IELRC.ORG - Biodiversity
 
Publication categories

 Articles
 Working papers
 Other contributions

 
Related Subjects

 Biosafety
 Intellectual Property
 Land

Biodiversity and Forests

The use and conservation of biodiversity and natural resources is of increasing importance at the national and international levels.

A number of legal instruments deal with the various facets of biodiversity. The central treaty is the 1992 Biodiversity Convention which provides an overall legal framework for addressing biodiversity management, supplemented by the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety. A number of other treaties address some aspects of biodiversity management: these range from the 1946 International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling to the 1973 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and the 2006 International Tropical Timber Agreement.

The prominence of law and policy concerning the use and conservation of biological resources is due in part to the increased economic value of biological and genetic resources in the wake of the rapid development of genetic engineering. A number of non-environmental law treaties, such as trade and intellectual property rights treaties are thus of considerable importance in the study of biodiversity.

The skewed distribution of biological resources between tropical (mostly developing) and temperate (mostly developed) countries implies that most of the debated legal issues have a strong North-South component. This is generally a consequence of the fact that developing countries hold most biological resources while developed countries hold most of the technologies needed for commercialising them.



Selected Academic Publications on Biodiversity

     
Wildlife Conservation and Community Property Rights in Kenya
in Patricia Kameri-Mbote et al (eds), Law | Environment | Africa (Baden-Baden: Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, 2019), p. 223-45.
 
abstract

full text   1870 [KB]

     
A Comparative Analysis of Accountability Mechanisms for Ecosystem Services Markets in the United States and the European Union
Transnational Environmental Law, 2 (2013), p. 259-283.
 
abstract

full text   133 [KB]

     
Forest Carbon Offsets and International Law: A Deep Equity Legal Analysis
22 Georgetown International Environmental Law Review 521 (2010)
 
abstract

full text   202 [KB]

     
Environmental Justice in the Use, Knowledge and Exploitation of Genetic Resources
in Jonas Ebbesson and Phoebe Okowa eds, Environmental Law and Justice in Context (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009) p. 371-389
 
abstract

full text   140 [KB]

     
The Public Trust Doctrine, Environmental Human Rights, and the Future of Private Property
16 New York University Environmental Law Journal 711 (2008).
 
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full text   239 [KB]

     
The Scheduled Tribes and other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006: A Critical Appraisal
4/1 Journal of Law, Environment and Development (2008), p. 20-34.
 
abstract

full text   300 [KB]

     
The Current Law of Plant Genetic Resources and Traditional Knowledge
in S. Biber-Klemm & T. Cottier eds, Rights to Plant Genetic Resources and Traditional Knowledge: Basic Issues and Perspectives (Wallingford: CABI, 2006) p. 56-111.
 
abstract

full text   297 [KB]

     
Intellectual Property Rights, Plant Genetic Resources and Traditional Knowledge
in S. Biber-Klemm & T. Cottier eds, Rights to Plant Genetic Resources and Traditional Knowledge: Basic Issues and Perspectives (Wallingford: CABI, 2006) p. 112-154.
 
abstract

full text   255 [KB]

     
Flanking Policies in National and International Law
in S. Biber-Klemm & T. Cottier eds, Rights to Plant Genetic Resources and Traditional Knowledge: Basic Issues and Perspectives (Wallingford: CABI, 2006) p. 239-279.
 
abstract

full text   244 [KB]

     
New Collective Policies
in S. Biber-Klemm & T. Cottier eds, Rights to Plant Genetic Resources and Traditional Knowledge: Basic Issues and Perspectives (Wallingford: CABI, 2006) p. 283-323.
 
abstract

full text   231 [KB]

     
Seeds Regulation, Food Security and Sustainable Development
40/32 Economic & Political Weekly (6 August 2005)
 
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full text   52 [KB]

     
Intellectual Property Rights and Biodiversity Management: The Case of India
4/1 Global Environmental Politics (2004), p. 97
 
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full text   162 [KB]

     
The Desertification Convention
UNESCO, Knowledge for Sustainable Development (Oxford: EOLSS Publishers, 2002)
 
abstract

full text   186 [KB]

     
Biological Diversity Management in Africa: Legal and Policy Perspectives in the Run-up to WSSD
11/1 Review of European Community and International Environmental Law (2002), p. 38
 
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full text   173 [KB]

     
Property Rights Regimes over Biological Resources
19 Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy (2001), p. 651
 
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full text   137 [KB]

     
Agro-biodiversity and International Law - A Conceptual Framework
11 Journal of Environmental Law (1999), p. 257
 
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full text   234 [KB]

     
Law, Colonialism and Environmental Management in Africa
6/1 Review of European Community and International Environmental Law (1997), p. 23
 
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full text   246 [KB]

     
Dolphin Bycatches in Tuna Fisheries: A Smokescreen Hiding the Real Issues?
27 Ocean Development & International Law (1996), p. 333
 
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full text   1038 [KB]

Working Papers on Biodiversity

Sustainable Management of Wildlife Resources in East Africa - A Critical Analysis of the Legal, Policy and Institutional Frameworks

       
   
full text    408 [KB]

Land Tenure, Land Use and Sustainability in Kenya: Towards Innovative Use of Property Rights in Wildlife Management

       
   
full text    465 [KB]

Biological Diversity Management in Africa: Policy Perspectives

       
   
full text    318 [KB]

Other Contributions on Biodiversity

 

The Convention on Biological Diversity (2003)

 

The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (2003)

 

Biodiversity Legislation Reflects India's Obligations (2001)