Bulletin of the European Information Centre for Nature Conservation EUROPEAN STEERING EDITORIAL INFORMATION COM M ITTEE CENTRE OF THE This is the first issue of the Bulletin of the NATURE IN FOCUS European Information Centre for Nature Conser­ N° 1 CENTRE vation. FOR We have decided to call it " Nature in Focus”. Our aim is to disseminate ideas on how to pub­ Spring 1968 NATURE 1967-68 licise nature conservation. The Bulletin is thus oriented to all those who are concerned with CONSERVATION explaining the need to conserve nature and natural resources and how to do it. Its contents will be based directly on information supplied by the National Agencies of the Centre. CONTENTS Aesthetic and cultural values apart, the cost inBELGILM Mr. E. J. J. KESTELOOT, “ Nature in Focus” will be issued twice a year economic and social terms of inadequate conserva­ Directeur du Service de la Conservation de la Nature. to start with. Each issue will normally contain A CASE STUDY tion of natural resources not only to our own butInstitut to Royal des Sciences Naturelles en Belgique. 31, rue Vautier, these sections: future generations, is immeasurable. In the battleBRUXELLES 4. MESSAGE IN THE SEA against the exhaustion or misuse of natural re­ (i) a case study in depth of a publicity campaign, Georges Tendron F.R. GERMANY sources and of our natural environment, the co­ outlining methods, organisation, results, Dr. H. LOHMEYER, operation of a better informed public is essential, Wiss. Oberrat im Institut für Raumforschung in der etc.; since all groups of citizens are in one way or another Bundesanstalt für Landeskunde und Raumforschung. Postfach 130. (ii) articles on major events in nature conser­ tapping these resources and using this environment. Michaelshof. vation; It is therefore of vital importance to make the public532 BAD GODESBERG. (iii) short notes on conservation information aware of the dangers attendant upon a thoughtless FRANCE questions. MAJOR EVENTS exploitation of these resources and to inculcate Mr. G. TENDRON (Chairman), Sous-Directeur au Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle in them a better knowledge of what their behaviour chargé du Service de Conservation de la Nature. In this issue, however, the third section is devot­ WATER THE VITAL ELEMENT towards their natural environment should be. 57, rue Cuvier, ed to explaining the tasks ~>f the Centre. 75 PARIS V. Senator Housiaux To this end the Committee of Ministers of the ITALY Council of Europe agreed to set up in 1967, under John C. Robertson Prof. M. PAVAN, the auspices of the European Committee for theDirettore Institute di Entomologia Agraria Universita di Pavia. Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, Viaa Taramelli 24, PAVIE. European Information Centre for Nature Conserva­ tion. NETHERLANDS Mr. Z. SALVERDA, EUROPEAN CONSERVATION The Centre is a unit of the Secretariat General State Institute for Nature Conservation Research. YEAR 1970 working in close collaboration with National Agencies Laan van Beek en Royen 40-41, ZEIST. set up in the member States o f the Council of Europe. R. E. Boote It is guided and supervised by a Steering Committee SWEDEN Edgar Kesteloot which reports annually to the European Committee.Mr. L. E. E S P IN G , Head of Division. The purpose of the Centre is to stimulate andThe Swedish Nature Conservancy Board St rate ns “ Nature in Focus" is published by the European Infor­ Naturvaardsnämnd, mation Centre for the Conservation of Nature of the improve publicity on nature conservation by pooling Box 1104, Council of Europe, Strasbourg, France. SOLNA 1. available ideas and materials and promoting co­ Editeur responsable: Mr. STEN RENBORG operation between those bodies, public and private, Editor: Mr. JOHN C. ROBERTSON UNITED KINGDOM Printed by Imprimerie H. Studer, S.A., SHORT NOTES concerned. Mr. P. CONDER, Geneva, Switzerland. Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. The Lodge, Articles may be reprinted provided a reference is made TASKS OF THE CENTRE The tree, symbolising nature, surrounded by the SANDY to the source and a copy sent to the Editor. circle of twelve stars of the Council of Europe, is the Bedfordshire. “ Nature in Focus" may be obtained by application to emblem adopted for the Council’s Nature Con­ the appropriate National Agency (see addresses on back servation activities. cover). The design of the emblem was commissioned The views and opinions expressed in signed articles from Mr. Prosper du Bois-Reymond of Zurich, Cover photo: Scene at Oberbayern, Fed. Rep. of Germany are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect Switzerland. (Photo: Dr. O. Kraos). the views of the Council of Europe. at the ceremonies attending its departure. The experiment proved the existence of surface cur­ rents which make prohibited zones for the dis­ charge of oil residues meaningless, and revealed the existence of accumulations of oil, often in enormous quantities, waiting for exceptionally high winds to drive them on the coast. It was at this point that the French National Society for Conser­ vation of Nature awarded “ Femmes d'Aujour- d'hui " its Grand Silver Medal. The Operation continued to spread, and in 1966 became world wide, when it adopted the name of “ World Operation Message in the Sea" and with the support of the International Union of Official Tourist Organisations, was selected as one of the main themes of International Tourist Year (1967), proclaimed by the United Nations General As­ sembly. Heads of State, Ministers, and Inter­ national celebrities gave their names in support of the Operation. The list of patrons is as follows: H. E. Leopold Sedar Senghor, President of the Senegalese Republic. purpose and community spirit is borne out by GEORGES the campaign for nature conservation carried on H.R.H. Rainier III, Sovereign Prince of Monaco, for the last five years by the Franco-Belgian weekly President of the International Commission for TENDRON the Scientific Exploration of the Mediterranean "Femmes d'Aujourd’hui ”, to whom credit for Sea. Service de Conservation de la Nature “ Operation Message in the Sea" is due. The idea Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris. underlying this operation was to enlist a large H.R.H. Prince Albert of Belgium, President of the number of its readers 1 in an enterprise of value Belgian Red Cross. Also under the patronage of The Merchant Navy. Organisations acknowledged to be serving a to mankind. Mr. Peter Smithers, Secretary General of the The International Union of Official Tourist Organ­ useful public purpose and other cultural associa­ Council of Europe. isations. tions of essential importance frequently find Mr. J. Rouillier, Secretary General of IMCO. difficulty today in making ends meet. Times have World Wide Operation Extent and Scope changed, and the wealthy patrons who used to Mr. Raymond Marcellin, Deputy Minister attached assist them are becoming rare. These organisa­ The operation began in 1962 with a seaside to the Cabinet of the Prime Minister, responsible La Compagnie Générale Transatlantique and tions, in order to carry out the tasks they have set game: 1,159 bottles containing messages from for the Plan and for Town and Country Planning. Air France co-operated in the dropping of large Belgian children were dropped into the North themselves, can no longer appeal exclusively to Mr. Pierre Messmer, Minister for the Army. numbers of messages. 250,000 were dropped a small circle, however distinguished; they must Sea. The French Central Hydrographic Service overboard from the “ France" on the Havre- both make themselves known to a far wider public of the Navy speedily found themselves interested Mr. Olivier Guichard, Minister of Industry. New York route, and the American and Canadian in the results, and from that time on gave un­ and at the same time arouse in them an urgent Mr. Pierre Dumas, Secretary of State attached to Press gave the enterprise an exceptionally friendly qualified support to the organisers. Following sense of the need to support and defend worthy the Cabinet of the Prime Minister, responsible reception. A few months later 50,000 messages this success the organisers proceeded to obtain causes. The difficulty is greatly increased by the for Tourism. transported as far as Port-de-France by Air France the aid and backing of official and private scientific were dropped overboard in the Caribbean Sea vast quantity of products—often in competition Mr. Jean Morin, Secretary General of the Merchant with one another—as well as ideas, in general and tourist organisations, both Belgian and inter­ by the S.S. Antilles. The results were received by Navy. circulation. The population explosion of modern national, such as the Department of Nature the French Central Hydrographic Service. The times, moreover, only serves to multiply the major Conservation at the National Museum of Natural Mr. André Gougenheim, Chief Hydrographic Sur­ Ministry for Foreign Affairs then commissioned problems demanding additional forms of patron­ History, the Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, veyor of the French Navy, Member of the Institute the international department of the French radio age. Official and semi-official bodies, national and the International Committee of Tourism, etc. and of the Central Astronomical Office. and television service to make a twenty-minute international organisations equally find them­ In 1964, 150,000 messages were dropped into The following Belgian Ministers: film on “ World Operation Message in the Sea”, selves frequently hindered by inadequate funds the North Sea and the Bay of Biscay. The under­ Mr. Pierre Wigny, Minister of French Culture. and a lack of organisational structures and flexi­ taking thus took on European proportions, and Title picture shows the Liberian tanker “Torrey Canyon " bility. Even they are not always in a position to the traditional bottles were replaced by plastic Mr. C. Heger, Minister of Agriculture. breaking up on the Seven Stones rocks in March 1967.