Oorgrens-biodiversiteitsregulering in die Antroposeen

Transboundary governance of biodiversity in the Anthropocene Today scientists believe that we might have crossed over from the Holocene epoch into the Anthropocene epoch.Anthropocene informally denotes a new time in geo-ecological history where humans, through the introduction of biophysical factors into the biosphere, are changing the parameters that determine the functioning of all earth system processes. In the Anthropocene epoch the earth system is considered to be moving outside the range of the natural variability it has exhibited over the last half million years, as a result of anthropogenic changes to the earth system. The various changes to key earth system processes, their LitNet Akademies, Jaargang 11, Nommer 2, Augustus 2014 127 magnitudes and rates of change, are unprecedented, with the result that the earth is arguably currently operating in a non-analogical state. The precipitous increasing human imprint on the environment, as suggested by the Anthropocene, is particularly visible in, among others, biodiversity loss. Biodiversity is essential to sustain human and non-human life on earth, to maintain ecosystem integrity and health, and to ensure the stability and resilience of other earth systems. Today there is sufficient evidence that humans have transformed more than three quarters of the terrestrial biosphere into anthropogenic biomes. These anthropogenic transformations of the terrestrial biosphere are causing unprecedented global changes in biodiversity as native species are driven to extinction locally and globally, and domestic and exotic species are rapidly becoming established. One of the challenges of the Anthropocene is that it requires of humans to develop resilience to finite-planet vulnerabilities, and through their institutions of law and governance, to adequately respond to anthropogenic ecological changes that will severely affect all life on earth or possibly even lead to a mass extinction event. To avoid critical tipping points in the earth system that might lead to rapid and irreversible change, the Anthropocene goes to the heart of issues of survival and the continuation of life by means of preventive, mitigation and adaptation strategies through our broader social structures including economics, politics, culture, religion and more specifically, our legal structures. It is an urgent call for unprecedented regulatory intervention, simply because humans cannot remain oblivious to the risk of human-induced ecological disasters ranging from continental to planetary scales. The nature of emerging forms of risk in the Anthropocene must compel state and non-state actors to embark urgently on re-imagined, progressive and comprehensive institutional efforts (including law and governance institutions) that should be used to effect deep changes in behaviour vis-a-vis the environment. Far-reaching institutional interventions are unavoidable if we plan to survive the Anthropocene, and among other social interventions such as religion and economics, environmental law and governance will play an important role in mediating the human-environment interface in the Anthropocene. To this extent, law and environmental governance, in tandem with other interventions, should be used to halt or even reverse biodiversity loss, restore ecosystem health and integrity, and ensure that we return to the safe side of the planetary boundary rate for biodiversity loss. While further biodiversity loss and other forms of ecological decay will exacerbate the conditions that are leading to a state shift in the biosphere, the context of the Anthropocene specifically denotes that the governance of humans and their institutions should now be predominantly preoccupied with efforts striving for more effective environmental protection that must at the same time more pertinently seek to protect all forms of life on earth, including the biological diversity that sustains much of this life. Against this background, this article seeks to generally introduce the narrative of the Anthropocene into the transboundary biodiversity law and governance paradigm by showing what the arrival of the Anthropocene means for some aspects of transboundary biodiversity protection. It also identifies and briefly discusses two issues that would be important when considering a new paradigm for transboundary biodiversity protection in the Anthropocene. These issues include “new global environmental law and governance”, and “transnationality through connectivity”. With respect to “new global environmental governance”, what is required is a form of “new” environmental governance for biodiversity that moves its focus away from the dominant role of the state; that is more informal, deliberative and collective; that operates at various levels and in a transnational context; that consists of various state and non-state actors where the latter are afforded greater authority and legitimacy in global biodiversity law-making and governance efforts; and that is based on a pluralised body of laws that range from hard LitNet Akademies, Jaargang 11, Nommer 2, Augustus 2014 128 treaty law to softer, but equally relevant, regulatory arrangements such as codes of conduct, best practices and self-regulation. Ideally then, for global environmental governance of biodiversity in the Anthropocene to be more effective it will have to become disaggregated, more inclusive, less formal and more bottom-up. This arguably entails that states will have to relinquish some of their absolute power in law-making and governance related to biodiversity matters by providing non-state actors a greater voice and decision-making mandate in global biodiversity law and governance matters. At the same time non-state actors, who act outside the realm of public authority and are often under-resourced and under-represented, will have to rise to the occasion and, in partnership with states, assume a more prominent and legitimate role in global environmental governance of biodiversity resources. Notably, the merit of these propositions is supported by the call for a “new” form of biodiversity governance that must ideally facilitate connectivity conservation. The Anthropocene highlights the interconnectedness of natural earth processes, the interconnected nature of the environment, the reciprocity of its processes, and the many linked cause-and-effect relationships that exist on a global scale. It is concerned with the totality of the entire earth system. The interconnectedness of the earth system raises particular challenges for transnational biodiversity law because this body of law would ideally need to address a variety of challenges simultaneously, in an integrated or holistic way, not only in single countries individually, but also in all parts of the world collectively, now and in the future. Because we are no longer provoking changes in isolated systems only, the Anthropocene now requires a view of the environment in its most comprehensive totality (the global earth system) instead of the fragmentary approach that has been followed to date. In essence connectivity conservation seeks to respond to the fragmentation of habitats and landscapes that is caused by human activities and that leads to habitat degradation and loss. Because connectivity conservation is an important management tool for integrating protected areas into wider landscapes and seascapes as part of protected area systems and networks, it could serve as the conceptual basis for the design of a body of transnational biodiversity law that bears on holism. Used in the legal and governance context, connectivity conservation involves postulation of the idea that biodiversity should be managed through law and governance arrangements in a way that allows for the movement of organisms and material with the view to optimally maintaining ecological processes, and that they should not be hindered by human activities and obstruction. Transnational biodiversity law, because it would be a body of law with a very wide geography that corresponds to the earth system, could meaningfully contribute to countering those anthropogenic changes being made in natural connectivity through the development of land and resources that ultimately cause fragmentation and degradation.