Global Action for Biodiversity An International Framework for Implementing the Convention on Biological Diversity

About this book

At the Rio Summit in 1992, the nations of the world adopted the Global Biological Diversity Convention, and 120 countries have since ratified it. At present, however, the convention acts as a framework only, with little in the way of binding language or substantive obligations. The time has come for the international community to develop the institutions and obligations which will give real effect to the aspirations of the convention, and to ensure that the lofty language of the text has some real affect at ground level. This book describes the nature of the issues now before the international community, the gaps in the Convention which remain to be filled, and the ways in which the international community can reach agreement on those gaps.

Contents

Foreword by Jeffrey A Mc Neely * An Introduction to Global Biodiversity and its Regulation: An Issue at the Core of the Environment and Development Debate * The Fundamental Causes of Biodiversity's Decline: A Bio-Economic Model * Biodiversity Conservation and Global Development: Is it Possible to Reconcile the Two? * Regulating Global Biodiversity: Channelling Diversity's Values to Developing Countries * The Biodiversity Convention: A Meeting of the Minds? * The Institutions Required for Effective Biodiversity Conservation: The General Principles Underlying Effective Conservation * Contracting for Biodiversity: Transferring Development Rights Across International Boundaries * International regulation of the Wildlife Trade: Rent Appropriation and Biodiversity Conservation * Biodiversity Conservation and Intellectual Property Rights: Capturing Information's Values * The Conclusion of the Biodiversity Convention: And a Future for Biodiversity * References and Selected Literature * Index

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Biography

Timothy Swanson is a lecturer in the Faculty of Economics at the University of Cambridge and Director of the Biodiversity Programme at the Centre for Social and Economic Research on the Global Environment, University College London. He is co-author of Economics for the Wilds (1992) and Elephants, Economics and Ivory (1990), and author of The Economics and Ecology of Biodiversity Decline (1995), Intellectual Property Rights and Biodiversity (1995) and The International Regulation of Extinction (1993).