IUCN Oceania Meeting, Suva, Fiji July 2015
A Framework of Responsibility and Public Good
alongside Rights for IUCN Plans
Responsibility and public good values need to be included and elaborated alongside rights in the
IUCN Global and IUCN Oceania Programmes. These documents identify rights alone as an ethical
reference, and this paper briefly outlines a corresponding ethics of responsibility.
Responsibility spans custodial, environmental, customary and commercial interests; it is relevant to
all sectors and to all levels of society and encompasses an intergenerational commitment to a lifesustaining planet. While responsibility and public good are implicit in current IUCN Plans, they
need further development alongside a rights approach and the four proposed pillars:
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Valuing and Conserving Nature
Effective and equitable governance of nature’s use
Deploying Nature based solutions to climate, food and development.
Green economy (added by Oceania –including ‘Blue’ ocean economies)
The attention to economy is central to the transitions to low carbon economies, and the
transformation to living within planetary boundaries.
Transitions to Low/Zero Carbon economies
Transitions are at the heart of the climate commitments for COP21. Transitions to green economies
with nature-based solutions need to be in national and regional plans for zero carbon by 2050.
The draft IUCN Programme 2017-2020 refers to ‘securing the rights of nature and the vulnerable
parts of society’ (section V), thus inferring link between biodiversity and human wellbeing, which is
also in the Aichi Targets Vision, the Strategic Plan, and the Sustainable Development Goals where
biodiversity is linked to poverty reduction and gender equality (s. 1V, V).
Interdependence: Responsibility for Nature, People and Planet
These links between biodiversity, conservation interests and human wellbeing all point to the
interdependence of nature, people and planet. Responsibility corresponds with inter-dependence as it
is about how my actions affect another; how actions in one place have effects in another place.
Responsibility has both accountability and responsive dimensions; it has a unifying quality in that it
has the potential to bring people together for a shared public interest which can transcend self
interest.
Responsibility provides a public good approach to nature-based solutions, and is a principle which
needs further development in the IUCN Programme for 2017-2020 and beyond. Responsibility is
mentioned specifically and implicitly in the Oceania Regional Plan. Here ethics is included as a
principle of the ‘green economy’ and as a basis for development with responsibility for conservation
of nature’s resources and for long-term sustainability. The Pacific Oceania region is uniquely
positioned to provide leadership in this framework from being at the frontlines of climate change,
and because of the deep and enduring traditions of obligation and public good from the Peoples of
the Pacific.
Responsibility and Public Good for IUCN Programmes
Indigenous rights, the rights to basic human needs continue to be hard won and this priority in IUCN
planning is fully supported. Rights need a corresponding system for implementation through
responsibility. A framework of responsibility is imperative for governing and managing complex
systems and interwoven web of life. We propose that Responsibility be included alongside rights as
ethical foundations for good governance of natural resources in the Global Programme and the
Oceania Regional Plan, and be explicitly developed for a governance framework.
Responsibility is a central principle of the Earth Charter, which is a reference for IUCN policy.
Similarly the Charter for Universal Responsibilities. Responsibility is about sustaining the planet
from every level of our capability and spheres of influence: personal, organizational, governmental
and global. The relational and accountable dimensions of responsibility can be expressed as
‘respons-ability’, an action focus in recognition of interdependence, of conservation at the level of
communities as well as policy and governance levels.
We therefore commend this for consideration by IUCN and the Oceania Programmes.
Proposed from Environment and Conservation Organizations (ECO) New Zealand
Contact: betsan@response.org.nz
Prepared by
Betsan Martin
Co-Chair, Environment and Conservation Orgnizations
Chair, Alliance for Responsibility and Sustainable Societies
www.response.org.nz
email: betsan@response.org.nz
ph. 64 (0)21 388 337