Biodiversity at the International Level
Chapter Ninety-Three
Syllabus topic 4, "International Obligations towards Sustainable Development"
Pages 288 to 290 of 663
In one line
MU asks how biodiversity plays a role at the international level for environmental protection, and the answer is that the international level does four things no national law can do.
In exam wording: international law protects biological diversity by regulating the trade that drives over-exploitation, by protecting species and habitats that cross or lie beyond national boundaries, by supplying the finance and technology that conservation in biodiversity-rich but capital-poor countries requires, and by setting the terms on which genetic resources may be taken from one country and used in another.
The four functions
One: regulating trade
Over-exploitation is driven by demand in one country for a species found in another. No exporting State can stop that alone, because the demand is elsewhere, and no importing State can stop it alone, because the taking is elsewhere.
CITES 1973 solves it by requiring both an export permit and, for the most endangered species, an import permit. The instrument that regulates the market is the only one that can reach both ends of the chain.
Two: protecting what crosses or lies beyond a border
A migratory bird is protected by a national law for the two months it is in the country and killed in the fourth month elsewhere. A wetland at the mouth of a river depends on what happens upstream in another State. A fish stock straddles a boundary.
The instruments: the Convention on Migratory Species 1979, Ramsar 1971, the Fish Stocks Agreement 1995, and, for the high seas, the 2023 agreement on marine biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction.
Three: finance and technology
The countries richest in biological diversity are largely poor in capital. Article 20, paragraph 2, of the Convention on Biological Diversity obliges the developed country Parties to provide new and additional resources meeting the agreed full incremental costs, and article 21 supplies the mechanism.
Four: setting the terms of access
Before 1992 genetic material was collected freely. Article 15 made access subject to the prior informed consent of the providing State, on mutually agreed terms, with benefit sharing. That is a rule about what one State's nationals may do with another State's resources, and only international law can make it.
The instruments, and what each covers
| Instrument | Year | Covers | Mechanism |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ramsar | 1971 | Wetlands of international importance | A List, and the duty of wise use |
| World Heritage | 1972 | Sites of outstanding universal value, natural and cultural | A List, a Committee, a Fund, and a List of sites in Danger |
| CITES | 1973 | Trade in listed species | Three Appendices and a permit system |
| Migratory Species | 1979 | Migratory species and their ranges | Appendix I strict protection; Appendix II agreements |
| Convention on Biological Diversity | 1992 | All biological diversity | National planning, protected areas, access and benefit sharing |
| Cartagena Protocol | 2000 | Living modified organisms | Advance informed agreement |
| Nagoya Protocol | 2010 | Access and benefit sharing | Compliance measures in user countries |
| High seas biodiversity agreement | 2023 | Marine biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction | Area-based management, impact assessment, marine genetic resources |
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