Abstract
This chapter will examine principles and approaches in the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), other biodiversity-related conventions and soft law from a post-2020 perspective. The global COVID-19 pandemic and the imminent revision of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011–2020 and the Aichi Targets have created the momentum to reconsider the role that these principles and approaches can play in solving the perennial problems of lack of enforcement of, and lack of compliance with, international environmental law. Principles and approaches are of particular importance in addressing these problems, as they inform both the design and the implementation of National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans necessary to achieve the objectives of the CBD and other biodiversity-related conventions, taking into account the capacities of States and their national circumstances.
These principles and approaches have systemic, substantive and procedural functions in the fragmented legal mosaic of biodiversity, inspiring its future legal development, interpretation and norm-application at both international and domestic levels. Existing and emerging principles and approaches in biodiversity-related conventions are also developed through soft law instruments that adapt to new challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The state-of-the-art principles for the conservation of biological diversity in the times of the coronavirus provide legal tools for facing an ecological crisis of an unprecedented scale. Biodiversity governance should encourage interoperability between biodiversity-related regimes, which run the risk losing synergies at a time when they are needed more than ever before.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
For example, the principle of adjacency no longer appears among them.
- 2.
In its first paragraph, letter a, Art. 14 of the CBD states:
1. Each Contracting Party, as far as possible and as appropriate, shall:
(a) Introduce appropriate procedures requiring environmental impact assessment of its proposed projects that are likely to have significant adverse effects on biological diversity with a view to avoiding or minimizing such effects and, where appropriate, allow for public participation in such procedures; (…).
- 3.
Article 4 on Jurisdictional Scope says:
Subject to the rights of other States, and except as otherwise expressly provided in this Convention, the provisions of this Convention apply, in relation to each Contracting Party:
-
(a)
In the case of components of biological diversity, in areas within the limits of its national jurisdiction; and
-
(b)
In the case of processes and activities, regardless of where their effects occur, carried out under its jurisdiction or control, within the area of its national jurisdiction or beyond the limits of national jurisdiction.
-
(a)
- 4.
Thus “[p]ursuant to the instructions of the Court under Article 43 of its Rules, the Registrar addressed the notifications provided for in Article 63, paragraph 1 to call to witnesses and experts, of the Statute, to States Parties to the Ramsar Convention, to the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity and to the 1992 Convention for the Conservation of the Biodiversity and Protection of Priority Wilderness Areas in Central America” (ICJ 2015, para. 12).
- 5.
As an unintended result of the implementation of the Aichi Targets on the creation of areas of protection, indigenous peoples have been forcibly displaced from their lands during the work to create national parks, conservation areas and private hunting concessions by both States and NGOs in countries such as Cameroon, Congo, and the Central African Republic (Clarke 2019; OECD 2016).
- 6.
The Biodiversity Summit was convened in response to CBD Conference of the Parties Decision 14/34 and UNGA Resolutions 73/234 and 74/269, which determined the scope, modalities, format and organization of the Summit.
References
Boisson de Chazournes, L., & Maljean du Bois, S. (2016). Principes de Droit International de l’Environnement. Jurisclasseur Environnement et Development Durable, Fasc. 2010, 1–22.
Campins Eritja, M. (2015). De Kioto a París: ¿Evolución o Involución de las Negociaciones Internacionales sobre el Cambio Climático? Instituto Español de Estudios Estratégicos, 15, 1–19.
CBD. (2016). Synthesis Report on Experiences with Ecosystem-Based Approaches to Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction (CBD Technical Series No. 85).
CBD. (2020, February 29). Report of the Open-Ended Working Group on the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework on its Second Meeting (CBD/WG2020/2/4).
CBD Secretariat. (2004). Addis Ababa principles and guidelines for the sustainable use of biodiversity. Montreal: Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity.
Clarke, C. (2019). In and around Cameroon’s protected areas: A rights-based analysis of access and resource use agreements between indigenous peoples and the state. Moreton-in-Marsh: Forest Peoples Programme.
EU. (2020, March 10). Statements by the EU and its Member States, 13th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS COP 13) (Gandhinagar, India, 15–22 February 2020), 6320/20.
Fajardo, T. (2018). Environmental law principles and general principles of international law. In L. Krämer & E. Orlando (Eds.), Principles of environmental law, Elgar Encyclopedia of environmental law (Vol. VI, pp. 38–51). Cheltenham: Eduard Elgar Publishing.
GA. (2019). Note by the President, Revised draft text of an agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction, 18 November 2019, A/CONF.232/2020/3.
GA. (2020a). Concept Note of the President on the Summit on Biodiversity, 24 July 2020.
GA. (2020b). Leaders’ Pledge for Nature United to Reverse Biodiversity Loss by 2030 for Sustainable Development.
ICJ. (2015). Certain Activities Carried Out by Nicaragua in the Border Area (Costa Rica v. Nicaragua) and Construction of a Road in Costa Rica along the San Juan River (Nicaragua v. Costa Rica), Judgment, I.C.J. Reports 2015, p. 665. Retrieved December 16, 2020, from https://www.icj-cij.org/public/files/case-related/150/150-20151216-JUD-01-00-EN.pdf.
Juste Ruiz, J. (1997). Derecho Internacional del Medio ambiente. Madrid: McGraw Hill.
Kiss, A. (1993). Les traités-cadres: une technique juridique caractéristique du droit international de l'environment. Annuaire Français de Droit International, XXXIX, 792–797.
Koester, V. (2018). Environmental principles and concepts in biodiversity treaties. In L. Krämer & E. Orlando (Eds.), Principles of environmental law, Elgar Encyclopedia of environmental law (Vol. VI, pp. 538–554). Cheltenham: Eduard Elgar Publishing.
Kohen, M., & Schramm, B. (2017). General principles of law. Oxford Bibliographies.
Krämer, L. (2018). Introduction to Volume VI. In L. Krämer & E. Orlando (Eds.), Principles of environmental law, Elgar Encyclopedia of environmental law (Vol. VI, pp. 1–10). Cheltenham: Eduard Elgar Publishing.
Leal-Arcas, R. (2011). Top-down versus bottom-up approaches for climate change negotiations: An analysis. The IUP Journal of Governance and Public Policy, 6, 7–52.
Lowe, V. (1999). Sustainable development and unsustainable arguments. In A. Boyle & D. Freestone (Eds.), International law and sustainable development: Past achievements and future challenges (pp. 19–37). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Morgera, E. (2016). The need for an international legal concept of fair and equitable benefit sharing. European Journal of International Law, 2(2), 353–383.
Morguera, E. (2018). Fair and equitable benefit-sharing. In L. Krämer & E. Orlando (Eds.), Principles of environmental law, Elgar Encyclopedia of environmental law (Vol. VI, pp. 323–350). Cheltenham: Eduard Elgar Publishing.
OECD. (2016). OECD Wacht Survival International vs. WWF. Retrieved December 1, 2020, from https://complaints.oecdwatch.org/cases-es/Case_457
Rodrigo, A. J. (2015). El Desafío del Desarrollo Sostenible. Los principios de Derecho internacional relativos al desarrollo sostenible. Madrid: Marcial Pons.
Sands, P., Peel, J., Fabra, A., & Mackenzie, R. (2018). Principles of international environmental law (4th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
Sliver, J., Acton, L., Campbell, L., & Gray, N. (2020). How a global ocean treaty could protect biodiversity in the high seas. The Conversion. Retrieved December 1, 2020, from https://theconversation.com/how-a-global-ocean-treaty-could-protect-biodiversity-in-the-high-seas-139552.
Squintani, L. (2020). Balancing nature and economic interests in the European Union: On the concept of mitigation under the Habitats Directive. Review of European Comparative & International Environmental Law, 29, 129–137.
UNEP. (2019). Ecosystem-based Adaptation: Briefing Note Series. Retrieved December 1, 2020, from https://www.unenvironment.org/explore-topics/climate-change/what-we-do/climate-adaptation/ecosystem-based-adaptation
Van Asselt, H. (2012). Managing the fragmentation of international environmental law: Forests at the intersection of the climate and biodiversity regimes. New York University Journal of International Law and Politics, 44, 1205–1278.
Willmore, C. (2017). Sovereignty, conservation and sustainable use. In E. Morgera & J. Razzaque (Eds.), Biodiversity and nature protection law, Elgar Encyclopedia of environmental law (Vol. III, pp. 31–43). Elgar Publishers.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Fajardo del Castillo, T. (2021). Principles and Approaches in the Convention on Biological Diversity and Other Biodiversity-Related Conventions in the Post-2020 Scenario. In: Campins Eritja, M., Fajardo del Castillo, T. (eds) Biological Diversity and International Law. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-72961-5_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-72961-5_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-72960-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-72961-5
eBook Packages: Law and CriminologyLaw and Criminology (R0)