The Sibthorp Trust

The Sibthorp Trust

Mary Sibthorp

SWIMMER

The Trustees

The Sibthorp Trust    back to top

The Sibthorp Trust was set up as a consequence of a generous bequest in the will of Miss Mary Sibthorp in 1991 and is managed by a Board of Trustees in association with IUCN (The World Conservation Union). Mary Sibthorp was a remarkable woman who was Director of the David Davies Memorial Institute of International Studies and greatly concerned with the wise use of natural resources and their international dimensions. A specific aim of the trust is to promote the study and discussion of key environmental issues through the commissioning of workshops, seminars or study groups and to publish the results of such activities as the 'Sibthorp Papers'.

The Trust has organised and part-funded two Sibthorp Seminars to date (1996 and 2000). Both have been successful in meeting the original objectives for establishment of the Trust, under the terms of the will of Miss Mary Sibthorp.

In particular the output of the First Sibthorp Seminar has played a key role in advancing the thinking on biodiversity conservation and sustainable development. Specifically the seminar and subsequent publication "Ecosystem Management: Questions for Science and Society" has been a major contribution to the elaboration of the ecosystem approach as the framework for implementation of the objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity.

The subsequent work of the Trust has continued to build on this and related themes.

Mary Sibthorp    back to top

Mary Sibthorp (1905 - 1991) was a remarkable person. Largely self educated, her incisive intellect allowed her to hold more than her own in any discussion. In her twenties, she came to the notice of Lord Davies of Llandinam, a fighter for peace and a better world order.

She worked with and for him until his death in 1944, and continued to work for his New Commonwealth Society. When the David Davies Memorial Institute of International Studies was founded in 1951, she became its Assistant Secretary and in due course its Director, a post she held until her retirement in 1980.

Her energy and inspiring vision gave her great influence on the work of the Institute. Her outstanding characteristics were iconoclasm, dislike of utopianism and suspicion of received wisdom. She was greatly interested in the wise use of natural resources an in the international problems arising therefrom.

In her generous will she left instructions to set up the Sibthorp Trust which is sponsoring this seminar. The more critical our discussion are of unsound views and the more forward looking they are, the better they will fulfil her purpose.

SWIMMER     back to top

SWIMMER (Institute for Sustainable Water, Integrated Management and Ecosystem Research) provides the secretariat for the Trust and hosts the Seminars. This has been an attractive synergy because of the interests of SWIMMER in innovative approaches to environmental and natural resource management.

Dr Conor Linstead, a member of the SWIMMER staff, is the Director of the Sibthorp Trust.