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ESPM 169 Lecture September 12, 2002
Biodiversity
1. Library follow-up
- nkobzina@library.berkeley.edu
- play around on databases, use all library resources
2. PAN/EPA Internships
3. Section readings
- first session of “classic” (important) readings - arising from this week’s and last week’s
work on cooperation and agenda setting
Haas, Peter M., Robert O. Keohane, et al., Eds. (1993). Institutions for the Earth: Sources
of Effective International Environmental Protection. Cambridge, Mass., MIT
Press, chapter 1
- authors, importance of book
- definition of “institutions”; Three C’s - concern, contractual environment,
capacity
Young, Oran. 1994. International Governance: Protecting the Environment in a Stateless
Society. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Ch. 4, “Institutional Bargaining: Creating
International Governance Systems.”
- author, regime formation - how do states come to agreement in the absence of
government, and under conditions of extreme uncertainty? “veil of ignorance”
Readings for this week
- textbook, GBO, Lovejoy
4. Big Points - policy cycle - issue emergence and framing
a. Policy cycle: issue emergence, agenda-setting, negotiation and policy formation,
implementation
b. Issue emergence and framing:
- problem must be identified - but that’s not enough
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- consensus must emerge that it needs to be addressed internationally (that
national action is not enough)
- framing: very important in this process - issue sponsors (e.g. UNEP, IUCN,
conservation biologists) put the issue in such a way that stresses its importance, its global
nature, and that point towards a manageable set of policy tools
- raises concern, capture imaginations
- social and political process - as much about communication as anything
c. Causes and Policy Options: fundamental cf. proximate; fixed vs. malleable
 example: democracies and war
5. Biodiversity
- definition, genealogy, emergence as an international political issue, threats,
importance
a. Definitions
 Write down important elements of biodiversity
Convention Definition: “all aspects of variability evident within the living world,
including diversity within and between individuals, populations, species, communities
and ecosystems….the term is commonly used loosely to refer to all species and habitats
in some given area or the earth overall”
“Biological diversity incorporates the idea of distinctiveness at every level of life from
molecules to cells, to individuals, to species, to assemblages of species and to
ecosystems” (Murray, 1995:19)
b. Genealogy of Term
 conservation (wildlife, natural variety, fellow creatures, preservation of
endangered species) to biological diversity to biodiversity - a rallying cry
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important part of framing process
 contains aspects of genetic diversity and habitat (in-situ conservation) that are
different from 19th century conceptions
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Takacs:
role of conservation biologists (a discipline founded in 1980s out of
ecology and evolutionary biology - mission - to conserve biological
diversity
- specific writers - Leopold, Carson, Paul and Anne Ehrlich
- founding of the National Forum on BioDiversity sponsored by NAS in
mid 1980s in US - Walter G. Rosen (senior program officer for Board of Basic
Biology) is credited with the term: "take the logical out of biological" - i.e. inject
emotion; EO Wilson et al involved early
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-
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the right buzzword at the right time - unified a bunch of scientific
approaches, linked in with "cultural diversity" and humanity (not just
wilderness or animals) - diversity seen as a normative good
shift from defense to offense
popular internationally
though "biological diversity" still used officially
c. Levels of BD:
1. Genetic
- most basic building-block of BD: blueprint for individual organisms
2. Species (most useful measure)
- distinctive groups of similar populations that are isolated reproductively from
other such groups
3. Ecosystems
4. All add up to the biosphere
- through which BD is distributed - hot-spots; tropics
- also a framing issue for international action
Genetic BD: important because genetic diversity ensures survival in changing conditions
- wild genes in grain production
- loss of genetic diversity in threatened populations
- biotechnology
 first point of serious controversy in case - textbook cf. UN document
 we have always manipulated genetic diversity, but at an organism level
- interbreeding animal species and plant species. In the 1990s, techniques have emerged
to engineer genes themselves - producing GMOs - using genes from entirely different
organisms
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 strong arguments as to whether it will destroy BD or save us
Species BD: historically, the main framing of the problem
- easy to measure, map and demonstrate
- 1.75 million plant and animal species have been identified; possibly many
millions more
- extinction: does occur naturally, but rate has been much higher; around 300-350
species of vertebrates, 400 invertebrates in the last 400 years; higher number of plant
species.
- threatened species: 24% of mammal species and 12% of birds considered
threatened with extinction in 2000.
Ecosystems (Habitats):
- marine and coastal
- freshwater
- forests
- dry and sub-humid land ecosystems
- agricultural ecosystems
d. Value of BD
 again, an important part of the framing process
 a basic issue: underlies the continuation of life on earth
- see Lovejoy piece
- aesthetic and ethical: charismatic macrofauna
- economic
- food, medicine are most commonly cited
- agriculture, water, fish - most important source of protein for a lot of the
world; water a source of energy, too.
- tourism
- ecological
- natural services - cleansing (dispersal and breakdown of wastes), climate
regulation, protection from erosion, pollination
- especially bacteria, and other lower forms of life
e. Threats to BD
 write down threats!
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- proximate and fundamental
- anthropogenic threats - again, framing
- habitat conversion, fragmentation, destruction (desertification, salinization)
- in particular, forest loss, development of wetlands and swamps
- 1980: 113,000 km2 of tropical forest was cleared, up to 169,000 in 1990
- invasive, introduced species (rabbits in Australia as e.g. of both!)
- climate change
- chemical pollution - waste, acid rain, oil spills
- nitrogen deposition from fertilizers, fossil fuel burning (algae blooms)
- population growth
- consumption
f. Links to International Action
- monitoring and cataloging
- system-level effects
- global dependence on resources in different parts of the world
- “stewardship” arguments
- shared problems
- crises - e.g. Lake Victoria (Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda)
Finally: issues for next time!
moving on to agenda setting and policy-making - how the international community first
started thinking about a convention
what were the early issues/actors/obstacles that came up?
Readings
Week 4
September 17 - Issue Emergence and Early Negotiations
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Porter, Brown and Chasek, pp. 124-130
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Guruswamy and McNeely, pp. 168-179 ("Halting the Loss of Biodiversity:
International Institutional Measures", by Walter V. Reid)
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**Chasek, Pamela S. (2001). Earth Negotiations: Analyzing Thirty Years of
Environmental Diplomacy. Tokyo, United Nations University Press, pp. 116-124 (Case
Study on the CBD)
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**Koester, Veit (2002). "The Five Global Biodiversity-Related Conventions: A
Stocktaking." Review of European Community & international environmental law:
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RECIEL 11(1): 96-103. Available online for UCB Library patrons (show me, scroll
down, it's No. 10)
September 19 - The Convention on Biological Diversity
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Guruswamy and McNeely, pp. 393-413 - Full Text of the CBD (also at
www.biodiv.org/convention/articles.asp)
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Guruswamy and McNeely, pp. 351-359 ("The CBD: A Polemic")
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**McGraw, Désirée M. (2002). "The CBD - Key Characteristics and Implications
for Implementation." Review of European Community & international environmental
law: RECIEL 11(1): 17-28. Available online for UCB Library patrons (show me, scroll
down, it's No. 3)
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TASK: Explore the CBD website, www.biodiv.org to look at Convention
signatories, associated bodies, and other aspects of Convention organization