We conducted case studies in Ecuador to assess subnational governments' implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and to identify factors linked with successful implementation. ...We anticipated resources to be the main limiting factor, yet the record of implementation is not as closely tied to the availability of financial and human resources as might be expected in a developing country. Governments, in diverse sociopolitical and economic contexts, do have alternatives to implement multilateral environmental agreements. The type of development leaders promote and the priority they grant to environmental issues determine the use of available resources. We also observed the significant role played by local, national, and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and funding agencies in circulating biodiversity messages and spurring the elaboration of policies as well as on the ground projects. This picture would suggest to enhance awareness-raising trainings and to explore further the role of collaboration between governments and NGOs at local scales.
► Human well-being depends on multiple ecosystem services, many of them being underpinned by biodiversity. ► Biodiversity continues to be lost at an unprecedented rate. ► Decision-makers and ...policy-makers require sound scientific foundation to secure the planet's biodiversity and ecosystem services, while contributing to human well-being and poverty eradication. ► The new DIVERSITAS vision is built around four main research challenges to help guide the global research community towards this foundation.
DIVERSITAS, the international programme on biodiversity science, is releasing a strategic vision presenting scientific challenges for the next decade of research on biodiversity and ecosystem services: “Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Science for a Sustainable Planet”. This new vision is a response of the biodiversity and ecosystem services scientific community to the accelerating loss of the components of biodiversity, as well as to changes in the biodiversity science-policy landscape (establishment of a Biodiversity Observing Network—GEO BON, of an Intergovernmental science-policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services—IPBES, of the new Future Earth initiative; and release of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011–2020). This article presents the vision and its core scientific challenges.
A state's articulation of its national role betrays its preferences and an image of the world, triggers expectations, and influences the definition of the situation and of available options. ...Extending Kal Holsti's early work on the usefulness of the concept of role, Role Quests in the Post-Cold War Era examines the nature, evolution, and origins of role conceptions, key aspects largely ignored in a literature obsessed with the quest for immediate relevance. For each country contributors present the major foreign policy debate that took place at the end of the Cold War and examine, through an analysis of major speeches, the relative weight of identity and international status in the definition of the national role.
Abstract
This collection of essays brings together scholars from various disciplinary backgrounds, based on three continents, with different theoretical and methodological interests but all active on ...the topic of complex systems as applied to international relations. They investigate how complex systems have been and can be applied in practice and what differences it makes for the study of international affairs. Two important threads link all the contributions: (i) To which extent is this approach promising to understand global governance dynamics? (ii) How can this be implemented in practice?
Biodiversity targets after 2010 Mace, Georgina M; Cramer, Wolfgang; Díaz, Sandra ...
Current opinion in environmental sustainability,
05/2010, Letnik:
2, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
The bold commitment made by the world's governments to reduce the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010 will soon be tested. On the basis of the continuing declines measured by most indicators, it now ...seems inevitable that the outcome will be that it has not been achieved. Here, in order to build on the momentum created by the 2010 target, we propose a shift away from a large set of static targets towards a smaller number of specific targets. Specifically, we present three categories of targets (red, green and blue) with examples of each. These relate respectively to (1) those biodiversity outcomes that must be avoided to avert situations that are deleterious for people, (2) the highly valued biodiversity conservation priorities, and (3) an improved scientific understanding necessary for adaptive management now and into the future.
Who is afraid of the state? Smith, Gordon S; Wolfish, Daniel
Who is afraid of the state?,
c2001, 20011022, 2001, 2014, 2001-01-01
eBook
The essays in this collection argue that ? contrary to some private-sector populists ? the state is in the best position to lead in making policy in a rapidly changing world and should retain and ...refine this responsibility.
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