Akim Stajner, newly elected manager of the United Nations Ecology Program Ecology is an important segment in all spheres of social living   Akim Stajner is the new manager of the United Nations Ecology Program (UNEP) and one of his last official appearances as manager of the World Organization for Nature Conservation was at the international conference “Estimating eco-systems and eradicating poverty” held towards the end of April in Copenhagen, Denmark, organized by Com +Alliance and the Danish Ministry of Interior, where the following interview was carried out.   What are the achievements you are proud of as a manager of IUCN and what would you like to forget during your mandate?  I have to admit that I am proud to have been manager of an organization which pointed out that nature conservation has to be one of the main priorities. Nature conservation is one of the key issues; the knowledge of this field tells us how we can survive on this planet. So because of the significance of this field, IUCN has partners all around the world and a lot of countries want to get involved in the process of nature conservation. What is important to me is that day by day the awareness of what keeping the nature means is moving to a higher level. What makes me less happy? Unfortunately, for all these years, both IUCN and generally the world eco-organizations have not managed to completely find a way to manage and get to sustainable development of the eco-systems in Africa, Asia and Latin America. However, I think that after the Rio de Janeiro summit things started changing. After Rio, thousands of non-governmental organizations were established, local authorities, business-groups that even literally have thousands of initiatives and actions all around the world, that build a new network of partnership relations and a road to sustainable development.     What is your opinion about the European Union and its response to eco-challenges? If you take a look of what is going on in Europe, from an ecological aspect, I think that there is quite encouraging progress. For example, the waters directive that EU has developed for the last few years is really a lesson about water resources management being a part of the approach to eco-systems. Similarly, with the attempts for common agricultural policy, EU is not only trying to bring grain production to the maximum, but farmers are also learning what land management means and in this field it has positive progress.   What is the role of the UN environmental program? The UN environmental program is not projected to manage the world environmental program. We should ask ourselves what the role of UNEP (United Nations Ecology Program) is, comparing it to the question what role the other UN programs have. For example, the role of the World Health Organization in the field of world health protection, or what role FAO has when it is about agronomic issues or soil fertility. I think that one of the key debates will be on what role can a certain UN program have and where its place will be in the world organization’s “orchestra” depending on the capacities inside UN. At the moment, since I have not officially taken the role of UNEP’s first man, I cannot talk about the plans concretely, but it is clear that there are a lot of things and topics that need to be accorded. There are a lot of disagreements related to the work in the field of environment. If you look around, governments that want to take ecological actions have many obstacles in the negotiating process as there are disagreements about the way issues related to ecology should be solved. However, it is encouraging that everyone thinks that in spite of the disagreements, we have to push forward and solve environmental problems. Countries have to accept international agreements and the responsibility resulting from it. There are many cases when a country does not want to implement a resolution in its state, not because it is done in that country, but because countries sometimes avoid international obligations. Such running away from international obligations especially refers to developing countries that have an impression that more and more international obligations have been imposed to them, without some concrete results and awards by developed countries. However, it is clear that no country, including the big countries such as China, Brazil or India, can fight without help by the international community, alone and in isolation against ecological problems that do not know limits. I think that these are the reasons why UNEP has been playing an important role in solving eco-problems in any part of the world.   Do you think that environmental organizations and organizations for sustainable development can effectively convey their messages? My answer is a big YES. I think that it is very important to have a wider focus in sense that we should share what we work and our knowledge with others and firstly we should hear the voice of those affected by a certain problem. I think that the greatness of organizations dealing with the environment is that they have realized what it means to be a farmer in poor regions in Africa or Asia. I think that one of the challenges – especially in a world organization as IUCN, where I was a manager, is that it has to be realized that people first think about their own survival and they do not seek an answer for survival of the others. As an organization working all around the world, IUCN is trying to create an educational platform where environmental experts would meet people, pointing out the importance of implementing the sustainable development plan. This education does not only refer to the relation organizations – public, but the level of knowledge of sustainable development inside the organization has to be excellent, too.   Great amount of money is still being spent around the world for defense, including the most developed countries. Do you see any progress in terms of the fact that people have redefined the word security in defense and are there any indications that they have understood the importance of ecology in this segment? Ecology nowadays is certainly of great importance also for those dealing with defense. Ecology means stability, earning for life, regardless of whether it is about an individual, a nation or a state. I think that from this point of view defense gives meaning to ecology, but more as a coping strategy than a security agenda. And you should certainly not forget to look at the security strategy and ecology from different perspectives – individual, national, global. But it is a fact that no sphere of social living cannot but rely on ecology as an important factor.