The 64th General Assembly of the International Council for Game and Wildlife Conservation took place from April 27-29, 2017, in Montreux, Switzerland under the motto Harmony with Wildlife – Urban and Rural Perceptions.
Following the Opening Ceremony of the General Assembly, a panel discussion was organized with the aim to introduce the theme of the meeting and get insight into how conservationists and hunters work together to close the knowledge gap between urban and rural dwellers. The panel discussion was moderated by Karen Gaynor, from the Scientific Support Office for Fauna of CITES; included Marco Lamberitini, Director General of WWF International; Claude D’Anthenaise from the Musée de la Chasse, Paris; Antoine Goetschel, the President of Global Animal Law; Alexander Schwab, the author of “Hook, Line & Thinker – Angling and Ethics”and Richard Louv, the author of “Last child in the wood – Nature deficit disorder” via video message.
VIDEO
-1:10 – Karen Gaynor – Elaborating on the subject, what is the solution? Is there any strategy for that?
1:10 -5:40 – Richard Louv, the author of “Last child in the wood – Nature deficit disorder” via video message
5:40 – 8:35 – Karen Gaynor – When we are talking about nature-rich cities, are we talking about bringing nature to the city or bringing knowledge of nature to the city?
8:35 – Alexander Schwab – “We have to get to the nitty gritty…”are we asking the hunting community to help to abolish itself by giving rights to individual animals?”
Karen Gaynor – “What is the definition of nature? “Fluffy” nature which is bringing animals and plants to people in cities but not bringing people to the harsh reality of nature….”
15:50 – Antoine Goetschel …”In order to change the law, we need to work together with other interest groups…”
20:54 – Claude D’Anthenaise – [First, it is very difficult to discuss where man is part of nature because if we introduce nature into the town it is a show, but we must go beyond that. There is continuity between man and nature. As a curator of a cultural institution, the objective is to make people understand nature. The first job is to make people understand the relative value of nature showing how nature is represented in other cultures. The role of curators is to develop new images, to think of the world in a different way. This is attributed to artists. They should develop new images of nature in a concrete way. The museum is owned by a foundation of the natural reserve of a former hunter. We have coexistence with game, it is a key tool of our activity.]
24:38 – Marco Lamberitini – “… understanding of the consequences…”
28:31 – Karen Gaynor – “…disconnect between man and nature, but we need to do something about it. we could talk for hours about what measures we might be able to take. The industry, partly being driven by public demand, has started to ensure and prove that products are coming from sustainable sources. Can we tap into this movement and encourage branding of sustainable use?”
28:34 – Alexander –Schwab – “…downside of globalization, we are buying mangos from who knows where. What would be helpful would be to really go local and look at your front door..”
32:00 – Karen Gaynor – “…point you made about need to inject a sense of realism – can we use combination of different approaches?”
33:58 – Marco Lamberitini – „…and making people understand of wht the impact is on our lifestyle”
36:47 – Antoine Goetschel – …don’t reduce my point of view just to animal issues…”
38:06 – Claude D’Anthenaise – [When we have a good practice of consumption and recovery of good wisdom by the food industry, our concrete action will be the exhibition of it. We will have images of the food cycle, and our core responsibility is to legitimize practices which are currently not eco-friendly. We must give this contribution in order to transform our relationship with the world.]