We, the members (signatories) of the Socio-Ecological Agreement, declare our common consensus with the following message:

"Humanity is undergoing a systemic crisis, stemming from the inter-relationship between humans and the Earth's Biosphere, and among humans themselves. The effects of human activity on the planet's environment is causing critical changes, and as a result, may create an uninhabitable climate for complex life as it presently exists.

This crisis does not imply the death of humanity in its entirety, nor the end of its history. Rather, it serves as an opportunity for its transformation into a new developmental stage, which might be defined as the age of a spiritual/information civilization.

The costs of this transformation are measured in the number of victims and the scale of losses in cultural and natural heritage. The extent of these costs directly depends on the efforts of those who now understand what is happening-- the individuals who make up the movements for social change and environmental protection.

Our mission is to overcome this crisis as a global community; in other words, to insure the salvation of all living beings, diverse nations, and cultures. The role of leaders aware of this crisis is to search for a way through it, embracing humanism, humanity, and the realization of human qualities. We understand that there is no chance to save everything or everybody but we are striving and we will struggle to minimize the number of victims.

To realize this mission at this particular stage, it is neccessary:

• to assist the development of all forms of local democratic self-government, mutually beneficial and self-sufficient local economies, and the emergence of a non-governmental citizen movement to protect human and environmental rights--this form of minimally centralized, collective, self-organization will serve as the societal means to overcome the crisis.
• to technologically "retro-fit" the human race within the limits imposed by the Biosphere which includes processing all human waste.

This requires developing the technology to overcome the crisis.

• to enhance access to information and develop and spread environmental education, using all means possible. This is the equivilent to creating the intellectual, moral, and spiritual conditions needed to overcome the crisis.
• to reduce industrial and agricultural impact on the environment and conserve as many natural areas as possible in different parts of the world. This means conserving the natural environment and resources necessary to overcome the crisis.
• to initiate global cooperation among all people despite their social, political, national, or religious beliefs, or their involvement in state, business or public sectors--anyone able to act together towards reaching the above-stated goals.

This means creating the organizational mechanisms to overcome the crisis.

All these objectives are equally important, and progress towards realizing any one of them will both help lessen the impact of the crisis and move us towards the development of a new civilization."

We, the members of Socio-Ecological Agreement, in 1998-1999 will do the following:

• to inform our memebrs and partners about the Agreement, its ideas and proposals;
• to inform the members of Agreement about our own activities, programs, organizations, etc;
• to share with other members of Agreement with our approaches, statements, papers, etc, concerning regional, global and international aspects of crisis;
• to invite other members of Agreement to take part in our programs, initiatives, etc;
• to share with our members and partners with information about other members of the Agreement and their activities;
• to invite other peoples, organizations, communities, collectives, etc, world-wide to join the Agreement.

In the year 2000 we will organize a broad discussion about our cooperation in XXI century.

We agree that Socio-Ecological Union, International will lead a date base on the signatories of the Agreement and will inform the members about new-comers, their e-mail and addresses bi-monthly and about all the list of members - two time per year.

All needed work will be accomplished by the members of Agreement with their own funds.

We invite the cooperation of all those who sympathize with our goals and are working to solve these same objectives. From here on, we would like join efforts and move towards the future together.

Signatories:

Socio-Ecological Union, International
soceco@glasnet.ru
P.O.Box 211 Moscow 121019 Russia

Norwegian Society for the Conservation of Nature
mirnnv@online.no