Former IISD president looks to the future; Cherishes the past

By Stuart Slayen

Former IISD president and CEO, DR. Arthur J. Hanson, O.C. has decided to move on to the next phase of his career. He looks back at his tenure with pride. And as he looks to the future of sustainable development, his faith in people keeps him optimistic.

When Dr. Arthur J. Hanson became the President and Chief Executive Officer of IISD at the end of 1991, the Institute was less than two years old and the Rio Earth Summit—the event that shaped the sustainable development movement for years—was a mere six months away.

"I don't think I've ever worked so hard in my life," says Hanson of a time when the world was just hearing about sustainable development for the first time.

It was at Rio that the Institute emerged on the world stage and almost immediately earned credibility and aroused curiosity in the policy community. "We went from nothing to having international standing," he says.

He looks back at those early days with pride.

"Sustainable development was a difficult new topic for people," says the soft-spoken Hanson. "There was skepticism about whether the Institute could survive; and whether it could survive in Winnipeg. We had to prove that IISD had legs and that the concept of sustainable development could be made useful to people."

"There are several big urgencies for SD. Actually, for some, I'm fearful that the critical dates for good solutions may already have passed"

Under Hanson, the Institute weathered growing pains and kept its focus on the challenges at hand. IISD played a key role in Canada and elsewhere in sharpening the focus on sustainable development and in raising the bar on the quality of policy research contributing to this field.

Hanson points in particular to the Institute's early adoption of Internet technologies to deliver the Earth Negotiations Bulletin and other content, and to the Institute's efforts at reaching younger people through various projects and ultimately the highly successful internship program. As well, early decisions to enter unexplored fields such as trade and sustainable development have allowed IISD to become a world leader.

"I have just become a grandfather and that gives you a whole different perspective on the world."

"We attracted very good staff and the Board was, and continues to be, intellectually charged," he says. All of IISD's efforts contributed to what Hanson likes to call "connecting the dots" among the environment, the economy and the well-being of people.

Hanson fears, though, that despite the continued high performance of IISD and other like-minded institutions, effective SD action still lags. We face more complex and interlocked challenges to human and ecological security.

"There are several big urgencies for SD. Actually, for some, I'm fearful that the critical dates for good solutions may already have passed. For example, it was pretty clear to me even a decade ago...that there was a great urgency about fish stocks in the oceans, that they were really plummeting," says Hanson, Canada's former Ambassador for the Oceans. "Now some scientists believe the cod will disappear as a fishable stock by 2020."

"Another that has troubled me for a long, long time is tropical rainforests" he adds. "These are such important areas for biodiversity, important to the needs of people and important in terms of their own economic contributions to various societies and yet we're still treating these forests in a way that encourages their destruction and their loss."

Hanson and other sustainability experts see that we have some very real, very imminent deadlines to contend with. IUCN – The World Conservation Union targets 2010 as a time by which biodiversity loss must be reversed. Hanson figures that we'll have to "turn the curve" on climate change by 2020 or 2030. The oft-quoted Millennium Development Goals—which assign quantitative targets on poverty, food, water, health, education and other matters—were designed to be achieved by 2015. Yet he believes all of these SD targets and many others are slipping badly.

What's especially frustrating for Hanson is that he believes that most of the knowledge that humanity needs to deal with the challenges could be or is available, but the achievement of change is burdened by bureaucracy, institutional ineffectiveness, the basic foibles of human interaction and the challenges of promoting the long-term thinking that is inherent in sustainable development.

"I hate to say this, but crises help move things along," he says." The nut to crack for me is how to deal with issues before they become crises. A lot of people make their reputation around solving crises—the fire fighters. In a way, for them, it's better to have the fires to fight. And then along comes sustainable development that is inherently long-term in its efforts to prevent the fires from happening. It's much more difficult to get excited about the future when you have three fires conflagrating around you." What we know is that crisis-oriented solutions are expensive, unsettling and often uncoupled from real development solutions.

"I have just become a grandfather and it gives you a whole different perspective on the world," he adds. "I've been fortunate enough to witness the coming into the world of someone who can expect to live past 2080. Frankly, I can't even think about what the world is going to be like then if we are not more successful with SD solutions."

"I have just become a grandfather and it gives you a whole different perspective on the world," he adds. "I've been fortunate enough to witness the coming into the world of someone who can expect to live past 2080. Frankly, I can't even think about what the world is going to be like then if we are not more successful with SD solutions."

Still, Hanson is an optimist by nature. He believes that we must strive for the best outcomes for people. He sees strong signs that the business sector, for example, is responding to the sustainability challenge and that the market signals are starting to favour sustainable practices. He also sees great progress at the micro level—in cities, communities and villages around the world. There are people learning more about their local environments and taking action; there are people working diligently to link local, traditional knowledge with modern science; and there are individuals promoting innovative ideas in institutions and on the ground.

"There a lot more people walking the talk of SD in all parts of the world than when we began our work in IISD," says Hanson. "And that gives me hope."

Today, Art Hanson is focusing on independent consultancy after relinquishing his position of IISD Senior Scientist in the fall. He is seeking out the innovators, with whom he can share his expertise. "I am using the ideas and experience that I gained through my years with IISD. And, wherever I travel, I see that IISD is widely respected in a number of different circles. I'm very proud and happy about that."

He remains an IISD Distinguished Fellow and works with the Institute on specific activities, such as IISD's Innovation Fund.

Arthur J. Hanson: at a glance

• President and CEO of IISD from late 1991 to 1998 and Board Member 1990-98.

• Appointed to Officer of the Order of Canada in May 2003.

• Named an Oceans Ambassador by the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans in June 2000.

• Member of the Canada Foundation for Innovation and, previously, the National Round Table on the Environment and Economy and the Canadian Biotechnology Advisory Committee.

• Board member and Lead Expert of the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development.

• Professor of Environmental Studies at Dalhousie University (Halifax) from 1978 to 1991 and Director of the School for Resource and Environmental Studies for almost a decade.

• Worked for five years with the Ford Foundation in Indonesia.

• He holds a PhD from the University of Michigan in the field of Fisheries Ecology and Natural Resources; and BSc and MSc degrees in Zoology from the University of British Columbia.

• Art and Ellen continue to live in Winnipeg.