Abstract
This chapter will be concerned with the first part of the question dealt with in this thesis:
How have international institutional factors had an impact on the CBD objectives (international output)?
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As this presentation will reveal the Nordic countries were of a different opinion.
Decisions on negotiations: 14/26 (1987), 15/34 (1989) and 16/42 (1991) in the UNEP Board of Directors.
IUCN: an INGO established in 1948 and located in Gland, Switzerland. Members include 62 states, 108 government agencies, 407 national NGOs, 35 international NGOs, 35 affiliates. The aims are to promote scientifically-based actions directed at sustainable use of natural resources, conserving variety of species of plants and animals. The IUCN publishes Red Lists over threatened species.
Personal communication, Pat R. Mooney, Seminar in Oslo, 22 May 1998.
The link to climate change may be important in this respect. The tropical rainforests, and not least that of the Amazon, are not only home to a large portion of the world’s flora and fauna, they also represent a significant “sink”, a buffer against atmospheric CO2 build-up. This may add to enhance the US interest in Brazil’s forests, albeit from a slightly different angle. Estimates of deforestation have recently placed countries like Brazil at the top of the list of greenhouse gas emissions (WRI, 1990), a (controversial) “fact” that put many tropical countries on the alert with regard to the parallel negotiations on a climate change convention. From Brazil, Indonesia and the Republic of Congo’s viewpoint, it seems that they would have more to win from insisting that forest conservation be approached from a biodiversity perspective (Rosendal, 1995e).
G-77: the Group of 77 and China was established at UNCED in 1967, and its membership has increased to 132 developing countries. G-77 seeks to harmonise the negotiating positions of its members.
OECD includes Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Luxemburg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom and United States of America. I have chosen to count Mexico as part of the G-77/China rather than part of OECD, on account of Mexico not being member of the OECD during the negotiations, and also due to Mexico’s important role in bolstering the South’s position during the negotiations.
JUSSCANNZ includes Japan, USA, Switzerland, Canada, Australia, Norway, and New Zealand, as well as Iceland, Mexico and Turkey.
Decided at UNCHE, the United Nations Conference on Human Environment, in Stockholm, 1972.
Non-systematically bred material will primarily comprise the landraces of the South that have not been subject to systematic breeding — and that are hence, not uniform, stable and distinct from other varieties. These would not be elegible to plant breeders’ rights or patents.
Personal communication with Jan P. Boning, Advisor to the Norwegian Ministry of Environment; 4 October, 1998.
See reference to country reports to this Commission in section 8.3.2.1: Ethiopian country report to FAO/CGRFA.
Nikolai Vavilov was a Russian biologist and agricultural expert who identified a number of areas around the world where one or more important agricultural plants have an especially wide genetic diversity. He claimed this variation was linked to the fact that it was in this place that the plant was developed into a cultivated (domesticated) plant (Kloppenburg, 1988). Areas where the plants were domesticated are not necessarily identical with the places where the plants originated. Barley and wheat for instance came originally from Southeast Asia, and beans, cassava and sweet potato came originally from the Americas, although these species have provided the progenitor for secondary variation centres in Africa. For the food plants sorghum, pearl millet, finger millet and cow beans, Africa is regarded as the primary variation centre. Moreover, Africa is regarded as the primary variation centre for two important international articles of trade: coffee and palm oil. For a complete list of the Vavilov centres, see p. 48 in Kloppenburg (1988).
Juma points to problems to do with tropical diseases (malaria, dysentery) as a possible cause of this lack. Fear of contracting these diseases has simply restricted plant collection expeditions.
While classical biotechnology goes back to traditional baking, brewing and fermentation processes associated with bread, beer and wine, as well as traditional breeding and selection procedures in agriculture, the new biotechnology involves genetic engineering, like recombinant DNA technologies where genes are isolated from an organism, manipulated in the laboratory and injected into another organism.
The controversial proposal of creating a protocol on Biosafety under the CBD is aimed at handling such situations, particularly as these may arise from biotechnological experiments. It may be assumed that gene-rich/technology-poor countries may feel more vulnerable than others. As predicted, these countries have been pushers for a Biosafety protocol.
During the CBD negotiations, Denmark was not, as Sweden would later become, hampered by its EC/EU membership. Denmark has a long tradition of non-conformity to the EU Commission. See Jon Birger Skjærseth G. Kristin Rosendal (1995).
The negotiation process is discussed in Rosendal (1995d).
Who has identified this as the South’s real environmental agenda? As contended in section 3.1, this type of analysis is clearly not suited to reveal the “sources” of the norms advocated by Southern governments, environmental and developmental NGO community, and i.a. the Nordic countries.
See also Oran R. Young (1997) (ed) and Oran R. Young (ed), International Society: Enhancing the Effectiveness of Environmental Governance Systems, forthcoming, ch. 9.
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Rosendal, G.K. (2000). The CBD — Negotiations and Output. In: The Convention on Biological Diversity and Developing Countries. Environment & Policy, vol 25. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9421-9_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9421-9_5
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