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This chapter studies the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which is responsible for creating an international framework that allows for the beneficial conservation and exploitation of biodiversity. It notes that the term biological diversity covers plants, animals, and microorganisms, as well as their relationship to the overall ecosystems. It identifies the distinguishing feature of the CBD and its ability to allow access to genetic resources. This chapter also introduces the concept of bioprospecting, which is the commercialization of biological diversity to extract materials for different purposes that are mainly research-oriented, and studies several models that can help maximize the value of biodiversity resources. The protection of the application of traditional knowledge is also studied.

The term biodiversity was introduced in the 1980s as a novel framing for the human dependence on the Earth's biosphere. 'Biodiversity loss' became the way to capture a major dimension of global environmental problems. The chapter describes stages of this process. The first phase of the spread of the term was its enthusiastic reception among environmentalists. Second, concern was integrated into international environmental policy at the Rio Conference in 1992 through the adoption of the Convention on Biological Diversity. Efforts to implement the convention have created an environmental regime both internationally and within different countries. However, due to its broad coverage of processes of living nature and its huge ambition to regulate human modification of nature and exploitation of natural resources, there have been major difficulties with implementation. In particular, how to integrate specific issues manifested in local contexts, and the global concern, has proved problematic.

Of any public institution, natural history museums have the most extensive intellectual and physical resources for teaching the public about evolution. This chapter traces how evolution exhibits in natural history museums have changed over the past century from displays based on collections of biological diversity to experiential teaching units that focus on processes and mechanisms of evolution that are based on contemporary research findings. To assess how well these efforts help people understand evolution will require a significant commitment to experimentally-based learning research to determine how to create meaningful educational change through the experience of visiting exhibits.

This chapter examines the public-participation movement in various protective sectors of environmental law. The movements to protect endangered species, biodiversity, and fragile ecological areas have both benefited from public-participation mechanisms and have helped to encourage further public-participation activities. This chapter considers the intersection of public participation and mining and energy resources development from the perspective of the principal biodiversity-related conventions. It focuses on the three global conventions of most direct relevance for this topic, namely, the CBD, Ramsar, and the WHC.

This chapter focuses on the risks posed by genetically modified crops. It argues that many of the risks which are likely to materialize fall comfortably within traditional heads of damage such as personal injury or damage to property. There is also, however, a risk of environmental damage per se, which legal systems may find more problematic. In particular, the notion of damage to ‘biological diversity’ requires careful consideration, especially in light of the definition in the Biodiversity Convention. In the same context, while compensable damage should include the costs of preventive measures and reasonable measures of reinstatement, it should not be so limited, since it may well no longer be feasible to recall the GMO in question.

This chapter describes the drug discovery process in pharmaceutical research to show how deeply the new biotechnologies constitute the politics and economics of genetic resources. The analysis concerns the interest of the pharmaceutical industry in biological diversity and draws on interviews with researchers, managers, and policy makers, and on participant observation at sites of drug research—including industry, university, and government laboratories. Successful development of natural products depends on access to and collection of the biological source materials. Taxol illustrates two characteristics of natural products that have become significant in the discourse about genetic resources. The use of natural products is now defined in terms of the capital costs that have already been sunk into high-throughput screening and analytical biochemistry. Given the changes in the pharmaceutical industry and the political prominence it was afforded by the biodiversity discourse, the utilitarian argument for preserving biodiversity is a Trojan horse.

For the purposes of this chapter, the term biodiversity echoes the definition in the Convention on Biological Diversity and includes the variability among all life forms at the genetic, species, and ecosystem levels. Future research should uncover and highlight areas where the right balance has been struck between the social, environmental, and economic aspects of biodiversity issues, and areas where more work is needed to integrate the three areas of sustainable development as they relate to biodiversity. In particular, a future-oriented sustainable development law research agenda in international biodiversity law can focus on developing knowledge in two specific areas of inter-linkages. First, research is needed to define the linkages between different biodiversity-related policies and law in economic, environmental, and social regimes. Secondly, research is needed to strengthen connections between biodiversity initiatives at the national, regional, and international levels.

Biodiversity is a broad concept that includes various ecosystems, levels, and sectors. This chapter focuses on the value of biological diversity, its loss, and scarcity issues; it addresses the degradation of biodiversity involved in cooperative responses across the globe. A major part of the chapter discusses the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) along with the controversial issue of Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS), which is involved in the protection of biodiversity at various levels and sectors. Important agreements, negotiations, and initiatives, which are important in understanding the aforementioned topics, are also discussed throughout the chapter, the final part of which examines issues and phases beyond the scarcity of biodiversity.

This chapter uses the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and its application to marine biodiversity to examine how states can work within and beyond the limitations of territorially based international law to better keep pace with changes in the Arctic. State actors have proven only partly capable of shifting from a boundary-based practice of sovereignty and territorial integrity to acknowledging and acting upon indigenous rights and environmental concerns in the marine Arctic. The chapter demonstrates how states can provide better practical solutions for the changing Arctic by weaving more tightly together norms and principles that are common to three strands of international law: (i) the international law of territory and boundaries; (ii) international environmental law; and (iii) international indigenous rights law.

This chapter considers the conceptual framework developed by moral philosophers and environmental ethicists on the question of environmental values, and the extent, if any, to which such analysis has been absorbed into the mainstream of legal developments. Noting that the reparation of damage to species and ecosystems remains a neglected issue, it argues that it is necessary to develop legal principles and procedures which recognize and evaluate not only the harm to human interests from the dimension of biological diversity, but that related to the intrinsic value of elements of the natural world. Although such losses present problems for quantification, these are in principle no more intractable than those which have been overcome in other areas of the law. All life forms should prima facie be accorded equal value and compensation calculated by reference to the diminution in biological diversity occasioned by the conduct in question.

Conceived during the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro (Rio Summit) in 1992, the Convention on Biological Diversity entered into force in December 1993, and, as of 2008, was ratified by 189 states except the United States. Signatories to the convention agreed to carry out three obligations: To conserve biological diversity, ensure its sustainable use, and promote fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from the use of genetic resources. Compared to other secretariats, the biodiversity secretariat appears to have been more successful in generating normative, but not cognitive or executive, influence. This chapter explores the role of the secretariat in the functioning and influence of the Convention on Biological Diversity. After providing an overview of the biodiversity secretariat’s organizational structure and activities, the chapter analyzes its cognitive, normative, and executive influences. It also discusses the secretariat’s resources, competences, and embeddedness, along with its organizational expertise, organizational culture, and organizational leadership.

This chapter focusses on the two core aspects of the relationship between intellectual property (IP) rights and international environmental law. This interface is embodied in two related, but discernible rule systems. On the one hand, natural and biological resources are increasingly serving as important input or source for innovative human activities, often leading to IP rights granted over the resulting technology. On the other, whenever IP rights are granted over technologies or plant varieties that involve genetic resources, conflicts between the property rights of an individual IP holder and those who claim ownership (such as a state) over the biological resources may arise. The main international treaties applicable here are the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and its Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization (NP).

This chapter discusses whether the growing practice of establishing partnerships between the United Nations and the private sector could be based on the emerging standards for corporate environmental accountability. It further explores the question of strengthened UN-business partnerships by using contractual agreements, with a view to better adapting these international standards to specific industry sectors or local circumstances in a collaborative way. The chapter concludes with general recommendations to ensure timely and measurable results for partnerships and with more specific recommendations with regards to the Convention on Biological Diversity.

The first of four empirical case studies, this chapter applies the two-pronged analytical framework introduced in Chapter 3 to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Secretariat's overlap management activities within the biodiversity regime complex. It argues that the CBD Secretariat was able to influence overlap management in the mid-1990s through liberally interpreting its open-ended mandate at a time when state preferences were weakly solidified and substitutability of its overlap management functions was low. It influenced the way states understood new issues, shaped core rules and norms, and played a role in defining its own mandate. The impacts reflect a change in institutional power between states because it participated in framing key governance concepts that privilege some states’ interests over others and regulated the flow of information. Chapter concludes with a discussion of how the Secretariat's influence declined over time as state preferences solidified and the Secretariat's substitutability increased.

Chapter 4 addresses the intimate and frequently mutual relationship that exists between the cultural and natural heritage. In order to understand this relationship better, the shared norms and approaches in cultural heritage and environmental law are considered including, inter alia, their character as non-renewable resources, the notion of common heritage, sustainability and integration, and inter-generation equity. Some of the most relevant cultural heritage and environmental law is analysed to draw out more clearly these practical, philosophical, and legal linkages. The UNESCO 1972 World Heritage and 2003 on Intangible Cultural Heritage Conventions and their implementation are examined in detail. Two illustrative cases are presented: (1) the relationship between cultural diversity, biological diversity, and environmental sustainability; and (2) how cultural heritage law may contribute towards mitigating and even preventing climate change.