Najam Challenges Conservation Leaders to “Think Big, Be Bold”
Adil Najam, Dean of the Pardee School of Global Studies, was invited to give the opening address at the annual conference of the country Conservation Directors of the WWF from around the world. The conference was a multi-day all-virtual meeting that brought together the leaders in conservation implementation from across the world together. Najam’s address was given on-line in the opening session on March 9, 2020.
Najam, who had till last year served on the international board of WWF, one of the world’s largest and most prominent conservation organization, described his talk as a ‘provocation’ to the assembled conservation leaders to “think big, be bold.” He argued that we are now already living in what he called the “Age of Adaptation” and that given “the grave inaction of all of us on climate change, now is not the time to cheerlead, now is the time to act; not to be confrontational, but to shake the conscience of the world for its inaction.”
Najam reminded the audience that “there is a lot of anger out there, especially amongst the young – and it is not unjustified. On climate change, on conservation, they blame us for having known, but having not done enough. And they are not entirely wrong!” He suggested that the conservation agenda needs to be bolder than it is. That it should push policy to go beyond small incremental measures. “Our actions have to match the scale of the crises we face. The most important questions we need to ask, are to ourselves,” he said.
For a short video of Dean Najam at the ‘Boston Biodiversity Talks,’ on a related theme, click here.
One of the largest conservation organisations in the world, WWF was established in 1961. The central secretariat for the organization, WWF International, is located in Gland, Switzerland and has offices in more than 80 countries around the world. Since its inception 50 years ago, WWF has invested almost US$10 billion in more than 13,000 projects worldwide.
Adil Najam is the Inaugural Dean of the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University and was the former Vice Chancellor of the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS). He was a co-author for the Third and Fourth Assessments of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC); work for which the scientific panel was awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for advancing the public understanding of climate change science. He is also the Chair of the Advisory Board of the Luc Hoffmann Institute. Read more about him here.