The Future of Sustainability: Have Your Say!

Background Document - “The Future of Sustainability: Rethinking Environment and Development in the Twenty-First century”
Moderators’ Note

Moderating team

Origins of the Background Paper

Professor William Adams’ paper is an informal report of a meeting convened by the Council of The World Conservation Union (IUCN) in Switzerland in January 2006.

The meeting represented something of an historical milestone for the Union. It considered society’s progress towards sustainability and whether the concept of sustainable development has a future. It explored global challenges and opportunities in the twenty-first century, and how the Union should attempt to meet these challenges.

It called for new innovations in sustainability, a greater role for social and business entrepreneurs, the market, new ways of presenting the notion of limits, new alliances, metrics, an emphasis on solutions, and the need to recapture hearts as well as minds.

The meeting was facilitated by Dr. Angela Cropper with Professor William Adams from Cambridge University as debate synthesizer, and attended by some outstanding individuals including:

• Rubens Born – Executive Director, Vitae Civilis, Brazil.
• Lester Brown – President, Earth Policy Institute, USA.
• Sylvia Earle – Oceanographer, marine botanist, ecologist, and writer, USA.
• David Kaimowitz - Director General, CIFOR, Indonesia.
• Ashok Khosla – President, Development Alternatives, India.
• Mark Moody Stewart – Chairman, Anglo American, UK.
• Mohammad Yunus – founder of the Grameen Bank, Bangladesh.
• Lu Zhi – Professor of Conservation Biology, Peking University, China.

Discussion forum on the Future of Sustainability initiative

The IUCN Council considered that Professor Adams’ report was of more general interest, and advised that the report be made more widely available to IUCN Members, Commissions, Staff and others interested in this field to review and comment upon. Although not written with the general public in mind, it has been provided as a background document in the Forum to help start a wider debate about sustainability, and is not intended as a final statement on the topic.

IUCN now invites your insights and ideas to help develop this initiative further. With the help of our four guest speakers, some of whom were at the original meeting, the Discussion Forum will provide a unique space to voice your opinions and shape the future of the Union and our work. It aims to encourage inspiring, innovative solutions to sustainability in the twenty-first century. We anticipate that the next World Conservation Congress, to be held in Barcelona, Spain in October 2008, will provide a focus and platform for many exciting new initiatives generated around this theme.