Governing New Biotechnologies for Biodiversity Conservation: Gene Drives, International Law, and Emerging Politics

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 28-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jesse L. Reynolds
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Biodiversity Conservation ◽  
Genetically Modified Organisms ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Convention On Biological Diversity ◽  
Gene Drive ◽  
Social Challenges ◽  
Law And Politics ◽  
Gene Drives

The outdoor use of organisms modified with gene drives—emerging biotechnologies of biased inheritance—could further human well-being and biodiversity conservation, yet also poses environmental risks and diverse social challenges. This article describes and analyzes the international law and politics of gene drives’ research, development, and possible use, with an emphasis on their potential biodiversity applications. The Convention on Biological Diversity is central, and its institutions and others have taken actions toward governing gene drive organisms. Gene drives’ governance and politics are contrasted with those of agricultural genetically modified organisms, with emphases on states, nonstate actors, the precautionary approach, and decision-making forums. Developing and implementing governance—especially in international forums—for gene drives may prove to be difficult. The observations and analysis here indicate that the politics of gene drive organisms is a manifestation of a larger struggle regarding emerging technologies among those concerned about sustainability.

scholarly journals Scaling Biodiversity Conservation Efforts: An Examination of the Relationship Between Global Biodiversity Targets and Local Plans

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Rae Pierce ◽  
Sabrina Drill ◽  
Michael D. Halder ◽  
Mika Mei Jia Tan ◽  
Anushri Tiwari ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Biodiversity Conservation ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Local Scale ◽  
Convention On Biological Diversity ◽  
Spheres Of Influence ◽  
Global Biodiversity ◽  
The Relationship

Cities have a critical role to play in meeting global-scale biodiversity targets. Urban socio-ecological systems connect human and ecological well-being. The outsized impact of cities reaches well-beyond their geographic borders through cultural, ecological, and economic interactions. Although cities account for just 2% of the earth's surface, they host over half of the human population and are responsible for 75% of consumption. The Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and others have acknowledged the important role cities can play in achieving global targets. In response, at least 110 cities have produced plans focused on biodiversity, but we do not know the extent to which these city plans align with global targets or what role they play in achieving these targets. Here, we explore the relationship between global biodiversity conservation targets and local biodiversity plans to identify how elements at the two scales align or diverge. We compared the CBD Strategic Plan 2011–2020 (Aichi Targets) with 44 local biodiversity plans (often called LBSAPs) from cities around the world. We analyzed more than 2,800 actions from the local plans to measure the relationship with these global targets. Our results show how local approaches to biodiversity conservation can inform post-2020 global frameworks to improve coordination between global and local scale processes. We identify actions particular to the local scale that are critical to conserve global biodiversity and suggest a framework for improved coordination between actors at different scales that address their respective roles and spheres of influence.

Using information on ecosystem services in Nepal to inform biodiversity conservation and local to national decision-making

Oryx ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 147-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ishana Thapa ◽  
Stuart H. M. Butchart ◽  
Hum Gurung ◽  
Alison J. Stattersfield ◽  
David H. L. Thomas ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Biodiversity Conservation ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
National Level ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Local Context ◽  
Convention On Biological Diversity ◽  
Trade Offs

AbstractPolicy-makers are paying increasing attention to ecosystem services, given improved understanding that they underpin human well-being, and following their integration within the Aichi Targets of the Convention on Biological Diversity. Decision-makers need information on trends in biodiversity and ecosystem services but tools for assessing the latter are often expensive, technically demanding and ignore the local context. In this study we used a simple, replicable participatory assessment approach to gather information on ecosystem services at important sites for biodiversity conservation in Nepal, to feed into local and national decision-making. Through engaging knowledgeable stakeholders we assessed the services delivered by Nepal's 27 Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas, the pressures affecting services through impacts on land cover and land use, and the consequences of these for people. We found that these sites provide ecosystem services to beneficiaries at a range of scales but under current pressures the balance of services will change, with local communities incurring the greatest costs. The approach provided valuable information on the trade-offs between ecosystem services and between different people, developed the capacity of civil society to engage in decision-making at the local and national level, and provided digestible information for Nepal's government. We recommend this approach in other countries where there is a lack of information on the likely impacts of land-use change on ecosystem services and people.

scholarly journals Toward a More Expansive Discourse in a Changing World: An Analysis of Political Leaders’ Speeches on Biodiversity

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 2899
Author(s):  
Sang Hun Lee ◽  
Yi Hyun Kang ◽  
Rong Dai
Keyword(s):  
Biodiversity Conservation ◽  
Policy Process ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Convention On Biological Diversity ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Host Countries ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
The Subject ◽  
High Level

Speeches delivered in the Conference of the Parties (COPs) to the Convention on Biological Diversity represent leading discourses about biodiversity conservation. The discourse shared by high-level politicians is especially influential in the financing and decision-making process of global biodiversity governance. However, the speeches given in the COPs have not been the subject of systematic analyses until now. This study analyzes the host countries’ speeches given at the six most recent COPs and investigates which discourses have been expressed in the speeches. The regulatory discourse that views nature as a resource was found to be the dominant discourse, while other discourses that view nature as a scientific object or a spiritual entity were represented only marginally. As the need for a transformational policy for biodiversity conservation is growing amid a global pandemic, it is essential to deepen our understanding of the dynamics and complexity of nature and reflect it in the policy process. This study suggests that more balanced discourse on biodiversity may earn broader audiences’ consensus on biodiversity conservation.

Biodiversity conservation and drug discovery in Suriname. Explorations in nature's combinatorial library

2001 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
pp. 595-599 ◽  
Author(s):  
David G. I. Kingston
Keyword(s):  
Drug Discovery ◽  
Biodiversity Conservation ◽  
Combinatorial Library ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Intrinsic Value ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Pharmaceutical Products ◽  
Tropical Rain Forests ◽  
Important Goal ◽  
Collaborative Program

The preservation of tropical rain forests is an important goal both for the intrinsic value of their cultural and biological diversity and for the well-being of the forest peoples who make these forests their home. In addition, tropical forests are potential sources of new pharmaceutical products which can only be found by chemical prospecting in nature's genetically encoded combinatorial library. A collaborative program to discover potential pharmaceuticals in the rain forest of Suriname is described as part of an effort to integrate biodiversity conservation and drug discovery with economic development. Progress on this project will be reported, including results obtained on the isolation of bioactive diterpenoids, quinones, alkaloids, and polyketides, and the benefits of this general approach to biodiversity and drug discovery will be discussed.

The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety and Shifts in the Discourse of Precaution

2005 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 25-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Andrée
Keyword(s):  
Genetically Modified Organisms ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Convention On Biological Diversity ◽  
Spongiform Encephalopathy ◽  
Cartagena Protocol On Biosafety ◽  
Cartagena Protocol ◽  
Discursive Politics ◽  
Policy Fields ◽  
And Shifts

The precautionary principle is increasingly recognized as an important tool in multilateral environmental policy making, even as its practical implications remain the subject of intense debate. Drawing on Foucault's reading of discursive politics, this paper traces the emergence and effects of a specific framing of a precautionary response to new technologies found in the 2000 Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to the Convention on Biological Diversity. This international treaty enables states to restrict imports of specific classes of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), even if the extent of the harm they may cause remains uncertain. This particular framing of precaution in an environmental treaty is novel for its application to technologies yet to be demonstrated as harmful, and can only be understood in the context of the contentiousness of controversies over GMOs, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), and hormone-injected beef in the 1990s. At the same time, what might be termed the “Cartagena discourse of precaution” has already had productive effects on a variety of other policy fields including the regulation of persistent organic pollutants and pesticides.

scholarly journals Reforming the approach of the Global Environmental Facility to biodiversity conservation

Oryx ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 101-106
Author(s):  
Russell A. Mittermeier ◽  
Ian A. Bowles
Keyword(s):  
Biodiversity Conservation ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Environmental Problem ◽  
Convention On Biological Diversity ◽  
Ecological Processes ◽  
Global Environmental Facility ◽  
Earth Summit ◽  
Funding Mechanism ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Global Environmental

Biodiversity – a measure of the wealth of species, ecosystems and ecological processes that make up our living planet –received public prominence as a result of the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992. The loss of biodiversity, say the authors, is the greatest environmental problem the world faces but the issue has not been given the attention it deserves. With the emergence of the Global Environmental Facility in 1990 came the chance to fund biodiversity conservation on a unprecedented scale and in 1992 the GEF was adopted as the interim funding mechanism for the Convention on Biological Diversity signed at the Earth Summit. Three years after its foundation, the authors of this paper suggest that the GEF has to be reformed radically if it is to become an effective force in conservation. Their conclusions are based on Conservation International's experience with the GEF over the last 3 years in more than 10 countries.

Sharing of Cyber Threat Intelligence between States

2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-28
Author(s):  
Philipp Kuehn ◽  
Thea Riebe ◽  
Lynn Apelt ◽  
Max Jansen ◽  
Christian Reuter
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Genetically Modified Organisms ◽  
Genetically Modified ◽  
Genetic Alteration ◽  
Gene Drive ◽  
Political Consequences ◽  
Novel Technologies ◽  
Threat Intelligence ◽  
Cyber Threat Intelligence ◽  
Gene Drives

Novel environmental invasive biotechnologies, such as gene drives and Horizontal Environmental Genetic Alteration Agents exceed the classical applications of genetically modified organisms. The reason for this is that they are designed to transform wild organisms into genetically modified organisms which express desired traits. Instead of in a laboratory, this transformation takes place in the environment. The far-ranging effects that may be triggered by gene drive and Horizontal Environmental Genetic Alteration Agents require an extension of risk assessment to include socio-political consequences. The present article offers a first brief examination whether regulation is prepared for possible conflicts caused by benevolent or by hostile use of these novel technologies.

scholarly journals Conservation and Sustainable Use of PGRFA in Indonesia

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 67
Author(s):  
Muhamad Sabran ◽  
Puji Lestari ◽  
Mastur Mastur
Keyword(s):  
Information System ◽  
Genetic Resources ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Plant Genetic Resources ◽  
National Level ◽  
Sustainable Use ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Convention On Biological Diversity ◽  
Food And Agriculture ◽  
Agriculture Development

<p>The high diverse of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA) in Indonesia needs to be conserved for sustainable use to achieve food security despite a still growing population. Therefore, database and information system which could add value to the PGRFA have been developed by many international initiatives and conventions which impact to national level. Two international agreements that Indonesia intensively involved to govern access and share the benefit arising from the use of the valuable PGRFA are the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) and the Nagoya Protocol of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity. Agriculture development in Indonesia, however, is still faced many challenges. This review described and discussed the high biodiversity in Indonesia, utilization and conservation of PGRFA, supporting regulation and policy on PGRFA along with the progress of database and information system. Overall, promoting conservation and the sustainable use of PGRFA is a key goal of various national, regional, and global efforts, initiatives, and agreements governing them for human well-being.</p>

scholarly journals The biodiversity crisis in Canada: failures and challenges of federal and sub-national strategic and legal frameworks

FACETS ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 1044-1068
Author(s):  
Justina C. Ray ◽  
Jaime Grimm ◽  
Andrea Olive
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Biodiversity Conservation ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Convention On Biological Diversity ◽  
Governance Capacity ◽  
Financial Investment ◽  
Economic Wealth ◽  
Biodiversity Crisis

Negative biodiversity trends are evident in Canada, in spite of its ecological and economic wealth and high governance capacity. We examined the current implementation of Canada’s national biodiversity strategy—the planning instrument to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity—through its existing legal framework. We did this by evaluating biodiversity-related strategies and plans and 201 federal, provincial, and territorial laws. We found that while most jurisdictions claim dedicated attention to biodiversity, there is little evidence of an integrated approach within provinces and territories and across the federation. Biodiversity conservation led by governments underscores the need for considerations of species and ecosystem services to be mainstreamed into economic and development decision-making. Key challenges to this include Canada’s unusual degree of decentralized constitutionally ascribed authority over natural assets and its historical and continued economic emphasis on extraction of natural resources—a conflict of interest for jurisdictions. Transitioning to scale-appropriate planning and integrated decision-making that can address the pressures and causes of biodiversity conservation in Canada will require transformative change. Law reform, while necessary, will not succeed unless accompanied by a whole-of-government approach, a shift to a bio-centric mindset, innovative governance (particularly Indigenous-led conservation), and federal leadership with strong levels of financial investment.

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