8. Conclusion: A time for national action
Since its creation, FAO has promoted the need for resource conservation. A further contribution to worldwide awareness was made in March 1980 with publication of the World Conservation Strategy, launched by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature ( IUCN) in cooperation with FAO, UNEP, and Unesco. Most recently, a World Soil Charter was adopted at the Twenty-first Session of the FAO Conference, held in Rome in November 1981. The text of the charter is published as an appendix to this publication.
At an earlier meeting in 1981, a paper prepared for the Sixth Session of the FAO Committee on Agriculture set forth a checklist of actions to be taken at the national level in creating a comprehensive soil and water programme. Not all items will prove applicable in every country, but, in the opinion of Committee members, all merit careful consideration by each country's leadership. The recommendations are not presented in order of priority.
These or similar actions by concerned countries are necessary to launch a worldwide effort to arrest soil erosion and other forms of resource degradation. Clearly, it is urgent to reverse the accelerating destruction of resources through comprehensive soil and water conservation programmes which increase and sustain crop yields. Such programmes are within reach today of every country, and the national leaders who design and support them will be engaged in public service in the best sense of that term. As populations grow and demands on resources increase, there will be no higher calling in the world than that of resource conservationist. There is no work more needed today than projects that help keep the land alive.