Environmental Law

14/09/2017

Understanding and Enhancing the Contribution of International Law to Lion Conservation

As one of the world’s most iconic and charismatic megafauna, the lion, Panthera leo, is a species whose conservation attracts international concern from conservationists and the global public alike. However, lion range and numbers have declined markedly over the last two decades.

In a recent publication in the journal Nature Conservation, two members of the Tilburg Environmental Law Team (Arie Trouwborst and Melissa Lewis) collaborated with biologists and social scientists from the University of Oxford’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit  (WildCRU) to assess the present and potential future role of international wildlife treaties in lion conservation.

Lionesses, Kruger National Park, South Africa (photo: M. Lewis)

Like other species of large carnivores, lions present a special set of conservation issues from a legal perspective due to their great spatial requirements, elevated human-wildlife conflict potential, and role as both keystone and umbrella species. For these reasons, and because of the transboundary nature of many lion populations and some of their threats, international law plays a distinct role.

Lion conservation has featured prominently on the agendas of certain wildlife treaties – including the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and, more recently, the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS). In October this year, for instance, Parties to the latter Convention will decide whether to list the lion on one of the CMS’s appendices, and will further consider the adoption of several draft decisions of significance for lions and other African carnivores. Although sometimes less obvious, a range of other treaties also play a role in the endeavor to conserve the world’s remaining lion populations. For instance, 39 of the sites that are currently designated as Wetlands of International Importance under the Ramsar Convention, and 18 of the areas that have been designated as World Heritage Sites under the World Heritage Convention, are of actual or potential significance to lions.  A myriad of regional instruments are also relevant – examples including the African Convention on the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, the SADC Protocol on Wildlife Conservation and Law Enforcement, the various treaties establishing transfrontier conservation areas (TFCAs), and even the Bern Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats.

Lion, Kruger National Park, South Africa (photo J. Lewis)

In this paper, we identify not only a substantial body of relevant international wildlife law, but also a significant potential for enhancing these instruments’ contribution to lion conservation. We argue that the time is right to invest in such improvements, and we provide both general and treaty-specific recommendations for doing so. With the 2017 CMS Conference of the Parties fast approaching, the paper’s support for augmenting this Convention’s role in lion conservation is especially noteworthy. The paper concludes that: 

“Given the fragmented collection of treaties which currently apply to lions and the absence of adequate international instruments and/or institutions for lion conservation in at least portions of the species’ range, an important role appears, in principle, to be reserved for the CMS, both in terms of coordination and gap-filling. Listing lions under the Convention would be a logical step in this regard … [and] would both signal the need to develop more elaborate species-specific frameworks for lion conservation and sustainable use and increase the avenues available for achieving this.”

It further provides recommendations for making optimal use of the Ramsar and World Heritage Conventions and TFCA agreements in sites of importance to lions; outlines possibilities for adjusting CITES’ restrictions on the trade in lions and their parts; and emphasizes the importance of maximizing range states’ participation in, and compliance with, wildlife treaties, and of promoting strategies which involve the local people who live alongside lions.

Arie Trouwborst, Melissa Lewis, Dawn Burnham, Amy Dickman, Amy Hinks, Timothy Hodgetts, Ewan A. Macdonald & David W. Macdonald (2017) “International law and lions (Panthera leo): understanding and improving the contribution of wildlife treaties to the conservation and sustainable use of an iconic carnivore“. Nature Conservation 21: 83-128.

26/04/2016

Solar Climate Engineering and Intellectual Property

A schematic of stratospheric aerosol injection climate engineering. Image by Hugh Hunt, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported.

Climate change has been the focus of much legal and policy activity in the last year: the Paris Agreement, the Urgenda ruling in the Netherlands, aggressive climate targets in China’s latest five year plan, the release of the final US Clean Power Plan, and the legal challenge to it. Not surprisingly, these each concern controlling greenhouse gas emissions, the approach that has long dominated efforts to reduce climate change risks.

Yet last week, an alternative approach received a major—but little noticed—boost. For the first time, a federal budget bill included an allocation specifically for so-called “solar climate engineering.” This set of radical proposed technologies would address climate change by reducing the amount of incoming solar radiation. These would globally cool the planet, counteracting global warming. For example, humans might be able to mimic the well-known cooling caused by large volcanos via injecting a reflective aerosol into the upper atmosphere. Research thus far – which has been limited to modeling – indicates that solar climate engineering (SCE) would be effective at reducing climate change, rapidly felt, reversible in its direct climatic effects, and remarkably inexpensive. It would also pose risks that are both environmental – such as difficult-to-predict changes to rainfall patterns – and social – such as the potential for international disagreement regarding its implementation.

The potential role of private actors in SCE is unclear. On the one hand, decisions regarding whether and how to intentionally alter the planet’s climate should be made through legitimate state-based processes. On the other hand, the private sector has long been the site of great innovation, which SCE technology development requires. Such private innovation is both stimulated and governed through governmental intellectual property (IP) policies. Notably, SCE is not a typical emerging technology and might warrant novel IP policies. For example, some observers have argued that SCE should be a patent-free endeavor.

In order to clarify the potential role of IP in SCE (focusing on patents, trade secrets, and research data), Jorge Contreras of the University of Utah, Joshua Sarnoff of DePaul University, and I wrote an article that was recently accepted and scheduled for publication by the Minnesota Journal of Law, Science & Technology.  The article explains the need for coordinated and open licensing and data sharing policies in the SCE technology space.

SCE research today is occurring primarily at universities and other traditional research institutions, largely through public funding. However, we predict that private actors are likely to play a growing role in developing products and services to serve large scale SCE research and implementation, most likely through public procurement arrangements. The prospect of such future innovation should be not stifled through restrictive IP policies. At the same time, we identify several potential challenges for SCE technology research, development, and deployment that are related to rights in IP and data for such technologies. Some of these challenges have been seen in regard to other emerging technologies, such as the risk that excessive early patenting would lead to a patent thicket with attendant anti-commons effects. Others are more particular to SCE, such as oft-expressed concerns that holders of valuable patents might unduly attempt to influence public policy regarding SCE implementation. Fortunately, a review of existing patents, policies, and practices reveals a current opportunity that may soon be lost.   There are presently only a handful of SCE-specific patents; research is being undertaken transparently and at traditional institutions; and SCE researchers are generally sharing their data.

After reviewing various options and proposals, we make tentative suggestions to manage SCE IP and data. First, an open technical framework for SCE data sharing should be established. Second, SCE researchers and their institutions should develop and join an IP pledge community.  They would pledge, among other things, to not assert SCE patents to block legitimate SCE research and development activities, to share their data, to publish in peer reviewed scientific journals, and to not retain valuable technical information as trade secrets. Third, an international panel—ideally with representatives from relevant national and regional patent offices—should monitor and assess SCE patenting activity and make policy recommendations. We believe that such policies could head off potential problems regarding SCE IP rights and data sharing, yet could feasibly be implemented within a relatively short time span.

Our article, “Solar Climate Engineering and Intellectual Property: Toward a Research Commons,” is available online as a preliminary version. We welcome comments, especially in the next couple months as we revise it for publication later this year.

07/08/2013

Research Handbook on Climate Change Adaptation Law

This is the cover of the Research Handbook on Climate Change Adaptation Law, that was just published by Edward Elgar Publishers. So far, legal research has mostly focused on mitigation. Some adaptation topics are well covered through individual papers and law journal articles. This is especially true for adaptation in the fields of water management and biodiversity conservation, coastal adaptation, and climate induced displacement. Other topics are not, or hardly, covered, if so only in scattered papers. With this book I want to provide a full overview of current adaptation law scholarship on all topics, in all relevant sectors. To date there is one other book that also addresses the whole emerging field of adaptation law: ‘The Law of Adaptation to Climate Change: United States and International Aspects’, edited by Michael Gerrard and Katrina Fischer Kuh, published by the American Bar Association. As the title indicates, this book as a primary focus on the US. My book takes a transnational perspective, i.e., an approach which is detached from a specific domestic legal system, but instead focuses on generic issues, using examples from across the world. In the introduction, adaptation and its various forms are explained, as well as the relationship between adaptation and mitigation, and the main questions that are addressed in the book: What are the legal challenges and barriers to climate change adaptation and how can they be overcome? What can be done within existing legal frameworks, and where are new or adapted frameworks needed? The second chapter gives an overview of the role of adaptation in current international and regional climate law and policy. The third chapter, by Rosemary Lyster (University of Sydney), can also be seen as an introductory chapter as it deals with justice issues. Then, we the book dives into a series of more specific topics: climate change induced displacement (Mariya Gromilova & Nicola Jägers, Tilburg Law School), adaptation and compensation (Michael Faure, Maastricht University), adaptation and disaster law (Dewald van Niekerk, North West University), adaptation and public health law (Lindsay F. Wiley, Washington College of Law), adaptation and agricultural and forestry law (Robert W. Adler, University of Utah), adaptation and water law (by me), adaptation and marine and coastal law (Tim Stephens, University of Sydney), adaptation and biodiversity law (Arie Trouwborst, Tilburg Law School), adaptation and land use planning law (Keith H. Hirokawa, Albany Law School, and Jonathan Rosenbloom, Drake Law School), adaptation and green building (Keith H. Hirokawa and Aurelia Marina Pohrib, Albany Law School), adaptation and environmental and pollution control law (me again), adaptation and electricity infrastructure (Rosemary Lyster and Rebekah Byrne, University of Sydney). The contributions to this book show that, although adaptation receives a growing amount of attention, both in practice and in academia, adaptation law is only just starting to emerge. In most instances, there are some plans or policies aimed at adaptation in various fields, usually those fields that already have to deal with increasing problems, such as storm water management and flood management. An adaptation of the laws still has to start. It is obvious that existing laws have to be assessed on their ability to facilitate adaptation. This is a huge undertaking because there is hardly any field that is not affected by climate change. All laws and regulations that in any possible way organize society have to be ‘climate proofed’, laws regarding agriculture, forestry, fisheries, energy and telecommunications infrastructure, water management, air quality, industrial installations, nature conservation, buildings, transport infrastructure, public health, migration, disaster management, coastal defenses, etc. Although research on adaptation law, so far, has mainly concentrated on specific sectors, some overarching conclusions can be drawn: every field faces specific climate change impacts and needs specific adaptations, adaptations that also need to vary according to local circumstances. In various chapters, examples are presented of how existing laws are effectively applied to create resilience or to otherwise prepare for extreme weather events or other climate change impacts. Often, though, existing legislation needs to be adapted so that the competent authorities are obliged to plan for and take adaptation measures. The EU, for example, has just embarked on an ambitious programme to climate proof all existing Directives and Regulations. In 2013, the first climate proofed piece of EU legislation is expected to be adopted (a revised Directive on environmental impact assessment). It will probably take at least ten years before the entire body of EU law has been climate proofed. Similar programmes will have to be set up on all levels of government: international, regional, national/federal, provincial/regional and local. Since many impacts of climate change will be local impacts, and since these impacts can greatly vary from one location to another, it is important that at the local level the authorities take the lead in local adaptation programmes. At that level, planning law probably is the most important instrument in the authorities’ adaptation toolkit. Higher levels of government have to ensure that the authorities at the local level have sufficient room for manoeuvre. For adaptation issues at the higher levels, i.e., at the level of transboundary river basins, national or transboundary coastal areas, international marine areas, regional or international migration and others, international institutions will have to take the lead and coordinate international adaptation efforts. At all levels, issues of equity and justice arise and need to be incorporated into the law-making process. And yes… this blog will become more active as of now!!!