ESPM 169: Issue Linkage and Biodiversity
November 7, 2002
- group reports, chronology drafts
- rest of semester
1. Big Points: Issue Linkage in IEP
1. No issue is an island: different types of linkage
- linkages across environmental issues - e.g. CC and BD (nested linkage in this case:
solving CC would help BD, not necessarily vice versa)
- linkages with other international issues and governance orders - WTO and TRIPS
- linkages with broader socio-economic-political problems - population, sustainability
and agriculture
2. Good or bad?
- synergistic: the two complement each other, thus mutually alleviating the problem's
severity
- conflictual: the two augment each other, or threaten each other - e.g. WTO and MEAs
- strategic: often a device used in international agreements to facilitate cooperation or
compliance, e.g. human rights and economic aid - or hazardous substances
- institutional
Topic Choice:
- climate change
- food and agriculture
- WTO and TRIPS
- population and sustainability
 voted for the latter two
 of course, they are all extremely interconnected: population, consumption, sustainability,
trade and globalization
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2. Population and Sustainability
a. Unbundling Population Issues
- on or around October 12, 1999, the world’s 6 billionth baby was born
1999: world population twice what it was in 1960; one tenth of all the people who have ever
lived are alive today
It took all human history up to 1800 for population to reach 1 billion; second took only until
1930
UN projects that by 2050 world population will reach between 7.7 and 11.2 billion – at which
point it is likely to level off
- more importantly: the population of the developed world will be the same, or a little
less, while growth will happen in LDCs.
 population growth is the factor that needs to be addressed in terms of long-term sustainability
and environmental protection - the "elephant in the room"
 also: can't really be separated from issues of consumption, especially in the wealthy countries
- also quality of life issues: life expectancy getting lower in many parts of the world
(AIDS); immigration issues
b. Relationship between BD and population
- as human population grows, more and more land will be needed to grow food - if not
done sustainably, will reduce BD drastically
- growth and density - migration and birthrates
- plus: clearance for industry, housing, etc.
- "population is growing 8 times faster than cropland is expanding" (PAI)
- often framed as intensely conflictual
See http://www.peopleandplanet.net/doc.php?id=804 (handout)
http://www.populationaction.org/resources/publications/naturesplace/np_index.shtml
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 of course: a hugely problematic issue for international action - mostly because of a vocal (and
wealthy) transnational minority opposed to extension of full rights to women, education re birth
control and general education, family planning
- also, a sensitive issue - can't feasibly have international agencies making rules about
individual choices
- no formal rules, treaties
Still: some action - UN Population Fund, Planned Parenthood, Population Action International
c. Population Meetings:
1994: Cairo UN International Conference on Population and Development: commitment to
family planning
- women’s groups emerging as important – got together at Rio
February 1999: Hague Forum on Population
Barbara Crane’s chapter in the readings: 3 distinct phases between 1965-1991
1965-1974: rapid growth in IPIs under leadership from US and western donor countries
- 1974: 1st conference, Bucharest (interesting in itself – Romanian policies)
1974 – 1984: period of greater accommodation to LDCs
- 1984: Mexico City
1984-1991 – and indeed to the present: conflict over IPIs and search for new sources of support;
withdrawal of US due to domestic opposition to abortion funding
- Reagan Administration in the US
Now: programs left up to national governments to create/endorse – 57 countries reported to UN
by 1989 that they had fertility programs in place
d. Bottom Line for BD: work towards sustainability - sustainable agriculture, reducing
consumption
 stabilize population, on-the-ground conservation activities should include family planning
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 incorporation of BD concerns into land use planning - zoning, engineering
 protect hotspots
 control human movements and migration? (acceptance that some conservation will fall by
the wayside)
- very difficult - conflicts with other approaches, infringement of rights and livelihoods
- Different approaches for different areas:
- BD: critical, valuable, high
- threats: many, few
- Population pressures: high, moderate, low
3. Sustainability and Sustainable Development
a. Defining SD
- “SD is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the
ability of future generations to meet their own needs”
- 2 key concepts embedded in definition, according to report: that overwhelming priority
should be given to the essential needs of the words poor, and the “idea of limitations imposed by
the state of technology and social organization on the environment’s ability to meet present and
future needs”
- From Brundtland Report, Our Common Future, 1987
From V&A, p. 6:
1. Concept clearly represents an attempt to bridge the concerns of developed and less developed
nations
2. Attempts to reconcile economic growth and the environment, rather than seeing them as
trade-offs
3. Strongly anthropocentric
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- focus on needs can be translated as up-lifting the basic living conditions of the “4th
world”
4. Limits to growth ultimately not natural or physical, but are social and technological
- rejects notion of “limits to growth”
5. Extremely, and deliberately, vague.
- both appealing and problematic
 becoming dominant discourse in IEP
Institutional Linkages: Agenda 21, CBD secretariat
 ASK: how are the two linked? (positive or negative)
b. Implementing SD?
- conserving BD an integral part of SD (despite anthropocentric focus)
- many believe it is a key component and a key indicator of BD (if we have BD,
then we're probably living sustainably…)
- also: helps explain focus on genetic resources, biotechnology, technical assistance,
agriculture - help poorer countries develop, utilize resources more sustainably (if they have a
price, that limits their use)
 SD discourse developing at same time, influenced CBD
See:
http://www.biodiv.org/doc/newsletters/news-sd-suplement-en.pdf
Two approaches:
1. Chichilinsky suggests reorientation of development towards "knowledge based" production
- less resource intensive
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- but she ignores waste and pollution aspects; rise in housing, infrastructure,
consumption
- may work in a limited sense in hotspots, but…
2. Greening GDP/GNP
- current estimates of GDP rely solely on economic output in $$ terms, based on value of
marketed goods and services - does not take into account resource depletion (of non-renewable
or slow renewing resources), or externalities - pollution, etc - or species depletion, or value of
ecosystem services
GNP: "The Gross National Product (GNP) is the total dollar value of all final
goods and services produced for consumption in society during a particular time
period. The GNP does include allowances for depreciation and indirect business
taxes such as those on sales and property." "Gross national product is the output of
labor and property of US nationals regardless of the location of the labor and
property. Gross National Product includes income earned by the factors of
production (assets and labor) owned by a country's residents but excludes income
produced within the country's borders by factors of production owned by
nonresidents."
 GDP: Value of all goods and services produced within a country,
regardless of ownership
- one estimate of value of earth's natural resources: $33 trillion (based on willingness to
pay)
"The value of the world's ecosystem services and natural capital" Costanza R, dArge R, deGroot
R, Farber S, Grasso M, Hannon B, Limburg K, Naeem S, ONeill RV, Paruelo J, Raskin RG,
Sutton P, vandenBelt M. NATURE, 387 (6630): 253-260 MAY 15 1997
 what would greening GDP entail? What would it accomplish?
- deducting value of lost resources, land etc. from annual GDP
- help alleviate conflict between development for humans and conservation; give
"growth maximization" a different meaning
- but, would politicians buy it?
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- valuing BD: well, on the one hand, could be argued that putting a monetary value on
individual species could lead to comparisons - on the other hand, valuing habitats means you're
not getting an inflated value-added from developing the land
4. Trade and BD: Trade Liberalization and the WTO
- GDP growth
- export dependence - on primary products
- bioinvasions
- conflicts with WTO: IPRs and trade in GMOs