Convention on Biological Diversity

About: Convention on Biological Diversity is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 2232 publications have been published within this topic receiving 65599 citations. The topic is also known as: CBD & United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity.

Collective Action in Plant Genetic Resources Management: Gendered Rules of Reputation, Trust and Reciprocity in Kerala, India

Abstract: "Collective action aims at the joint management of common pool resources. Agrobiodiversity at the community level is conceptualized as a collective resource requiring the management of varieties, species and their interrelations within a farming-system. In the rice dominated agriculture in the uplands of Kerala, India, few community groups continue maintaining and thus conserving their high diversity in landraces. Faced with the challenges of devastating prices for rice, their traditional system of collective action to exchange seed material and knowledge is endangered. A new institutional mechanism to manage biodiversity is the People's Biodiversity Register, a mandatory documentation procedure to enable cost and benefit sharing under the Convention on Biological Diversity. The comparative analysis of these contrasting cases of an indigenous and an administered effort is concerned with the importance of the analytical category of gender for the rules structuring the actions of the groups. Gender is perceived as an institution, constructing regulations of access and conduct for its members, shaping the room to maneuver. Do the core elements constituting collective action, namely reputation, trust and reciprocity imply different consequences for men and women? Do the rules structuring group mobilization imply different consequences for men and women in the same given context and regarding the management of the same resource? Where do we observe differences and to which effect? Since action resources are very much determined by the existing construction of gender, the question is how does collective action enlarge or inhibit the choices of men and women. Based on 2005 empirical data, the paper analyzes the tribal community of Kurichyas and the People's Biodiversity Register with special emphasis on the analytical category of gender concerning the core elements trust, reciprocity and reputation of collective action." Author's Abstract

Evaluating and expanding the European Union's protected‐area network toward potential post‐2020 coverage targets

Abstract: The Convention on Biological Diversity's (CBD) strategic plan will expire in 2020, but biodiversity loss is ongoing. Scientists call for more ambitious targets in the next agreement. The nature-needs-half movement, for example, has advocated conserving half of Earth to solve the biodiversity crisis, which has been translated to protecting 50% of each ecoregion. We evaluated current protection levels of ecoregions in the territory of one of the CBD's signatories, the European Union (EU). We also explored the possible enlargement of the Natura 2000 network to implement 30% or 50% ecoregion coverage in the EU member states' protected area (PA) network. Based on the most recent land-use data, we examined whether ecoregions have enough natural area left to reach such high coverage targets. We used a spatially explicit mixed integer programing model to estimate the least-cost expansion of the PA network based on 3 scenarios that put different emphasis on total conservation cost, ecological representation of ecosystems, or emphasize an equal share of the burden among member states. To realize 30% and 50% ecoregion coverage, the EU would need to add 6.6% and 24.2%, respectively, of its terrestrial area to its PA network. For all 3 scenarios, the EU would need to designate most recommended new PAs in seminatural forests and other semi- or natural ecosystems. Because 15 ecoregions did not have enough natural area left to implement the ecoregion-coverage targets, some member states would also need to establish new PAs on productive land, allocating the largest share to arable land. Thirty percent ecoregion coverage was met by protecting remaining natural areas in all ecoregions except 3, where productive land would also need to be included. Our results support discussions of higher ecoregions protection targets for post-2020 biodiversity frameworks.

Genetic Resources as Natural Information: Implications for the Convention on Biological Diversity and Nagoya Protocol

Abstract: Demonstrating the shortcomings of current policy and legal approaches to access and benefit-sharing (ABS) in the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), this book recognizes that genetic resources are widely distributed across countries and that bilateral contracts undermine fairness and equity. The book offers a practical and feasible regulatory alternative to ensure the goal of fairness and equity is effectively and efficiently met. Through a legal analysis that also incorporates historic, economic and sociological perspectives, the book argues that genetic resources are not tangible resources but information. It shows that the existing preference for bilateralism and contracts reflects resistance on the part of many of the stakeholders involved in the CBD process to recognize them as such. ABS issues respond very well to the economics of information, yet as the author explains, these have been either sidelined or overlooked. At a time when the Nagoya Protocol on ABS has renewed interest in feasible policy options, the author provides a constructive and provocative critique. The institutional, policy and regulatory framework constitute "bounded openness" under which fairness and equity emerge.

Plant Conservation and the Sustainable Development Goals: A Policy Paper Prepared for the Global Partnership for Plant Conservation

Abstract: The Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC), with its 16 plant conservation targets, was originally adopted by the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in 2002. It was updated and revised in 2010, with targets set to be achieved by 2020. The GSPC's targets are output oriented, specific, and measurable. They address the conservation needs of wild plants as well as those of cultivated crops, pastures, and forests. Although it is generally acknowledged that greater progress has been made in conserving threatened plants than would have been made without the GSPC, there is a continued lack of mainstreaming plant conservation at the national level and a lack of comprehensive information on which plants are threatened and where. With the GSPC reaching the end of its second phase in 2020, it is important to consider how plant conservation can enhance its visibility and generate support in the future. The 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda and associated Sustainable Development G...