14 • Technologies To Maintain Biological Diversity 



Option 2.1: Promote public education about bio- 

 logical diversity by establishing a National 

 Conservation Education Act. 



Just as sustaining support to enhance envi- 

 ronmental quality required public education 

 programs, so too will a concerted national ef- 

 fort to conserve biological diversity require a 

 strong public education effort. A National Con- 

 servation Education Act could be patterned af- 

 ter the Environmental Education Act of 1971 

 (Public Law 91-516), which authorized the U.S. 

 Commissioner of Education to establish edu- 

 cation programs that would encourage under- 

 standing of environmental policies.^ 



A new act could support programs and cur- 

 ricula that promote, inter alia, the importance 

 of biological diversity to human welfare. A 

 small grants program could support research 

 and pilot public education projects. Funds 

 could be made available to evaluate methods 

 for curricula development, dissemination of 

 curricula, teacher training, ecological study 

 center design, community education, and ma- 

 terials for mass media programs. The act could 

 support interaction among existing State envi- 

 ronmental education programs, such as those 

 in Wisconsin and Minnesota, and encourage 

 the establishment of new programs in other 

 States. The Department of Education could pro- 

 vide consulting services to school districts to 

 develop education programs. 



An attempt to establish additional environ- 

 mental education legislation might be opposed 

 because of the trend to reduce the Federal Gov- 

 ernment's role in education and to rely more 

 on State and private sector initiatives. There- 

 fore, it could be argued that private organiza- 

 tions, such as the Center for Environmental 

 Education, are the appropriate agents to in- 

 crease public awareness. It could also be ar- 

 gued that Federal agencies are already educat- 

 ing the public about environmental issues and 

 could easily include biological diversity in their 

 programs without new legislation. Besides, new 



^This act was repealed by Public Law 97-35 in 1981, and the 

 Department of Education has requested no funds for environ- 

 mental education in its 1987 budget. 



legislation would require additional appropri- 

 ations, and in a time of budgetary constraints, 

 funding requests for conservation education 

 programs would probably be opposed. 



Option 2.2: Amend the International Security 

 and Development Act of 1980 to increase the 

 awareness of the American public about in- 

 ternational diversity conservation issues that 

 affect the United States. 



Even more difficult than increasing the pub- 

 lic's awareness of domestic issues in biologi- 

 cal diversity is increasing their awareness of 

 the relevance of diversity loss in other coun- 

 tries. In addition to humanitarian and ethical 

 reasons, maintaining diversity in other coun- 

 tries benefits the United States by sustaining 

 biological resources needed for American agri- 

 culture, pharmacology, and biotechnology in- 

 dustries, and by sustaining natural resources 

 necessary for commerce and economic devel- 

 opment. 



Maintaining biological diversity for security 

 and quality of life enhancement, and the wis- 

 dom of incorporating such issues into U.S. for- 

 eign assistance efforts, are justification for Con- 

 gress to promote public awareness of the global 

 nature of the problem. 



Mechanisms for educating the public about 

 such international issues are already in place. 

 Specifically, several nongovernmental organi- 

 zations (NGOs] have international conservation 

 operations. A coalition of these groups actively 

 participated in the U.S. Interagency Task Force 

 on biological diversity that formulated the U.S. 

 Strategy on the Conservation of Biological Di- 

 versity in Developing Countries. As a group, 

 they have identified public education as a ma- 

 jor role for NGOs. 



The grassroots approach of NGOs is con- 

 ducive to heightening public awareness, as il- 

 lustrated by the support for programs to allevi- 

 ate famine in Africa. Recognizing the potential 

 of NGOs to stimulate public awareness and dis- 

 cussion of the political, economic, technical, 

 and social factors relating to world hunger and 

 poverty, Congress amended the International 

 Security and Development Cooperation Act of 



