The New Jersey Committee of Safety
324 Atsion Road
Shamong, New Jersey 08088
voice (609) 654-8326e-mail contact: gellett9371@earthlink.net
Biosphere Reserves
by the New Jersey Committee of SafetyAn International Biosphere Reserve, such as the New Jersey Pinelands, is a vast area encompassing both public and private land that the Paris-based United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization has decided should be preserved in the name of biological diversity. Conceived in 1971 the Biosphere Reserve Programme at present consists of 337 sites in 85 countries covering more than 500,000,000 acres. There are 47 Biosphere Reserves in the United States, which occupy more than 43 million acres. The Everglades and Yellowstone National Park, for example, are included. The Pinelands Biosphere Reserve, designated in 1983, consists of 1,082,817 acres. It represents 22% of the state’s land area and includes portions of seven southern counties (Atlantic, Burlington, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester and Ocean), and all or parts of 56 municipalities. Two thirds of the Pinelands is privately owned. UNESCO designated the Pinelands without the knowledge or consent of property owners, municipalities, counties, state legislature or Congress.
UNESCO’s land control policy was officially articulated at the UN Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat I) held in Vancouver in 1976: "Land...cannot be treated as an ordinary asset, controlled by individuals and subject to the pressures and inefficiencies of the market. Private ownership...contributes to social injustice; if unchecked, it may become a major obstacle in the planning and implementation of development schemes... Public control of land use is therefore indispensable..." The 1992 Earth Summit’s Global Biodiversity Assessment (Sect. 11.3.3.2) further clarifies UN policy: "Plants and animals are objects whose degree of protection depends on the value they represent for human beings. Although well intentioned, this specifically anthropocentric view leads directly to the subordination of biological diversity... Contrary to current custom, it would therefore become necessary to justify any interference with biodiversity, and to provide proof that human interests justify the damage caused to biodiversity." The GBA defines the domain of humans and their artifacts (nonliving creations such as automobiles and highways) as the noosphere, and the domain of living organisms other than man as the biosphere. Thus according to the United Nations mankind has no place in a biosphere reserve.
The 1994 Strategic Plan for the US Biosphere Reserve Program endorses UNESCO’s division of biospheres into three zones: the protected zone (from which mankind will be barred); the managed use zone (in which limited human activity such as fishing and gathering may be permitted), and the zone of cooperation (the noosphere, to which humanity will be largely confined). The Wildlands Project, funded by the National Audubon Society and The Nature Conservancy, sounds the same note: "... at least half of the land area of the 48 coterminous states should be encompassed in core reserves and inner corridor zones within the next few decades. Eventually, a wilderness network would dominate a region and thus would itself constitute the matrix, with human habitations being the islands. Half a region in wilderness is a reasonable guess of what it will take...assuming that most of the other 50 percent is managed intelligently as buffer zone." Accordingly, "at least half of America is planned to be a wilderness reserve connected by wilderness corridors, the remainder to be a buffer zone (zone of limited activity) containing islands of humanity.
The June 1997, issue of Environment declares that "many of the biosphere reserves... still need considerable improvement. Proper buffer zones need to be organized around the protected core area." Coincidentally the Governor’s Council on New Jersey Outdoors issued a call for the state to acquire an additional 1 million acres in large blocks for preservation of wildlife—humans not allowed--and wildlife corridors; as a sop for the public it suggests that 200,000 acres be set aside for recreation (the buffer zone). The Council’s conclusions were foregone, given that the vice-chair is the head of the New Jersey Audubon Society, whose parent helped underwrite the Wildlands Project.
Thus the state proposes to acquire some 20% more of New Jersey. While Warren, Sussex, Hunterdon and Morris counties possibly would be most affected, no doubt much attention would be devoted to emplacing a buffer zone around the Pinelands in the seven southern counties. UNESCO has sent detailed questionnaires to all biospheres designated more than ten years ago in order to "help identify and overcome the shortcomings of these sites so that they can play a full role in the World Network." It will be interesting to note whether Terrence Moore, the Department of Environmental Protection bureaucrat who prides himself on being New Jersey’s member of the U.S. State Department’s Directorate on Biosphere Reserves, will make public the secret UN protocols and complete, unsanitized reply to the questionnaire.
Since the biosphere reserve is in fact the nucleus of the protected zone in the plan to re-wild America, what will become of the 700,000 inhabitants of the Pinelands? Winslow Township has unsuccessfully petitioned the Pinelands Commission for permission to maintain its roads and repair the shoulders. Will people become discouraged by unsafe roads and move away? Washington Township, situated in a no-growth zone, may be the epicenter of the Wildlands Project in New Jersey. The Fish and Game Commission reportedly plans to introduce bears into the forest there.
To turn to first principles of our Republic "All persons...have certain natural and unalienable rights, among which are those of... acquiring possessing and protecting property." (Art. 1, Sec. l, N.J. Constitution) and "The Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make needed Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory... belonging to the United States." (Art. IV, Sec. 3, Cl. 2, U.S. Constitution). We Jerseyans have the right to property and Congress has the responsibility to protect us from United Nations land designations such as "biosphere reserve". The American Land Sovereignty Protection Act (H.R.90 1) would subject United Nations land designations in the United States to Congressional approval. If Congress enacts HR901—and why aren’t all New Jersey Congressmen and Senators co-sponsors? — It will still only be the first step in restoring freedom to New Jersey.
The New Jersey Committee of Safety was founded by the Association to Preserve the Rights of Individuals Everywhere (ASPIRE) and the New Jersey Militia. Membership is open to groups that actively defend the New Jersey and United States Constitutions.
