Current regulatory approaches have not prevented the loss of biodiversity across the world. This book explores the scope to strengthen conservation by using different legal mechanisms such as biodiversity offsetting, payment for ecosystem services and conservation covenants, as well as tradable development rights and taxation. The authors discuss how such mechanisms introduce elemhents of a market approach as well as private sector initiative and resources. They show how examples already in operation serve to highlight the design challenges, legal, technical and ethical, that must be overcome if these mechanisms are to be effective and widely accepted.

This updated text takes account of all legislative changes since 1993 and brings together the various parts of the law in Scotland governing nature conservation to guide all who share a professional interest in the subject.

This Handbook is the first comprehensive account of comparative environmental law. It examines in detail the methodological foundations of the discipline as well as the substance of environmental law across countries from four vantage points: country studies from all continents, responses to common problems (including air pollution, water management, nature conservation, genetically modified organisms, climate change and energy, chemicals, waste), foundational components of environmental law systems (including principles, property rights, administrative and judicial organisation, command-and-control regulation, market mechanisms, informational techniques and liability mechanisms), and common interactions of environmental protection with the broader public, private, and criminal law contexts. The volume brings together the foremost authorities in this field from around the world to provide a concise, self-contained, and technically rigorous account of environmental law as a single overall system.

Harnessing Foreign Investment to Promote Environmental Protection investigates the main challenges facing the implementation of environmental protection and the synergies between foreign investment and environmental protection. Adopting legal, economic and political perspectives, the contributing authors analyse the various incentives which encourage foreign investment into pro-environment projects (such as funds, project-finance, market mechanisms, payments-for-ecosystem services and insurance) and the safeguards against its potentially harmful effects (investment regulation, CSR and accountability mechanisms, contracts and codes of conduct).

'Hungry Corporations' offers a detailed account of how huge agrochemical corporations have come to control the food chain, exposing their influence over governments, regulatory bodies and university research.

One of the cornerstones of life's wonders is the vast array of species filling the planet. From plants to animals to humans, there is no shortage of beings to provide 'spice of life' variety is said to be. Periodically, scientists announce the discovery of a 'new' form of life, so it seems as if Earth is capable of producing new species just to keep us on our toes. At times, the immense breadth of living things can even feel overwhelming, as one pauses to ponder how numerically insignificant humans are when compared to the insect population. Given the biological diversity of the planet, it is incumbent upon humans to safeguard the natural beauty of the environment. To that end, conservation takes on special importance, necessitating the balancing of industrial expansion with preserving the flora and fauna surrounding us. This book is an important tool in understanding and researching the many different life forms spanning the globe. Collected here is a substantial and carefully selected listing of relevant literature on biological diversity and its conservation. Following this bibliography are author, title, and subject indexes to allow for further access to this information. The sheer bulk of the works about biological diversity can be so intimidating that a book such as this one becomes useful in sorting through the resources about the importance of life's variety.

This work presents a thorough analysis of the biodiversity concept in international law and commentary on the 1992 United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity which was opened for signature following the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development. This Convention is the first international treaty explicitly to address all aspects of biodiversity ranging from the conservation and sustainable use of biological resources, to access to biotechnology and the safety of activities related to modified living organisms. The work extends beyond the ambit of the Convention itself to examine the conservation of biodiversity in international law generally, including measures for the protection of the terrestrial, marine and Antarctic environment and particular features relating to sustainable use of biological resources, ex-situ conservation and plant genetic resources. It further analyses the controversial issue of intellectual property rights, the problems of implementation in the European Union and the United States, differences between developing and developed states and the role of indigenous peoples. This major new work has been written by members of the Committee on Environmental Law of the British Branch of the International Law Association following an earlier study on the subject of International Law and Global Climate Change (Graham & Trotman, 1991). It is the first major study of the Convention of the context in which it was negotiated, and of the prospects for its implementation, following the entry into force of the Convention on 29 December 1993.

Farmers around the world are being pressured by half a dozen giant corporations to grow genetically engineered crops. What are the possible downsides for them, particularly for those hundreds of millions of farmers living in developing countries? On their environment? On their health? On their independence? On their traditional export crops? On their access to the marketplaces of their own countries? This important book comes out of a dialogue between farmers' representatives and experts. The result is a clear statement of principles and urgently needed measures which should guide governments and communities in bringing this profit-motivated deployment of scientific power under democratic control.

Originally published in 1999 The Commercial Use of Biodiversity examines how biodiversity and the genetic material it contains are now as valuable resources. Access to genetic resources and their commercial development involve a wide range of parties such as conservation and research institutes, local communities, government agencies and companies. Equitable partnerships are not only crucial to conservation and economic development but are also in the interests of business and often required by law. In this authoritative and comprehensive volume, the authors explain the provisions of the Convention on Biological Diversity on access and benefit-sharing, the effect of national laws to implement these, and aspects of typical contracts for the transfer of materials. They provide a unique sector-by-sector analysis of how genetic resources are used, the scientific, technological and regulatory trends and the different markets in Pharmaceuticals, Botanical Medicines, Crop Development, Horticulture, Crop Protection, Biotechnology (in fields other than healthcare and agriculture) and Personal Care and Cosmetics Products. This will be an essential sourcebook for all those in the commercial chain, from raw material collection to product discovery, development and marketing, for governments and policy-makers drafting laws on access and for all the institutions, communities and individuals involved in the conservation, use, study and commercialisation of genetic resources.