Beyond Resource Wars: Scarcity, Environmental Degradation, and International Cooperation

4. Biodiversity Protection in International Negotiations

This chapter focuses on the issues of loss and scarcity related to biological diversity and the value of biodiversity. Biological diversity is a broad concept that includes the variability among all species and ecosystems as well as the diversity within species—the genetic diversity.1 The loss of biodiversity has ramifications for a broad spectrum of ecosystem services, as the issue comprises several levels and sectors (Millennium Ecosystems Assessment 2005). These include conservation and management at the ecosystem level, various forms of protection at the species level (relating to trade or migration), and the controversial issue of access and benefit sharing (ABS) versus intellectual property rights at the level of genetic resources. The chapter commences with a brief historical overview of the topics at these various levels, demonstrating how degradation culminated in international cooperation. Agreements such as the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Flora and Fauna (CITES) are cited. These initiatives can be otherwise termed piecemeal attempts at cooperation. Above all, this chapter discusses the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), along with its comprehensive approach to biodiversity protection at all levels and sectors. Beyond biodiversity loss and value, an examination of the other factors that hampered and facilitated the CBD negotiations and outcome is also provided. Multiple levels of power asymmetries and controversies as well as evolving political norms and principles, for example, were crucial to understanding the final negotiated outcome of the CBD. The final part of the chapter looks beyond the cooperative solution, and dwells on the ABS issue in the implementation phase. While the ABS issue can be seen as a great success for cooperation at the normative level (the CBD likewise contains important elements on how to deal with the 4 Biodiversity Protection in International Negotiations: Cooperation and Conflict G. Kristin Rosendal 60 G. Kristin Rosendal ABS conflict in principle), implementation has been difficult. Asymmetries remain a stumbling block, power is often a critical component in decision making, and cooperation is far from accomplished in day-to-day policy. The Multifaceted Issue of Biodiversity: Scarcity and Piecemeal Cooperation When discussing cooperation on biological diversity, it must be pointed out that the concept itself is quite recent, as it surfaced in the 1980s (Wilson 1988). Still, early efforts at biological diversity protection and awareness of species loss are far from novel. Human-induced species loss was first recognized with the extinction of the big, flightless bird, the dodo (Raphus cucullatus), in about 1650 (Quammen 1996). With regard to conservation efforts, the United States has been a pioneer by establishing the world’s first national park, Yellowstone, in 1872. Efforts at formal international cooperation have also preceded the CBD as a response to biodiversity loss—albeit at a less comprehensive level. These are less easily identified, however, as some of the earliest conservation activities came out of cooperation on natural resources management, such as the International Whaling Commission (established in 1946). The North Pacific Fur Seal Treaty of 1911, responding to the hunting and subsequent loss of fur seals, is seen as one of the most successful international environmental treaties. It provided a transparent system of incentives and enforcement that improved management along with the payoffs of the parties (Barrett 2003). A central characteristic of these early management regimes is that the users were cooperating on improving the management of a resource in order to create integrative results—that is, win-win situations, where all the participants might obtain a larger share as a result of cooperation (Underdal 1980). During the 1970s a set of international conventions were likewise negotiated. These initiatives focused on the protection of specific endangered species or habitats. Those with a global scope include most significantly the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands (1971), the Bonn Convention on Conservation of Migratory Species (CMS 1979), the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (WHC 1972), the Washington Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES 1973), and the Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO 1983) International Undertaking on Plant Genetic Resources.2 Many of these were partly motivated Biodiversity Protection in International Negotiations 61 by the 1972 UN Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm (Lanchbery 2006). In addition, there are a sizable number of regional agreements, such as the Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats (1979) and the African Convention on the...