11. Conservation of Nature, Ecosystems, and Biodiversity

2021 ◽  
pp. 617-723
Author(s):  
Alan Boyle ◽  
Catherine Redgwell
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resources ◽  
International Law ◽  
Soil Water ◽  
Ecological Footprint ◽  
Sustainable Use ◽  
Life Forms ◽  
Scientific Consensus ◽  
The Future

Our survival on earth, this chapter argues, depends on the conservation of the world’s natural resources. These resources comprise of soil, water, the atmosphere, plants, trees, and other life forms. The chapter looks at the earth’s current ‘ecological footprint’ and the future of that ecological footprint as it stands now. There is now widespread scientific consensus that biodiversity is being lost, and that pressures on biodiversity are increasing. The chapter asks what we can do about this, in terms of international law. The chapter identifies how international law seeks to ensure the protection and conservation and sustainable use of nature, its ecosystems and biodiversity, and the effectiveness of measures developed to conserve land?based living resources, forests, and deserts.

1. International Law and the Environment

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-44
Author(s):  
Alan Boyle ◽  
Catherine Redgwell
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Environmental Justice ◽  
Natural Resources ◽  
Public Participation ◽  
International Law ◽  
Environmental Law ◽  
Sustainable Use ◽  
Environmental Decision Making ◽  
Environmental Disputes ◽  
National Environmental

This chapter provides an overview of the purpose of this book. It starts by saying what the book does not expect to do. The text does not intend to answer the question whether the law we have now serves the needs of environmental justice or fairness among nations, generations, or peoples. It does, however, attempt to show, inter alia, how international law has developed a framework for cooperation on environmental matters between developed and developing states; for the adoption of measures aimed at control of pollution and conservation and sustainable use of natural resources; for the resolution of international environmental disputes; for the promotion of greater transparency and public participation in environmental decision-making; and for the adoption and harmonization of national environmental law.

From Mare Liberum to the Global Commons: Building on the Grotian Heritage

Grotiana ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 168-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vid Prislan ◽  
Nico Schrijver
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resources ◽  
International Law ◽  
Marine Mammals ◽  
Common Property ◽  
Outer Space ◽  
Sustainable Use ◽  
Polar Regions ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Global Commons ◽  
National Jurisdiction

AbstractThis article addresses the heritage of Grotius's concept of common goods (res communes) as developed in his seminal work Mare liberum. This contribution identifies the basic tenets of Grotius's thinking on the nature of common property and identifies the relevance of these ideas for the present day management of global commons, i.e., the areas and natural resources beyond the limits of national jurisdiction. Successively, the article examines the regimes for: the deep seabed, the high seas, and marine mammals; outer space, particularly the moon; the two polar regions; and the atmosphere, in particular the ozone layer and the climate system. The article demonstrates how some of the original tenets of Grotius's concept of res communis – in particular the idea of inexhaustibility – can no longer be upheld and how the freedom of access to the global commons has become increasingly qualified and supplemented, if not replaced by a new law of international co-operation aimed at conservation and sustainable use of natural wealth and resources beyond the limits of national jurisdiction. The global commons function as laboratories for the testing of new principles of international law and new forms of international co-operation, which can be said to clearly build upon the Grotian heritage.

Integration of Human/Social Dimensions into the Traditional European Model of Natural Resource Education and Management

2005 ◽  
Vol 156 (8) ◽  
pp. 264-268
Author(s):  
James J. Kennedy ◽  
Niels Elers Koch
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resources ◽  
Natural Resource ◽  
Life Forms ◽  
Western World ◽  
Social Dimensions ◽  
Roles And Responsibilities ◽  
Resource Managers ◽  
Natural Resource Managers ◽  
Rural Ecosystem ◽  
Professional Roles And Responsibilities

The increasing diversity, complexity and dynamics of ecosystem values and uses over the last 50 years requires new ways for natural resource managers (foresters, wildlife biologists, etc.)to understand and relate to their professional roles and responsibilities in accommodating urban and rural ecosystem users, and managing the complimentary and conflicting interactions between them. Three stages in Western-world natural resources management are identified and analyzed, beginning with the (1) Traditional stage: natural resources first, foremost and forever, to (2) Transitional stage: natural resource management,for better or worse, involves people, to (3) Relationship stage: managing natural resources for valued people and ecosystem relationships. The impacts of these three perspectives on how natural resource managers view and respond to ecosystems,people and other life-forms is basic and can be profound.

Sovereignty, Self-Determination, and Natural Resources

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jérémie Gilbert
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resources ◽  
International Law ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Potential Role ◽  
Food Sovereignty ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Ambivalent Relationship ◽  
The Right

The issue of sovereignty over natural resources has been a key element in the development of international law, notably leading to the emergence of the principle of States’ permanent sovereignty over their natural resources. However, concomitant to this focus on States’ sovereignty, international human rights law proclaims the right of peoples to self-determination over their natural resources. This has led to a complex and ambivalent relationship between the principle of States’ sovereignty over natural resources and peoples’ rights to natural resources. This chapter analyses this conflicting relationship and examines the emergence of the right of peoples to freely dispose of their natural resources and evaluates its potential role in contemporary advocacy. It notably explores how indigenous peoples have called for the revival of their right to sovereignty over natural resources, and how the global peasants’ movement has pushed for the recognition of the concept of food sovereignty.

Territorial Sovereignty

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Stilz
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resources ◽  
International Law ◽  
International System ◽  
Core Values ◽  
The State ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Territorial Sovereignty ◽  
Collective Self ◽  
Political Units ◽  
Territorial States

This book offers a qualified defense of a territorial states system. It argues that three core values—occupancy, basic justice, and collective self-determination—are served by an international system made up of self-governing, spatially defined political units. The defense is qualified because the book does not actually justify all of the sovereignty rights states currently claim and that are recognized in international law. Instead, the book proposes important changes to states’ sovereign prerogatives, particularly with respect to internal autonomy for political minorities, immigration, and natural resources. Part I of the book argues for a right of occupancy, holding that a legitimate function of the international system is to specify and protect people’s preinstitutional claims to specific geographical places. Part II turns to the question of how a state might acquire legitimate jurisdiction over a population of occupants. It argues that the state will have a right to rule a population and its territory if it satisfies conditions of basic justice and facilitates its people’s collective self-determination. Finally, Parts III and IV of this book argue that the exclusionary sovereignty rights to control over borders and natural resources that can plausibly be justified on the basis of the three core values are more limited than has traditionally been thought.

Criminal Threats Undermining Indo-Pacific Maritime Security: Can International Law Build Resilience?

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 206-220
Author(s):  
Jade Lindley
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resources ◽  
International Law ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
Maritime Security ◽  
Broken Windows ◽  
Pacific Region ◽  
Maritime Piracy ◽  
Illegal Fishing ◽  
Crime Theory ◽  
Criminological Perspective

Maritime security in the Indo-Pacific region is strategically important to not only the surrounding states, but also those with an interest in its good governance, to support safe passage and natural resources extraction. Criminal threats, such as maritime piracy and illegal fishing, enabled by corruption and the potential for terrorism, undermine regional maritime security and therefore, there is incentive for states to respond cooperatively to secure the region. Drawing on broken windows crime theory, implicitly supporting the continuation of criminal threats within the region may enables exiting crimes to proliferate. With varying legal and political frameworks and interests across the Indo-Pacific region, achieving cooperation and harmonisation in response to regional maritime-based criminal threats can be challenging. As such, to respond to criminal threats that undermine maritime security, this article argues that from a criminological perspective, aligning states through existing international law enables cooperative regional responses. Indeed, given the prevalence of corruption within the region enabling serious criminal threats, harmonising through existing counter-corruption architecture may be a suitable platform to build from.

scholarly journals Farmers’ and Herders’ Perceptions on Rangeland Management in Two Agroecological Zones of Benin

Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 425
Author(s):  
Rodrigue Vivien Cao Diogo ◽  
Luc Hippolyte Dossa ◽  
Sèyi Fridaïus Ulrich Vanvanhossou ◽  
Badirou Dine Abdoulaye ◽  
Kossi Hélliot Dosseh ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resources ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Sustainable Use ◽  
Negative Attitude ◽  
Rangeland Management ◽  
Mineral Fertilization ◽  
The North ◽  
Unused Land ◽  
Agroecological Zones ◽  
Sound Management

The sustainable use of rangelands in pastoral areas requires the inclusion of all stakeholders to develop sound management strategies. However, the role of these actors in the sustainable management of natural resources is still poorly understood. The present study aims to (i) assess the perception of farmers and herders of the risks and opportunities of transhumance on rangeland resource use and management, and to (ii) generate useful knowledge for the design and implementation of policies that favor the coexistence of these actors and reduce competition over rangeland resources use in Benin. To this end, interviews were conducted with 240 crop farmers and herders using a semi-structured questionnaire in two contrasting agroecological zones in the northern (Kandi) and the southern (Kétou) part of the country. Among the respondents, 64% of farmers in the North were agro-pastoralists (owning 10.6 ha of land and 10.7 cattle) and 36% were herders (keeping 45.8 cattle and cultivating about 3.7 ha of land). They perceived that communal rangelands were entirely degraded. In the South, 36% of respondents were agro-pastoralists (with 0.3 cattle and farming 4 ha of land) and 64% cattle herders (raising 45.3 cattle and farming 0.9 ha of land only). Of the herders, 50% kept cattle for more than 20 years, while agro-pastoralists had no previous experience in cattle herding. Cultivation practices among crop farmers, such as high use of mineral fertilization (23.8%) and bush fires for land clearing (22.5%), were reported in Kandi (North) and Kétou (South) as factors that might contribute to land degradation. However, these farmers perceived transhumance as a threat to the sustainable use of natural resources. In contrast, herders perceived transhumance as an opportunity to valorize unused land and increase the availability of manure to cropland. The prevalent negative attitude of crop farmers regarding transhumant herders increases the vulnerability of cattle herding in both regions. There is an urgent need of raising awareness concerning the mutual benefits provided by the coexistence of crop farmers with herders to promote participative rangeland management strategies. This may contribute towards coping with the current challenges of food insecurity and increasing climate variability as well as to reducing recurrent conflicts in the region.

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