International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources and the World Wide Fund for Nature Prince of Asturias Award for Concord 1988

Founded in 1948, the main objective of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) is the development and promotion of scientific programmes for the conservation and defence of Nature. Together with the United Nations, it developed the World Strategy for the Conservation of Nature, the fundamental document of the international conservation movement.

IUCN was created in Fontainebleau (France) within the framework of an international conference sponsored by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the French Government. Its foundation was a response to the growing deterioration of the environment, related to the disappearance of natural ecosystems and the extinction of plant and animal species.

Since its inception, IUCN maintains close relations with the United Nations, at whose General Assembly it has observer status, specifically with UNESCO, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Environment Programme (UNEP). ). This last department and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) are its main members.

IUCN has representation in more than 160 countries. The admission of 21 new members was approved in February 2005, making a total of 1,084. Its delegated organization in Spain is ADENA. The IUCN Secretariat is assisted in its work by committees of volunteer experts and advisory groups, being structured in six permanent committees: Ecosystem Management; Education and Communication; Environmental Law; Environmental, Economic and Social Policy; Protected Areas; and Species Survival. It also has three basic training and services centres: the World Conservation Monitoring Centre (now a UNEP executive agency), based in Cambridge and Kew (UK); the Environmental Law Centre, based in Bonn (Germany); and the Conservation Centre, which is its headquarters, located in Gland (Switzerland).

IUCN has worked in collaboration with the governments of Argentina, Chile, Bolivia and Peru in the drafting of an agreement on the production, management and reproduction of the vicuña; has advised the Government of Brazil on the conservation of tropical wetlands; and has prepared, in collaboration with UNEP and the Economic Commission of the United Nations for Latin America (ECLAC), a strategy for the preservation of marine resources and processes in the Caribbean. Its advisory and conservationist activities, in addition to those it carries out in defence of Nature, spread to all points of the globe. In Spain, IUCN has provided support to the Regional Government of Catalonia.

The funding of this organization depends on contributions from its members, donations from governments and foundations, special aid from corporations and cooperation agreements with other organizations.

Dr Monkombu S. Swaminathan was the President of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources at the time of collecting the Prince of Asturias Award for Concord in 1988.

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is the largest private, apolitical and independent conservation organizations in the world. It was founded on the initiative of Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld of the Netherlands and a group of individuals committed to Nature, who created a worldwide network with influence in various social strata, politicians, academics and different nationalities.

It was officially established as a non-profit organization on 11th September 1961 under the name of the World Wildlife Fund and adopted as its logo the world-renowned panda with expressive eyes and black patches, inspired by the panda Chi Chi sent to the London Zoo that generated major debate about the threat of disappearance of the species. At the time of collecting the Award, WWF was chaired by Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

The World Wildlife Fund has some 5 million members and a global network of 27 national organizations, 5 associated organizations and 22 programme offices, working in more than 100 countries. Its international headquarters are located in Switzerland and the offices for Latin America, in the United States. ADENA is its representative in Spain.

Its partners include the United Nations, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the European Commission and funding entities such as the United States Agency for International Development and the World Bank, with which WWF has formed an alliance for the conservation and sustainable use of the planet’s forests. It is also currently associated with Microsoft Game Studios and Blue Fang Games via the popular video game Zoo Tycoon 2 These two companies donate $100,000 dollars from the sales of each of the expansions of the game, thereby promoting the conservation of species.

WWF counts on an important operating base for its activities, the World Strategy for the Conservation of Nature, jointly developed with IUCN and the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP). The core principle of this plan is to harmonize the development of nations with the conservation of their natural resources, i.e. to carry out a planned and rational management of these resources.

At the time of receiving the 1988 Prince of Asturias Award for Concord, the World Wide Fund for Nature had implemented more than 4,000 conservation projects, with funding amounting to 20,000 million pesetas. These actions resulted in the creation of dozens of parks and reserves around the world, ensuring the survival of threatened plant and animal species such as those of the tropical forests, in the former case, and elephants, tigers and turtles, in the latter. The protection of medicinal plants and wetlands and the fight against desertification have constituted other priority objectives. WWF has also fostered the drawing up of international conventions such as the Washington Convention, related to trafficking and illegal trade in protected species; the Ransar Convention, concerning the protection of wetlands; and the Bonn Convention, on the protection of migratory animal species.