The Convention on Biological Diversity and the Mediterranean Sea: A Beacon for International Environmental Governance in the Region?

Abstract. This work aims at characterising the seamount physiography and biology in the OSPAR Convention limits (north-east Atlantic Ocean) and Mediterranean Sea. We first inferred potential abundance, location and morphological characteristics of seamounts, and secondly, summarized the existing biological, geological and oceanographic in situ research, identifying examples of well-studied seamounts. Our study showed that the seamount population in the OSPAR area (north-east Atlantic) and in the Mediterranean Sea is large with around 557 and 101 seamount-like features, respectively. Similarly, seamounts occupy large areas of about 616 000 km2 in the OSPAR region and of about 89 500 km2 in the Mediterranean Sea. The presence of seamounts in the north-east Atlantic has been known since the late 19th century, but overall knowledge regarding seamount ecology and geology is still relatively poor. Only 37 seamounts in the OSPAR area (3.5% of all seamounts in the region), 22 in the Mediterranean Sea (9.2% of all seamounts in the region) and 25 in the north-east Atlantic south of the OSPAR area have in situ information. Seamounts mapped in both areas are in general very heterogeneous, showing diverse geophysical characteristics. These differences will likely affect the biological diversity and production of resident and associated organisms.

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Indigenous Participation and the Incorporation of Indigenous Knowledge and Perspectives in Global Environmental Governance Forums: a Systematic Review

Environmental Management ◽

10.1007/s00267-021-01566-8 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Melanie Zurba ◽

Anastasia Papadopoulos

Keyword(s):

Systematic Review ◽

Indigenous Peoples ◽

Environmental Governance ◽

Biological Diversity ◽

Indigenous Communities ◽

Convention On Biological Diversity ◽

Future Research ◽

Global Environmental Governance ◽

Global Environmental ◽

Indigenous Participation

AbstractGlobal environmental governance (GEG) forums, such as those convened through the United Nations, result in the development of monumental guiding frameworks such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Conference of Parties (COPs) Aichi and post-2020 targets. The ratification of policy frameworks by member and/or signatory states can result in major shifts in environmental policy and decision-making and has major implications for Indigenous communities. In this article, we present systematic review of the peer-reviewed literature on Indigenous participation in GEG forums, and focus on the specific questions: (1) what GEG forums include Indigenous participation and (2) how do Indigenous peoples participate in GEG forums, including how their perspectives and knowledges are framed and/or included/excluded within governance discussions, decisions, and negotiations. We provide a bibliometric analysis of the articles and derive seven inductively determined themes from our review: (1) Critical governance forums and decisions; (2) inclusion and exclusion of Indigenous voices and knowledge in GEG forums; (3) capacity barriers; (4) knowledge hierarchies: inclusion, integration, and bridging; (5) representation and grouping of Indigenous peoples in GEG; (6) need for networks among and between Indigenous peoples and other governance actors; and (7) Indigenous peoples influence on GEG decisions and processes. Our findings can be used to improve GEG forums by contributing to the development strategies that address the barriers and inequities to meaningful and beneficial Indigenous participation and can contribute to future research that is focused on understanding the experiences of Indigenous peoples within GEG forums.

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Studying Global Environmental Meetings to Understand Global Environmental Governance: Collaborative Event Ethnography at the Tenth Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity

Global Environmental Politics ◽

10.1162/glep_e_00236 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 14 (3) ◽

pp. 1-20 ◽

Cited By ~ 48

Author(s):

Lisa M. Campbell ◽

Catherine Corson ◽

Noella J. Gray ◽

Kenneth I. MacDonald ◽

J. Peter Brosius

Keyword(s):

Biodiversity Conservation ◽

Environmental Governance ◽

Biological Diversity ◽

Ethnographic Study ◽

Convention On Biological Diversity ◽

Global Environmental Governance ◽

Special Issue ◽

Research Practices ◽

Global Environmental ◽

Over Time

This special issue introduces readers to collaborative event ethnography (CEE), a method developed to support the ethnographic study of large global environmental meetings. CEE was applied by a group of seventeen researchers at the Tenth Conference of the Parties (COP10) to the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) to study the politics of biodiversity conservation. In this introduction, we describe our interests in global environmental meetings as sites where the politics of biodiversity conservation can be observed and as windows into broader governance networks. We specify the types of politics we attend to when observing such meetings and then describe the CBD, its COP, challenges meetings pose for ethnographic researchers, how CEE responds to these challenges generally, and the specifics of our research practices at COP10. Following a summary of the contributed papers, we conclude by reflecting on the evolution of CEE over time.

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Spaces for local voices? A discourse analysis of the decisions of the Convention on Biological Diversity

Journal of Human Rights and the Environment ◽

10.4337/jhre.2018.02.02 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 9 (2) ◽

pp. 141-170 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Louisa Parks

Keyword(s):

Discourse Analysis ◽

Indigenous Peoples ◽

Environmental Governance ◽

Biological Diversity ◽

Convention On Biological Diversity ◽

Discursive Space ◽

Policy Choices ◽

Global Environmental ◽

Critical Literature ◽

Indigenous Voices

This article discusses the existence and shape of a discursive space for local and indigenous voices in the arena of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Critical literature on global environmental governance argues that dominant or hegemonic discourses shape international-level decision making on environmental protection, and delimit the boundaries of possible policy choices. These discourses are identified by such scholarship as reflecting a dominant worldview stemming from a capitalist view of value and a dichotomous view of nature as separate from culture, which precludes discursive spaces for worldviews based on different conceptions of value and more holistic views of nature as inextricably bound up with culture. Such worldviews are often held by indigenous peoples and local communities considered to be crucial in protecting the environment and natural resources. The present article aims to contribute to this debate by looking in detail at decisions of the parties to the CBD, which is an arena argued by some to be more open to local and indigenous voices. The article presents a discourse analysis of the CBD's decisions since its creation and up to its most recent meetings held in late 2016. The analysis applies the arguments of the critical literature to the decisions of the CBD in order to investigate how far they conform to the critical view of them, or whether, and if so to what extent, they host spaces for local and indigenous voices.

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A conservação da biodiversidade na Amazônia e a Governança Transnacional Ambiental: o Programa Áreas Protegidas da Amazônia (ARPA) e a experiência local com o Parque Nacional do Cabo Orange (PNCO) / Biodiversity conservation in the Amazon and Transnational Environmental Governance: the Amazon Region Protected Areas Program (ARPA) and the local experience with the Cabo Orange National Park (CONP)

Revista de Direito da Cidade ◽

10.12957/rdc.2020.50889 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (4) ◽

pp. 423-445

Author(s):

Márcia Rodrigues Bertoldi ◽

Ádria Tabata De Moraes Damasceno

Keyword(s):

Protected Areas ◽

National Park ◽

Environmental Governance ◽

Biological Diversity ◽

Sustainable Use ◽

Amazon Region ◽

Convention On Biological Diversity ◽

International Solidarity ◽

Local Experience ◽

Global Initiative

ResumoO presente artigo tem o objetivo de analisar o Programa de Áreas Protegidas da Amazônia (ARPA) como plano de iniciativa global que visa atender a conservação e uso sustentável da biodiversidade conforme o objetivo ambiental da Convenção sobre a Diversidade Biológica de 1992. Em especial, analisa-se a unidade de conservação Parque Nacional do Cabo Orange (PNCO), atendida pelo ARPA que possui um sistema de gestão fundado na governança transnacional ambiental. Para isso, a pesquisa é elaborada utilizando o método dedutivo, o caráter qualitativo e emprega o procedimento bibliográfico-documental para seu desenvolvimento. Dessa forma, seguindo o ideal de governança transnacional em prol da proteção e conservação da biodiversidade no bioma amazônico através do Programa ARPA, com consolidação na gestão local no PNCO, é possível refletir que a participação de diferentes atores sociais (nacionais e internacionais) em unidades de conservação e, sobretudo, o financiamento de projetos, favorecem a cooperação repousada na solidariedade e responsabilidade comum para a salvaguarda de um bem comum.Palavras-chave: Conservação e Utilização Sustentável da biodiversidade. Governança Transnacional Ambiental. ARPA. PNCO. Princípio Responsabilidade. Solidariedade Internacional. AbstractThis article aims to analyze the Amazon Region Protected Areas Program (ARPA) as a global initiative plan that aims to meet the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity according to the environmental objective of the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity. In particular, it is analyzed the Cabo Orange National Park conservation unit, which is served by ARPA, that has a management system based on transnational environmental governance. For that, the research is elaborated using the deductive method, the qualitative character, and it uses the bibliographic-documental procedure for its development. Thus, following the ideal of transnational governance for the protection and conservation of biodiversity in the Amazon biome through the ARPA Program, with consolidation of the local management in the CONP, it is possible to reflect that the participation of different social actors (national and international) in units conservation and, above all, the financing of projects favor cooperation based on solidarity and common responsibility to safeguard a common good.Keywords: Conservation and Sustainable Use of Biodiversity. Transnational Environmental Governance. ARPA. CONP. Principle of Responsibility. International Solidarity.

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Local–Global Linkages in Environmental Governance: The Case of Crop Genetic Resources

Global Environmental Politics ◽

10.1162/glep_a_00226 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 14 (2) ◽

pp. 26-44 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Zuhre Aksoy

Keyword(s):

Genetic Resources ◽

Environmental Governance ◽

Biological Diversity ◽

Plant Genetic Resources ◽

Building Blocks ◽

Convention On Biological Diversity ◽

Crop Genetic Resources ◽

Governance Framework ◽

Food And Agriculture ◽

Governance Challenges

The loss of biodiversity is a global environmental problem that poses important governance challenges. Effective governance of crop genetic resources as a component of biodiversity is essential, given that such resources are the building blocks of today's modern agriculture. This article examines the formal governance framework in place for crop genetic resources, as embodied in the Convention on Biological Diversity and the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, and compares this to alternative modes of governance proposed by peasants' organizations such as Via Campesina. The author argues that the existing formal governance framework falls short of providing an effective mechanism for the conservation of crop genetic resources. Alternative governance mechanisms may more effectively connect the local and the global in a way that recognizes the contributions of local communities to conserving genetic resources in centers of diversity, and re-embeds their control over agricultural production processes.

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Practical Implementation Issues for the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Nagoya Protocol from a Korean Perspective

The Korean Journal of International and Comparative Law ◽

10.1163/22134484-12340079 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 5 (1) ◽

pp. 61-82 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Ah-Young Cho

Keyword(s):

Environmental Governance ◽

Biological Diversity ◽

Benefit Sharing ◽

Convention On Biological Diversity ◽

Practical Implementation ◽

Access And Benefit Sharing ◽

Nagoya Protocol ◽

Policy Responses ◽

Global Environmental ◽

The Republic

The Nagoya Protocol is an international agreement that aims to share the benefits arising from the use of genetic resources in a fair and equitable way. It is considered one of the innovative achievements of global environmental governance and is expected to generate new opportunities. However, the Nagoya Protocol has been described as “a masterpiece in creative ambiguity” because of its lack of legal clarity. The Republic of Korea, although it has not yet ratified the Protocol, has made considerable efforts to address the upcoming changes. The current legislation, which is one of the most important way-stations for ratification, is in its final stages. However, there are differences of opinion among government departments. This article analyses the legal and policy responses of the Korean government to access and benefit sharing, with a focus on marine biological resources.

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Grabbing ‘Green’: Cynical Reason, Instrumental Ethics and the Production of ‘the Green Economy

Human Geography ◽

10.1177/194277861300600104 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 6 (1) ◽

pp. 46-63 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Kenneth Iain MacDonald

Keyword(s):

Environmental Governance ◽

Biological Diversity ◽

Green Economy ◽

Convention On Biological Diversity ◽

False Consciousness ◽

Capitalist Class ◽

Global Environment Facility ◽

Funding Mechanism ◽

Global Environmental ◽

Environmental Commodities

This paper traces the institutionalization of Environmentalism as a pre-condition for the production of ‘The Green Economy,’ particularly the containment of the oppositional possibilities of an environmentalist politics within the institutional and organizational terrain of a transnational managerial and capitalist class. This is a context in which many environmental organizations – once the site of planning, mobilizing and implementing opposition and resistance to the environmentally destructive practices of corporate industrialism – have become part of a new project of accumulation grounded in enclosure, access and the production and exchange of new environmental commodities. This transformation reflects what Sloterdijk (1988) has termed cynical reason – an enlightened false consciousness; and my concern in the paper is to think through ‘The Green Economy’ and its coincident instrumental ethics as an iteration of cynical reason and an expression of institutionalized power. Specifically, I focus on the development of ‘global environmental governance’ as a statist project that concentrates sanctioning authority and resource allocation in centers of accumulation (e.g., the Convention on Biological Diversity and its funding mechanism the Global Environment Facility) and facilitates the containment of Environmentalism as an oppositional politics through demands that it assume conventional forms of organization, projectification and professionalisation and through facilitating a redefinition and redeployment that shifts environmentalism from a space of hope to an instrumentalist mechanism in rationalist projects of accumulation.

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Seamount physiography and biology in North-East Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea

Biogeosciences Discussions ◽

10.5194/bgd-9-18951-2012 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 9 (12) ◽

pp. 18951-18992 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

T. Morato ◽

K. Ø. Kvile ◽

G. H. Taranto ◽

F. Tempera ◽

B. E. Narayanaswamy ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mediterranean Sea ◽

Biological Diversity ◽

Morphological Characteristics ◽

East Atlantic ◽

Late 19Th Century ◽

North East ◽

The North ◽

The Mediterranean ◽

Area North

Abstract. This work aims at characterising the seamount physiography and biology in the OSPAR Convention limits (North-East Atlantic Ocean) and Mediterranean Sea. We first inferred potential abundance, location and morphological characteristics of seamounts, and secondly, summarized the existing biological, geological and oceanographic in-situ research, identifying examples of well-studied seamounts. Our study showed that the seamount population in the OSPAR area (North-East Atlantic) and in Mediterranean Sea is large with around 1061 and 202 seamount-like features, respectively. Similarly, seamounts occupy large areas of about 1 116 000 km2 in the OSPAR region and of about 184 000 km2 in the Mediterranean Sea, which is much larger than previously thought. The presence of seamounts in the North-East Atlantic has been known since the late 19th Century but overall knowledge regarding seamount ecology and geology is still relatively poor. Only 37 seamounts in the OSPAR area (3.5% of all seamounts in the region), 22 in the Mediterranean Sea (9.2% of all seamounts in the region) and 25 in the North-East Atlantic south of the OSPAR have in-situ information. Seamounts mapped in both areas are in general very heterogeneous, showing diverse geophysical characteristics. These differences will likely affect the biological diversity and production of resident and associated organisms.

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