The ecological covenant approach to international biodiversity regimes : transformative aspects of global governance for sustainability

Abstract

Fear of losing their own biological resources has attracted states’ attention to secure their biological property. Territorial sovereignty related to private property doctrine is unquestionable as the privilege to nation-states to protect their integral boundaries. Nevertheless, sovereignty alone cannot ensure the safety of citizens from global environmental harms or prevent the impact of the erosion of territorial biodiversity from various outside factors. For the forty years since 1972, the result of these factors has caused cleavage in global biodiversity governance between North and South nations. However, the new dialogue of the existing biodiversity legal regimes based on neo-liberalism has emerged in consistency with globalization and free trade for the enclosure of the earth's biodiversity commons into a few groups. Under this construction, nation-states have cooperated and established biodiversity institutions to secure their interests. Rules and policies have been set and guaranteed by the contractual agreement. In order to gain an agreed consent, the contractual convention needs to maximize exclusive rights, and minimizes common (but differentiated) responsibilities. Thus, state's cooperation as to a spirit of global partnership to protect the integrity of the earth's ecosystem is difficult to be achieved. In the today’s Anthropocene era, humanity's activities have made significant impact to the biosphere system in both local and global levels. As a part of the earth life-supporting system, biodiversity sustains resilient ecosystems that maintain human communities. Biodiversity as a fundamental element of all life forms and humans supports the biosphere. This is distinct from natural resources. Regarding biosphere collapse, it is our human activities that have emerged as a major force. It is our activities that have and continue to have a significant impact on the operation of the biosphere. Thus, the conceptual framework reconnecting human development and activities to the biosphere has brought a call to address this impending crisis. Reconciling human community with the biotic community requires a new shift from the anthropocentric paradigm to the eco-centric paradigm at the local and global scale. To avoid the tragedy of the mismanagement of the earth commons, transformative aspects of global governance for sustainability is necessary to be reconsidered. Instead of focusing on individual interests, governing the earth commons must be based on the common heritage doctrine within ecological limitation and resilience. The call for a commitment to reconnecting relationship between humans and the earth's community is attainable, only if mutual restraint is agreed upon and put towards practices. Therefore, in this thesis, notion of the ecological covenant aims to capture legal and virtuous ethics as agreement which are beyond the notion of the social contract and compact. It is believed that the approach might create a new version for the environmentally constitutional agreement to join the global citizens together in a way forward to achieve global sustainability.