Stanley Johnson (Vol 2

University of Massachusetts Boston ScholarWorks at UMass Boston Center for Governance and Sustainability Center for Governance and Sustainability Publications 2-2015 Naturalist and Novelist: Stanley Johnson (Vol 2. Issue 1) Global Leadership Dialogues University of Massachusetts Boston Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.umb.edu/cgs_pubs Recommended Citation Global Leadership Dialogues, Volume 2, Issue 1: “Naturalist and Novelist: Stanley Johnson.” 2015. Center for Governance and Sustainability, University of Massachusetts Boston. This Occasional Paper is brought to you for free and open access by the Center for Governance and Sustainability at ScholarWorks at UMass Boston. It has been accepted for inclusion in Center for Governance and Sustainability Publications by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at UMass Boston. For more information, please contact [email protected]. GLOBAL LEADERSHIP DIALOGUES Insights and Inspirations from Change Leaders Naturalist and Novelist STANLEY JOHNSON Stanley Johnson is a renowned writer, explorer, and environmental advocate. Recipient of the Newdigate Prize for Poetry in 1962, he has written more than 20 books, many on environmental is- sues. An avid advocate for species protection, he serves as am- bassador for the United Nations Convention on Migratory Spe- cies and is the honorary president for the Gorilla Organization. In 2011, at the age of 71, as part of a fundraiser for the Gorilla Organization, he climbed to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro (nearly 20,000 ft). Johnson’s career began with environmental policy and diplomacy. He served at the World Bank in the 1960s, was the head of the Prevention of Pollution division for the European Commission in the 1970s, and held the position of vice chairman of the Com- mittee on Environment, Public Health and Consumer Protection at the European Parliament from 1979 to 1984. He returned to the European Commission in 1984 as senior environmental ad- viser engaged in drafting environmental legislation, including the European Union’s Habitats Directive. Stanley has six children, all of whom have successful careers in fields such as politics, writing, and teaching. Following in his father’s political footsteps, Stanley’s eldest son, Boris Johnson, has been the mayor of London since 2008. Stanley and his wife, Jennifer, divide their time between a house in London and their farm in Exmoor, England, but Stanley continues to write and travel. A senior fellow at the Center for Governance and Sustain- ability at the University of Massachusetts Boston, Stan- ley Johnson visited the university in October 2014 as a guest speaker in the transdisciplinary Coasts and Com- munities graduate program. He shared his insights on the milestones in 40 years of environmental policy with Associate Professor of global governance and Co-Director of the Center for Governance and Sus- tainability Maria Ivanova, for this interview for the Photo: Maria Ivanova/UMass Boston. Photo: Ivanova/UMass Maria Global Leadership Dialogues. CENTER FOR GOVERNANCE AND SUSTAINABILITY Volume 2, Issue 1 JOHN W. McCORMACK GRADUATE SCHOOL OF POLICY AND GLOBAL STUDIES UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS BOSTON www.umb.edu/cgs GLOBAL LEADERSHIP DIALOGUES VOLUME 2, ISSUE 1: STANLEY JOHNSON You have gone from poet to politician to environmental title role of the Commissioner and Armin Mueller-Stahl as advocate and everything in between in your career. It is the guy who sends into the Commission the details about clear that you have a number of passions, and it seems how the environmental disasters are being funded, and it as though you have had a terrific blend of commitment had the lovely Rosana Pastor as the woman who falls in and opportunism in your professional life. What do you love with the Commissioner. So that would be milestone consider the milestones of your career? number two. Well, I think I can answer that both in terms of my writing and my career as an environmental- ist. On the writing side, one ma- If you’re a novelist, as I am, having a novel made into jor milestone of my career would have to be winning the Newdigate a film doesn’t always happen. If you’re Dan Brown Prize for Poetry at Oxford. That is a prize which has been given to it happens all the time. But if you’re just Stanley some famous poets like Matthew Johnson, well, I’ve written nine novels and getting Arnold and Oscar Wilde—top- notch poets. So I was happy to that one made into a film was a pretty big deal. receive that award. A second milestone, also in the writing area, was a novel I Milestone number three—moving away from the writing wrote called The Commissioner. That was my sixth or sev- side—would probably be some work I did in 1969 after enth novel, and it was about a chap who was appointed to I left the World Bank. I joined the World Bank in the early be the European commissioner. So I was using my knowl- 1960s. I had been working in Washington, and I was in- edge of Europe there. That was a milestone because it vited to come to New York in April 1968 to work with John was made into a film. If you’re a novelist, as I am, having D. Rockefeller III. He was the eldest of six siblings—I think a novel made into a film doesn’t always happen. If you’re there were five brothers and one sister—and they were, of Dan Brown, it happens all the time. But if you’re just Stan- course, amazingly influential people. John D. III was par- ley Johnson, well, I’ve written nine novels and getting that ticularly renowned for his work in philanthropy: he founded one made into a film was a pretty big deal for me. It also the Asia Society and also the Population Council. In 1968, wasn’t just any old film. It was in the competition section he was appointed by the United Nations Association of the of the Berlin Film Festival, which is a really big film festival. United States to chair a National Policy Panel on World And it had an absolutely top cast: It had John Hurt in the Population. The panel was asked to consider the role of Books by Stanley Johnson: The Commissioner (Arrow Books Ltd, 1987); World Population and the United Nations (Cambridge University Press, 1987); Icecap (Cameron May, 1999); Stanley, I Presume (Fourth Estate, 2009); Survival (Interlink Pub Group, 2010); Where the Wild Things Were (Stacey International, 2012); and UNEP The First 40 Years: A Narrative by Stanley Johnson (United Nations Environment Programme, 2012); Stanley, I Resume (The Robson Press, 2014) 2 3 GLOBAL LEADERSHIP DIALOGUES VOLUME 2, ISSUE 1: STANLEY JOHNSON the UN in helping the world to come to grips with the population problem. You see, at the end of the ’60s, as now, we were faced with burgeoning populations around the world. It was such an incredibly impressive panel. Blue ribbon throughout, really. For example, the vice chairman was George D. Woods, who had just resigned from being president of the World Bank. It also had David Bell, who was the president of the Ford Foundation. Anyway, I was invited by UNA to serve as Rockefeller’s chief of staff for that panel. I traveled around the world—I think I visited 18 countries to see what was going on in population and family planning. The main outcome of the panel was a report which said the UN should establish a Population Agency and that it should be run by a high-level appoin- Audiovisual ServicesPhoto: Commission European tee. We actually used the words “commissioner of popula- Janez Potocnik, former Commissioner for Environment at the EU, tion,” which is not the term they finally chose. They chose delivering the opening speech at the 20th Anniversary Conference “executive director” of the UN Fund for Population Activi- of Natura 2000 ties, or UNFPA. The report also recommended that funding for the agency should start off at a minimum of $100 mil- and responsible for writing a lot of the environmental leg- lion per year. I was the main author of the report. I included islation. Much of it was related to specific animals. But I the whole report at the end of my first nonfiction book, wrote a general draft called the EU’s Habitat and Species which was called Life without Birth: A Journey through the Directive, which has led to the creation of protected areas Third World in Search of the Population Explosion. throughout Europe. Natura 2000 was established under the Habitats Directive and is probably the single biggest And, now, to give Richard Nixon credit—he was President network of protected areas in the world. At this moment, it at the time, of course—within days of our publishing the covers 18 percent of the 27 member states of the EU, and report, he sent a message to Congress called the Pres- we hope we will have more marine protected areas soon. idential Message on Population, where he said he was So milestone number four would certainly be the work encouraged by the “scope and thrust” of the Rockefeller I did in the EU and in particular the Habitats Directive, Report and that the United States would put every effort which has just had its 20th anniversary. I was absolutely into funding the UNFPA and supporting its work. And really delighted to be given a prize for my work on producing the within days, the UNFPA was established. It was the Unit- directive. ed Nations Fund for Population Activities in those days; now it is just called the United Nations Population Fund.

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