Film on conservation year in Europe

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32660, 16 July 1971, Page 4

Film on conservation year in Europe

European Conservation Year, 1970, was the largest co-operative exercise ever carried out to try to persuade people to care for their environments by making them aware of such factors and influences as pollution, population pressure, . increased leisure, changing agriculture, transport and the use of natural resources.

The project was run on the initiative of the European Committee for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources—pan inter-govern-mental committee of the Council for Europe—whose 18 member countries stretch from Iceland to Turkey. The year opened at a .major conference in Strasbourg in

February attended both ' by member and non-member

In order to focus public attention on the subject, new national parks were created and new nature reserves opened. Belgium had a "National Tree Week”; West Beilin a “Green Week.” There were special issues of stamps together with a whole series of mobile displays and pamphlets.

A special programme (bought by the N.Z.8.C.) was made to commemorate the project. It, ranges over Europe from the south-east to the north. From the Bosphorus it moves via the Russian Steppes to the deep forests of Poland; then across the wide plains of Hungary and the great mountain barrier of the Alps; then across to the Atlantic coast, Britain, Iceland and Scandinavia. Each area has a different natural charac-teristic-each one is a short example of some conservation issue or problem; some conservation success or failure. The film then deals with some more areas and situations by following the migration route of the cranes, those birds which figure so largely in European affection, folklore and legend. The breeding grounds of the cranes in Norway are protected—at least for the present—by their remoteness and inaccessibility. Then, with the birds, the programme looks at the polders and population pressures of Holland; shooting and town development in the Landes area in France, and then moves further south to the supreme example of Mediterranean wildlife, the Cote Domana where they spend the winter. The cranes fly north to Scandinavia in the spring, gathering in thousands at one place in Sweden in one of the most impressive wildlife sights in Europe—a major public attraction. With the cranes we see Europe in 1970; what they—and we—will see in the future depends on the success of conservation projects now being carried out. The programme is introduced by Prince Bemhard of the Netherlands who, with the Duke of Edinburgh, is one of the royal voices of conservation in Europe. It was produced by Nicholas Crocker, of the 8.8.C.’s Natural History Unit.