Conferences and Meetings

each of the two terms in which it was first offered-- i.e., over 800 students in its first year. Enrolment was primarily of under-classmen from diverse academic homes in the University.

Beyond the mere changes in course offerings and enrolments, however, are the structural changes in the colleges and universities themselves. Several relatively new institutions (less than ten years old) have begun their educational tasks by structuring their faculty and their students not about traditional departmentalized disciplines, but rather about eco- logical or other integrative environmental themes. And older, established institutions lacking the total flexibility of those starting completely anew, are creating environmental studies programmes and majors, centres, and institutes, which serve to cut across the traditional disciplines and to foster inter- disciplinary teaching and research. These changes are both promising and generally unproven, as the operating time in almost all cases has been so brief. There are well over a score of this latter class of new institutional creations now extant in the United States.

Interest in environmental studies and allied sciences in higher education extends beyond the halls of Academe, of course. Federal interest is represented in part by allocation of funds, by the Office of Education and the National Science Foundation, for educational and research efforts that are interdisciplinary in their approach to environmental problem-solving. Private

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foundations are investing notable sums in these directions as well. The Rockefeller Foundation alone has allocated $5.3 millions since late 1969 through its new 'Quality of the Environment ' programme. Most grants have gone to universities, and at least three have been made as three- or four-year development awards of between half and three-quarters of a million dollars each. The foundation support has been to institutions already having excellent resources in various departments, schools, and institutes, as well as ongoing programmes dealing with conservation, regional planning, pollution control, and related efforts. The support is to help them build up and coordinate studies focused on environmental problems, from which other institutions can benefit in setting up similar programmes.

Results of these varied efforts in American institu- tions of higher learning can not yet be evaluated adequately. The ultimate measure of their worth will be in the contributions made to environmental quality, and the associated impacts on society, of graduates of such programmes in the coming years.

WILLIAM C. JOLLY, Assistant Director, Institute for Environmental Quality, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48105, USA.

CONFERENCES & MEETINGS

'THE PROCESSES AND PROBLEMS OF SEEKING CONSERVATION': A SYMPOSIUM CONVENED BY AND

HELD AT THE CENTRE FOR CONTINUING EDUCATION, AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, CANBERRA, AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY, 26--28 JUNE 1970

During the past few years a number of important conservation problems have arisen in Australia which have attracted a high level of public interest. Conservation is now a matter of great social and political importance, although the actual social and political processes involved are not well understood.

This Symposium was arranged by the Centre for Con- tinuing Education, Australian National University, in consultation with members of the National Parks Associa- tion, and was attended by biologists, public servants, conservationists, and others, from throughout Australia. The broad objective of the Symposium was to analyse the processes whereby decisions are made that affect the proposals put forward by conservationists. It sought to achieve this objective by attempting to answer the following questions:

1. Who is responsible for deciding whether conservation proposals should be favoured?

2. How is inaccessible or scientific and technical in- formation translated and transmitted in such a way that the essential matters emerge?

3. What paths are open for the citizen who wishes to conserve his natural heritage, and how is he most likely to achieve results?

4. What is the position of the politician or administrator who is caught between the conflicting demands of economic interests and conservationists?

Keeping in mind the objectives of the symposium, case- history accounts were prepared by various authors on major conservation matters which had become public issues within Australia.

Initially the broad purpose of the symposium was briefly outlined by the Chairman, Professor Donald Walker of the Australian National University. A political scientist from the University of Melbourne, Leon Peres, opened the symposium with a paper discussing the background of public administration and politics against which conserva- tion decisions are made. This was followed by an outline of the issues involved in the mining for limestone of the Colong Caves near Sydney. In this Milo Dunphy, Honorary Secretary of the Colong Committee, said that in the past

154 Biological Conservation

conservationists had relied on personal approaches to govern- mental officials to achieve their objectives. However, in more recent times, under powerful pressures for economic development, these traditional approaches had failed in a number of important cases. In these instances all the means of the mass media are needed to develop a hard- hitting public campaign. In conclusion he emphasized that we have now entered a new dimension of politics. People are not now concerned with economic issues only, but with what is broadly called 'the quality of life'.

Dr J. G. Mosley, Assistant Director, Australian Con- servation Foundation, described some of the difficulties which conservationists have experienced in conserving the wilderness area in the south-west of Tasmania. He emphasized the value of early recognition of problems and weighing of values to determine the best of several land-use alternatives.

It is of interest to note that Dr J. Hill (National Parks Association), in discussing the conservation of the Black Mountain near Canberra, and Dr D. W. Connell (Queens- land Littoral Society), analysing the Great Barrier Reef industrialization issue,* brought forth somewhat similar points--part icularly that often well-organized and power- ful commercial interests oppose conservation, and that therefore conservationists must be well informed and determined in their efforts. Also, there was seen to be a great need for public involvement and the establishment of community values in a conservation proposal.

Almost every speaker emphasized the need for public education. Mrs A. Lanteri, of the University of Melbourne, in discussing pollution control legislation, indicated that at present there was no official instrument for dissemina- ting information on pollution control and conservation principles, and so the brunt of such a programme must fall on the various conservation bodies. The need for education in conservation was expounded by Mr Allen A. Strom, Conservation Adviser to the New South Wales State Education Department. Such an education pro- gramme was presented as a continuing one, beginning in the primary schools and increasing in breadth and depth right through to the community life of adulthood.

In the State of Victoria the conservation movement became united and vigorous in its opposition to the develop- ment of the Little Desert for agricultural purposes. Mr R. D. Piesse, Director of the Australian Conservation Foundation, outlined this process and said that now con- servation and pollution were popular topics with the press. The conservation movement itself had matured and gained a lot of confidence and know-how, being now alert for future happenings. Finally, Mr Piesse outlined the expanding and important role of the Australian Conserva- tion Foundation, the only body actively engaged in con- servation work at the national level in Australia.

Some of the social and economic difficulties facing the public servant in resource administration were detailed by Mr D. W. Engledow, from the Commonwealth Department of the Interior. He had found that belated proposals for con- servation were often made after developmental plans were well advanced; consequently there is need for better com- munication between conservationists and administrators.

The audience at the Symposium broke up into small groups to discuss various aspects of the information presented in terms of its political and social significance.

* See the account in BioL Conserv., Vol. 3, No. 4, pp. 249-54, July 1971--Ed.

The chairman of each group finally reported the outcome to the Symposium as a whole. Although new and stimu- lating information was brought forward, it was quite apparent that the searching questions posed at the begin- ning were only partly answered. Nevertheless, this attempt to analyse a national, and in the wider context an inter- national, social phenomenon was indeed timely. Such a rationalization has been of assistance to the Australian conservation movement in concentrating its efforts into the most useful areas; it has also been useful to administra- tors and politicians in helping them to adjust themselves to a new and important social and environmental situation.

D. W. CONNELL, Vice-President, Queensland Littoral Society, PO Box 82, University o f Queensland, Brisbane 4067, Australia.

THE SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT OF PLANT AND ANIMAL COMMUNITIES FOR CONSERVATION: AN INTERNATIONAL

SYMPOSIUM OF THE BRITISH ECOLOGICAL SOCIETY, HELD AT THE UNIVERS|TY OF EAST ANGLIA, NORWICH,

ENGLAND, 7-9 JULY 1970

This was the second major symposium on applied ecology organized by the British Ecological Society, and it is important to note the exact title. Except for the opening and closing sessions, two sets of papers were running simultaneously, so that one man could not hear all of them; summaries of some were distributed, so that a choice could be made.

There were seven themes. I, The dynamic structure of plant and animal communities occupied a whole day, the second session of which was at the same time as III, Conservation problems in freshwater. II, Factors regulat- ing the numbers of individuals in a community, and IV, Habitat management for wildlife in Africa, ran simultan- eously, as did V, Ecological studies on the conservation and control of large mammals and VI, The influence of biotic factors on wildlife conservation. VII, Management policy and practical problems of conservation, was alone on the final morning. There was less interference than might be expected, however, because 'individuals' in theme II were almost exclusively plants, and the biotic factors of theme VI were entirely anthropogenic.

It is easy to pick out the papers that were relevant to the symposium. Dr Gimingham of Aberdeen discussed burning as a tool in the management of heather moor (Callunetum), where different objectives (recreational, sporting, nutritional) can be achieved by varying regimes. Drs Spence and Angus of St Andrews, Scotland, discussed grazing and burning in the management of Uganda's National Parks; it is good to know that large mammals are to be experimentally excluded from some areas. In contrast, Dr Lawton, of the Land Resources Division, Surbiton, England, argued that the cropping of elephant, buffalo, and hippopotamus, in the Luangwa Valley, Zambia, is unnecessary, as there is no evidence that these mammals are destroying the habitat. Basing his argument on the observation that Themeda triandra and other tropical grasses with long awns appear to be adapted to periodical fires, Dr Lock, of the Nuffield Unit of Tropical