Global assessment Chapter 6: Options for decision makers

In recent decades, the extent and scope of societal responses to environmental problems, including biodiversity decline, have been extensive and diverse. The outcomes, however, have been mixed across sectors and levels of governance, with limited success in reverting global trends and in addressing the root causes of degradation. Lessons and opportunities also abound, amid new challenges and scenarios. This chapter discusses opportunities and challenges for all decision makers to advance their efforts in meeting, synergistically, internationally agreed goals for sustainable development, biodiversity conservation, and climate change mitigation and adaptation. In doing so, the chapter builds on the analysis in the previous chapters, which have identified direct and indirect drivers of change, evaluated progress or lack of progress in achieving the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and several environmental conventions, and assessed plausible scenarios and possible pathways

The Legitimacy of Certification Standards in Climate Change Governance

This article explores the role of two private steering mechanisms, the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and the Climate, Community and Biodiversity Alliance (CCBA), in REDD+, the climate change mitigation policy that aims to avoid deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries. It does so by analyzing input and output legitimacy of the two certification standards at the global level, and at national and local levels in Peru. The findings show an increasing interest among REDD+ actors in using these standards, and a relatively large number of Peruvian REDD+ projects that are certified by the FSC or CCBA. The findings also suggest intrinsic linkages between input and output legitimacy of the FSC and CCBA within single governance levels and across different scales. The article also demonstrates the added value of studying the legitimacy of policy instruments, such as the FSC and CCBA, in a specific context such as REDD+. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environmen

Institutionalization of REDD+ MRV in Indonesia, Peru, and Tanzania : progress and implications

Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries (REDD+) has opened up a new global discussion on forest monitoring and carbon accounting in developing countries. We analyze and compare the extent to which the concept of measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV) for REDD+ has become institutionalized in terms of new policy discourses, actors, resources, and rules in Indonesia, Peru, and Tanzania. To do so, we draw on discursive institutionalism and the policy arrangement approach. A qualitative scale that distinguishes between "shallow" institutionalization on the one end, and "deep" institutionalization on the other, is developed to structure the analysis and comparison. Results show that in all countries MRV has become institutionalized in new or revised aims, scope, and strategies for forest monitoring, and development of new agencies and mobilization of new actors and resources. New legislations to anchor forest monitoring in law and procedures to institutionalize the roles of the various agencies are being developed. Nevertheless, the extent to which MRV has been institutionalized varies across countries, with Indonesia experiencing "deep" institutionalization, Peru "shallow-intermediate" institutionalization, and Tanzania "intermediate-deep" institutionalization. We explore possible reasons for and consequences of differences in extent of institutionalization of MRV across countries.Peer reviewe

Mainstreaming the Animal in Biodiversity Governance: Broadening the Moral and Legal Community to Nonhumans

The individual animal has often been neglected in biodiversity governance debates, with animals mainly considered in terms of species, biodiversity, wildlife or natural resources. Indeed, and somewhat counterintuitively, biodiversity governance is not always animal-friendly. Think, for example, of the issues of wildlife management, (“sport”) hunting, captive breeding, reintroduction and relocation of endangered species, and the use of animal testing in conservation research (De Mori, 2019). For some issues, the relationship is more complex, for example the “management” of Invasive Alien Species (IAS), which is detrimental to the individuals of the species considered “invasive” but beneficial to native species and habitats (Barkham, 2020). Elsewhere, economic development and incentives impact both biodiversity and animal concerns, such as the negative effects of animal agriculture (see Visseren-Hamakers, 2018a; 2020 for more detailed overviews of these relationships). How can we transform biodiversity governance in order to incorporate individual animal interests (Bernstein, 2015)? That is the central question of this chapter

Will REDD+ work? The need for interdisciplinary research to address key challenges

In this article, we draw on the contributions to this issue to address the question ‘Will REDD+ work?’. We do so by differentiating between how, where and when REDD+ might work. The article shows how issues of scope, scale and pace of REDD+ are related, and how interdisciplinary research can help to distill the lessons learned from REDD+ efforts currently underway. Important research areas include the drivers of deforestation and forest degradation, monitoring, reporting and verification, co-benefits, governance capacity, linkages with related policies, and the environmental and social impacts of REDD+. In concluding, we highlight the role of interdisciplinary research in supporting the different actors involved in REDD+ to cope with the inherent heterogeneity and complexity of REDD+

Synergies among social safeguards in FLEGT and REDD+ in Cameroon

Synergies among social safeguards in FLEGT and REDD plus in CameroonPeer reviewe

Enabling Transformative Biodiversity Governance in the post-2020 Era

While there are increasing calls for transformative change and transformative governance, what this means in the context of addressing biodiversity loss remains debated. The aim of this edited volume Transforming Biodiversity Governance is to open up this debate and identify ways forward in the context of the implementation of the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). To become transformative, biodiversity governance needs to be transformed: yet how and by whom? These questions are urgent, given the fact that around one million species are threatened with extinction (Díaz et al., 2019), despite over half a century of global efforts to avoid this tragedy

Identifying Key Factors for Accelerating the Transition to Animal-Testing-Free Medical Science through Co-Creative, Interdisciplinary Learning between Students and Teachers

Even with the introduction of the replacement, reduction, refinement (the three Rs) approach and promising technological developments in animal-testing-free alternatives over the past two decades, a significant number of animal tests are still performed in medical science today. This article analyses which factors could accelerate the transition to animal-free medical science, applying the multi-level perspective (MLP) framework. The analysis was based on qualitative research, including a desk study (literature review and document analysis), lectures from experts, and nine online focus group sessions with experts on 26 July 2021. These were undertaken as part of an honours project between May and September 2021 to identify barriers, levers, and opportunities for accelerating this transition. The MLP framework identifies required changes at three levels: innovations and new practices (niche level), the current (bio)medical research system (regime level), and larger societal forces (landscape level). All three levels interact in a non-linear fashion. The model enabled us to identify many relevant factors influencing the transition to animal-testing-free medical science and enabled priority setting. Our findings supported the formulation of six "focus areas" to which stakeholders could devote efforts in order to accelerate the transition to animal-testing-free medical science: (1) thorough and translatable new approach methods (NAMs) for human-relevant medical research; (2) open science and sharing data; (3) targeted funding for NAMs; (4) implementing and modernising legislation for NAMs; (5) interdisciplinary education on animal-testing-free medical science; and (6) facilitating a shift in societal views, as this would be of benefit to both animals and humans. It is proposed that these focus areas should be implemented in parallel