The NSS has the Chairman of the Cave Conservancies Committee to encourage all appropriate cave managing organizations in the U

Does Our Cave Conservancy Qualify To Affiliate with the NSS,

If We Do Not Have a Good Cave Map, Cave Management Plan, or a Member Speleologist?

The NSS has asked the Chairman of the Cave Conservancies Committee to encourage all appropriate cave managing organizations in the United States to become NSS Cave Conservancies, provided each conservancy meets a few simple requirements.

We understand that not all cave conservancies accepted will have a (pick one or more) cave management plan, good map of their cave properties, strong conservation ethic, or members with scientific knowledge and skills. New conservancies will have the opportunity to meet with speleologists and cave conservancy leaders from all over the U.S. The experience of sharing many successes and failures is a great learning opportunity. A discussion of the ways other cave conservancies resolved the many issues should be very helpful to each conservancy. Contact with members of other conservancies usually helps improve cave management skills, cave conservation values, etc. Isolation or punishment of people who disagree or have different priorities is often counter productive.

The NSS Cave Conservancy designation is not bestowed for what a group has done; it is available to help achieve good cave conservation and management in the future.

Cavers who were primarily cave explorers founded some cave conservancies.

Most people do what they perceive is in their self-interest. Cavers have often acted to protect access to caves. In many cases recreational and project cavers have banded together to acquire cave properties because that seemed to be the most effective way to guarantee access. In some cases, there were few strong environmental advocates among the members of the founding group.

I have followed this movement in the United States from its start in the early 1970’s and have noticed in almost every case the development over time of a stronger conservation ethic within these conservancies. There are several plausible explanations for the strengthening of conservation values in these groups.

1. People often care more about things they own.

2. Wisdom tends to develop with age.

3. Attribution phenomena - A scientific premise identified by psychologists in which people tend to become that which is attributed to them. Thus, when cavers become conservancy managers they tend to become conservationist. This was originally referred to as modeling theory.

4. A stronger conservation ethic has developed in the larger society over then past 20 years.

While these factors do not guarantee an eventual strong conservation ethic or any other competency, it provides sufficient hope so that the NSS in good faith can encourage all cave conservancies that meet a few simple guidelines to become NSS Cave Conservancies.

Being a responsible environmentalist as with being a responsible citizen is a learning process, and for some people it is a long a difficult journey.

This journey can be made easier by having access to people with the appropriate experience, knowledge, skills, abilities, and values.

We can all image a world in which every person’s decisions are determined by long-term enlightened self-interest that includes respect for all other people, life, and things of value. The practical reality is that we usually accept a person where he is and help him along his journey to the highest level of enlightenment he can achieve.

John M. Wilson