As far as wildlife was concerned Marsh advised farmers to err on the side of caution rather than risk destroying a vital part of their production system.
Just over a century later the US National Environmental Policy Act of 1970 required the preparation of Environmental Impact Assessments for the evaluation of any detrimental effects of new schemes that would affect landform and drainage. This was followed two years later by the Global Monitoring System (GEMS), which was endorsed by the U.N. Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm. Then followed a spate of conventions and conferences that placed the topic of environmental evaluation at the top of international and national strategies of economic development. The practical outcomes were the application of ecological principles to programmes of surveillance, monitoring and impact assessment at the levels of biosphere, ecosystem, landscape and population. Some of the early milestones are:
1946 International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling establishes the International Whaling Commission.
1948 UN Charter; International Union for the Protection of Nature (IUPN) established.
1955 The Wenner Gren Conference on Man's Role in Changing the Face of the Earth, Wenner Gren Foundation, Princeton, New Jersey, USA.
1956 Man's Role in Changing the Face of the Earth (Thomas Ed. 1955) published.
1957 The IUPN becomes the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN).
1958 Law of the Sea. The first UN Conference on the Law of the Sea approves draft conventions.
1958 U.K River quality survey
1959 Antarctic Treaty; Economic and Social Council of the u N adopts resolution to publish a register of national parks and equivalent reserves of the world.
1961 Establishment of World Wildlife Fund (World Wide Fund for Nature).
1961 National Survey of Air Pollution set up the the UK government in 1961
1962 Silent Spring (Carson 1962) published.
1964 International Council of Scientific Unions (icsu) established the International Biological Programme (IBP).
1966 IUCN Red Data Books first published.
1968 UNESCO 'Biosphere' Conference.
1969 Friends of the Earth (FOE) founded.
1970 The US National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requires preparation of Environmental Impact Assessments.
1971 Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme of UNESCO launched. Greenpeace International founded.
1972 UN Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment; Concept of a Global Monitoring System (GEMS) endorsed by the Stockholm Conference; United Nations Environment (UNEP) Programme established. 'Blueprint for Survival' sponsored by the journal Ecologist. Limits to Growth (Meadows et al. 1972) published.
1972 Landsat1 launched by U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
1974 UNEP Regional Seas Programme established.
1975 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES); The Kenya Rangeland Ecological Monitoring Unit (KREMU) established as a result of collaboration between Kenya and the Canadian International Development Agency.
1976 The Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE) -reports to the International Council of Scientific Unions (icsu) on global trends in the biosphere most urgently requiring international and interdisciplinary scientific effort.
1977 UN Conference on desertification.
1979 World Climate Conference organized by the World Meteorological organization recognizes the 'greenhouse effect'.
1980 World Conservation Strategy (IUCN) launched; IUCN Conservation Monitoring Centre (now the World Conservation Monitoring Centre) established.
1988 Publication of BAOBAB Journal on Arid and Semi Arid Areas by Arid Lands Information Network
1997 The Human Impact Reader: Readings and Case Studies Andrew Goudie Ed. Blackwell, Oxford
Annual Directories of environmental data and trends
The Green Globe Yearbook- Fridtjof Nansen Institute with Oxford University Press
Vital Signs- WorldWatch Institute with Earthscan Publications
State of the World- Worldwatch Institute with W.W.Norton
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