107 research outputs found
Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems: An Examination of Their Context in Existing Multilateral Instruments Dealing with Conservation and Land Tenure
No full textThe United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (UN FAO) is examining mechanisms to protect the diversity of traditional agricultural systems operating around the world. The project is entitled GIAHS—Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems. This article, being the first of two dealing with GIAHS, is based on a report written by the author for the UN FAO in August 2005.2 It analyzes the international legal and policy matrix to assess the level of existing support for GIAHS and to ascertain the gaps in that support. This article focuses on conservation and land tenure and the second will examine intellectual property rights, trade issues, and potential mechanisms to secure the persistence of GIAHS.
The approach taken is to deal with particularly relevant aspects of the international regulatory regime rather than to iterate comprehensive details that might, perforce, encompass considerable quantities of text concerned
with marginally relevant instruments. Further, there are a number of soft instruments that are not mentioned or dealt with in any detail herein but which support the concept of GIAHS. These are not ignored through lack of value; rather, they have given rise to other expressions of their principles in subsequent instruments, which are dealt with herein. An example of this is the World Charter for Nature,3 which contains text supportive of the concept of GIAHS and which has acted as the foundation for development of an enlightened international approach to the human relationship with the natural world. There are also many instruments functioning at the regional level that are beyond the scope of this analysis.4 For the present, it is appropriate to indicate that regional law and policy will be relevant in context-specific cases
as GIAHS sites are established and prior analysis of regional and national laws and policies will be required in each case
The Illegal Wildlife Trade and Deep Green Criminology: Two Case Studies of Fur and Falcon Trade in the Russian Federation
No full textTrade-offs between Animal Welfare and Conservation in Law and Policy
No full textReconciling the views of animal ethicists and scientific conservationists meets epistemological problems (Perry & Perry, 2008). Indeed, bridging the divide between animal ethics and animal welfare science can be a difficult enough
task, even without the added complication of animal conservation (Fraser,1999). Once animals reach a minimum level of phylo-genetic sophistication that is assumed to give rise to a capacity to suffer, they can be attributed rights. Furthermore, their status can be measured with reference to their sentience, which in turn can require animals to be considered on an individual basis. By contrast, the conservation scientist often has a very ifferent perspective and only needs to focus attention on individual animals when deploying research methods that require counting or tagging individual animals, or where a population has been reduced to very small numbers. Consequently, when conservation scientists descend below habitats or ecosystem diversity, or rise above genetic diversity, their lowest common denominator is most likely to be at the species, subspecies or population levels. Given these different perspectives, this chapter first analyzes the relationship between animal welfare concerns and conservation strategies and, second, seeks to prescribe scope for trade-offs where the two perspectives are in conflict
Wild animal welfare in international law: the present position and the scope for development
No full textWild animal welfare is a global subject and yet international regulation and policy dealing with welfare is sparse and in places idiosyncratic. Nevertheless, there is potential to develop a comprehensive and coherent international wild animal welfare regime in law and policy derived from the propositions in the World Charter for Nature that life has intrinsic value and deserves ‘respect’. Beyond that, the Convention in International Trade in Endangered Species establishes a principle – in the context of international trade but with potential for wider application – that welfare protection should be extended to wild animals under human control. However, further development is more problematic. Although the International Whaling Commission to a minor extent regulates the welfare of hunted whales, there is no universal approach to extending welfare to freely living animals in international law and policy. This article analyses this background and goes on to recommend a way in which international policy may overcome the challenges of polarised debate and the gulf between moral relativism and moral universalism to develop the foundations of a comprehensive welfare regime at the international level
Climate Change, Conservation And The Place For Wild Animal Welfare In International
No full textThere is an epistemological gulf between animal welfare and nature conservation that has, for the most part, frustrated a practical working relationship. Welfare components are scarce in international wildlife management law and are typically subordinate to conservation objectives. However, predictions concerning the combined effect of climate change and biodiversity decline describe a shrinking of the ‘wild’ and a reduction of natural habitats. The necessary conservation responses to this may force more species into controlled conditions and increase the need for conservation interventions that have an impact on the welfare of animals. In these circumstances the need to inject compassion into conservation law and policy becomes much greater. This article explores the trajectory of conservation and welfare legislation in the context of predicted climate changes and in so doing foresees the need for a more comprehensive and sophisticated international regulatory regime setting out animal welfare standards to support future conservation strategies
Living in harmony With Nature’? Outcomes of the 2010 Nagoya Conference of the Convention on Biological Diversity
No full textThe decline of biological diversity continues at speed and the consequent degradation of habitats and ecosystem structures, coupled with climate change, may constitute one of the greatest challenges that human civilisation has ever faced. The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)
was created to facilitate the reversing of biodiversity loss. Although a hard convention, its strategy has been to rely primarily on non-obligatory instruments in the form of targets to achieve its objectives. The CBD’s 2010 targets were not achieved. In November 2010 in Nagoya the 10th conference of its parties was held and, among other outputs, new targets were agreed and one new hard law protocol was finalised. This article examines these principal outputs and evaluates their capacity to fulfil the new CBD vision: ‘Living in Harmony with Nature’
Conserving pangolins through international and national regulation and effective law enforcement
No full textThis chapter introduces the history of range state legal regimes of relevance to pangolin conservation. It examines relevant, “hard” and “soft” international law and assesses their application to conserving pangolins. It details aspects of implementation of international law and the establishment of local laws to protect pangolins; in so doing, it also emphasises the need for cross border cooperation. The chapter then addresses complexities of conservation, from the local to cross-border levels within the poaching-trade life cycle: examining incentives, dis-incentives, deterrents and the wider nature of effective law enforcement. Finally, it scrutinizes deterrents at the higher, global level; advocating that wildlife crime must be regarded in a comparable vein to issues of national security because of its linkages with corruption, money-laundering and other types of syndicated, global crime. The chapter concludes by examining the relevance of the calls to tackle illegal wildlife trade by “following the money.
Comparing different national regulatory approaches to the practice of hunting wild animals with Dogs.
No full textInterventions for information systems introduction in the NHS
No full textThis article provides a historical review of five long-term interventions which were undertaken within the NHS. The objective of the exercise was to examine how information systems (IS) were introduced into operational environments. The length of the interventions ranged from 9 months to almost 3 years. The five sites were all at different stages of system development and the research was carried out using a combination of participant observation and action research. The research question asks, 'How can organizations think about and hence go about their information provision in such a way that successful IS are introduced?
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