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.

Benefit-sharing in Environmental Governance: Local Experiences of a Global Concept

Abstract: Taking a bottom-up perspective, this book explores local framings of a wide range of issues related to benefit-sharing, a growing concept in global environmental governance. Benefit-sharing in Environmental Governance draws on original case studies from South Africa, Namibia, Greece, Argentina, and Malaysia to shed light on what benefit-sharing looks like from the local viewpoint. These local-level case studies move away from the idea of benefit-sharing as defined by a single international organization or treaty. Rather, they reflect different situations where benefit-sharing has been considered, including agriculture, access to land and plants, wildlife management, and extractives industries. Common themes in the experiences of local communities form the basis for an exploration of spaces for local voices at the international level in the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), often argued to be the most open arena to non-state actors, and therefore vital to how local voices may be included at the global level. The book analyzes the decisions of the CBD parties to produce an in-depth reflection on how this arena builds and delimits spaces for the expression of local community themes, and paths for local community participation including community protocols. The book then situates the bottom-up findings in the wider debate about global civil society and deliberative democracy in environmental governance. This interdisciplinary book will be of great interest to students and scholars of environmental politics, environmental law, political ecology and global governance, as well as practitioners and policymakers involved in multilateral environmental agreements.

Climate warming in the Himalayas threatens biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and ecosystem services in the 21st century: is there a better solution?

Abstract: Abstract Biodiversity losses can lead to global environmental crisis. Humans utilize biodiversity for a variety of ecosystem services. However, what drives biodiversity losses have become a critical question during the 21st century. Lately, the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region in Asia, one of the world’s pristine habitats with the origin of majestic river systems including Brahmaputra, Indus, Mekong, and Yangtze, has witnessed rapid climatic warming. The unprecedented rates of climate warming in HKH has threatened biodiversity losses, ecosystem functioning and ecosystem services, and consequently the existence of mankind in the region. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Intergovernmental Science and Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) highlight the risks to humanity arising from unsustainable use of natural resources and loss of biodiversity worldwide under rapid climate warming condition. In addition, the growing economic transformation in HKH can have high environmental costs and biodiversity losses. By realizing this fact, the Convention on Biological Diversity addresses the key issues of biodiversity and ecosystem services in the HKH by liaising with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Paris Agreement, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Hence, the challenges of biodiversity losses, poor ecosystem functioning followed by reduced ecosystem services posed by climate warming and anthropogenic impacts needs to be addressed urgently by countries and multilateral agencies in HKH by identifying threatened ecosystem services and by providing better sustainability solutions. Here, I have outlined the current state of Himalayan biodiversity and ecosystem function and developed a framework for resilience management with an integrated approach of science and society to advance knowledge through learning. The resilience framework offers practical solutions comprising a robust and harmonized monitoring of climatic data, the use of multi-indicator approaches and modelling, and to make collaborated efforts among policy makers, implementers, and analysts to tackle evolving losses of biological diversity and reduction in ecosystem services in the HKH region.

Background, main results and conclusions from a test phase for biodiversity assessments on intensive forest monitoring plots in Europe.

Abstract: The Forest Biodiversity Test phase Assessments (ForestBIOTA) project was carried out on 97 intensive monitoring plots located in 12 European countries. It aimed at the development and test implementation of monitoring methods for forest biodiversity across Europe. More specifically it covered the fields of (i) stand structure, (ii) forest deadwood, (iii) ground vegetation and (iv) epiphytic lichens. A forest type classification was applied in addition. The project took into account policy requirements stated by a number of political processes and institutions including the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Ministerial Conference for the Protection of Forests in Europe, the Environment for Europe Ministerial Conference and the European Union. Whereas detailed results of the assessments are presented in additional publications (Stofer et al. 2007, in prep, Meyer et al. 2007, submitted), this paper draws a number of general conclusions and gives recommendations for future development of forest biodiversity monitoring in Europe.