The vital alliance.

• Author: Fuller, Kathryn
• Position: Reconciling business leaders and conservationists - Meeting the Environmental Challenge

Business leaders and conservations each have a unique and increasingly interconnected role in preserving the earth's precious resources.

I doubt there are many challenges more complex or pervasive than those involving the reconciliation of human economic activity with the natural environment. As a first step, though, we need to acknowledge that the two poles can and indeed must be reconciled for the good of both.

This means conservationists must recognize that the succesful management of this planet demands more resources than even the best-funded conservation group could ever hope to muster. According to Maurice Strong, the secretary-general of the U.N. Conference of Environment and Development, preserving the Earth's natural systems could require a long-term annual investment of $125 billion to $150 billion -- including $70 billion in aid to developing countries.

Whether or not this estimate is completely reliable, the kind of investment necessary to reverse environmental degradation is far too vast to be taken on by conservation groups, even with the help of individual governments. It is critical therefore for conservationists -- especially in the United States, where two-thirds of the land is privately owned -- to harness the energy, creativity, and resources of the private sector, particularly corporations. Unless conservationists do that, they doom themselves to failure.

Corporate leaders, on their side, must recognize that ignoring the environment carries a high cost -- that engaging conservation issues is not just a cosmetic gesture but a way of achieving bottom-line results.

Take the hypothetical case of an oil company that, before arriving at a new overseas site, fails to build links with local communities and grass-roots groups, fails to develop adequate safeguards for initial exploration and drilling, fails to address how its operations will affect the local people and their natural resources. I would submit that such a company is crippled from the start and that its chances of success will diminish with each passing day.

A good case study in this regard is the saga of CRA, a major Australian corporation that won a concession from the government of Papua New Guinea to develop a large copper mine on the island of Gougainville. Unfortunately, the company never got around to consulting the Gougainville residents or giving them a stake in their own economic future. When pollution from the mine migrated to the local river and killed...