to publicly acknowledge the global interrelations andnecessities of environmental protection.
It is largely due to your efforts that theallocation of German development projects is increasingly beingdetermined according to ecological criteria, and that in theforgiveness of debt among the poorer countries, ecology is beinggiven greater consideration. Forgiveness of debt includes thecondition that the money then be used by the country concerned forenvironmental protection.
I quote at length from your plea:
"Whoever willfully destroys the fragile balance of nature in an entire region must be brought to justice before an international tribunal...""We desire that the countries of the Third World be given an equal voice in the dialog on the future of mankind in all areas, including the ecological one. We support the fight against poverty, a reduction in population growth, and the protection of the essentials of life. We support an international court of the United Nations, before which crimes against humanity, crimes against peace and crimes against the environment could be judged and condemned."
"We need an effective international law of ecology and we must establish an international system of control!"
"Man is still waging war against creation. We need a comprehensive peace agreement between men, between nations, and between man and nature. These are the tasks of a future world policy!"
In another quote, you say that the outlook for the21st century, as we stand on the threshold of a new millennium, willdepend on the decisions of the next ten years, and you remind us ofour obligations to the next generation.
After serving for ten years on the committee ofthe Bruno H. Schubert Conservation Award, I know that it is easy tointerest one's fellowmen--especially the youth--in the fascinatingworld of animals. It is difficult, however, to make it clear to youngpeople who have grown up in the modern world which we created, that anatural landscape with its wealth of flora and fauna, once destroyed,cannot be restored to its original condition for all the money in theworld.
We must place more emphasis on natural history andbiology in our schools. We must change the way we teach. The vitaland exciting theme of ecology and the balance of nature must beincluded already in the elementary school curriculum. Natural historymust not be taught in the classroom alone, even with the excellentaudiovisual teaching aids which are available. The students mustlearn about nature in the midst of nature. We therefore need aecological garden in as many school districts as possible.
A matter of special importance is ecologicaleducation, in the exemplary way it is practiced today by theAssociation of German Game Preserves, specifically by Dr. Hatlapa inEkholt near the gates of Hamburg, and by Horst Niesters in theHellenthal Game Park.
We cannot leave everything to the federalgovernment; there is an urgent need for more private initiative.Let's not forget that we nature lovers have a lobby, namely the largeconservation associations, and in this area too, honored HerrGenscher, you have been a model of activity. During the post-warperiod, you were president of the German chapter of the WorldWildlife Fund, the largest international private organization for theprotection of endangered plants and animals and their environments,and you still maintain your ties to this important organizationtoday.
Honored Herr Genscher, in each of your annualappearances before the United Nations you have appealed to theworld's conscience to accept the responsibility for preserving ourenvironment and leaving our world intact for posterity. For this, youcoined the phrase "Foreign politics is ecologicalpolitics."
Because of your many years of effort, yourpolitical philosophy and your vision of a better ecological policy,the committee has unanimously decided to award you the 1991international Ecological Eagle award.
Our heartfelt congratulations!
Translated from the German by LynneKvinnesland