Law Commons^™

New Paradigms For Protection Of Biodiversity, Srividhya Ragavan

Faculty Scholarship

The most successful bioprospecting venture was established in 1989 in Costa Rica. Interestingly, the distinction of being a forerunner in exploiting bioprospecting goes to India. In 1979, a full decade before Costa Rica, India established the TBGRI (Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute) at Trivandrum.

Yet, the TBGRI venture with the Kani Tribes, which had the potential to become a beacon of bioprospecting success, is showcased as the exemplar of failure. In this era of trade regime, the following paper asserts, bioprospecting ventures are important tools for developing countries. Countries like India and organizations like the TBGRI should learn from …

Earth Jurisprudence: The Moral Value Of Nature, Judith E. Koons

Faculty Scholarship

As planetary environmental crises advance toward us like an enormous oil spill, the call of Earth Jurisprudence has arisen, suggesting that a shift is necessary in the way that we think about law, governance, and nature. A predicate to rethinking law, however, is to reconsider the moral status of nature. This article posits that, to preserve a healthy planet for future generations of human beings - and for Earth itself - it is necessary to recognize Earth as the center of the moral community. As an ethical endeavor, the article turns the question of the moral status of nature through …

Slides: Protecting Biodiversity Through Ecosystem Services, Barton "Buzz" Thompson

Shifting Baselines and New Meridians: Water, Resources, Landscapes, and the Transformation of the American West (Summer Conference, June 4-6)

Presenter: Barton “Buzz” Thompson, Perry L. McCarty Director, Woods Institute for the Environment, Stanford University Law School

14 slides

Slides: The Future Of Energy: What Are The Major Projections For The U.S. Energy Future, And What Are The Implications For The West?, Gary Bryner

Shifting Baselines and New Meridians: Water, Resources, Landscapes, and the Transformation of the American West (Summer Conference, June 4-6)

Presenter: Gary Bryner, Brigham Young University, Department of Political Science

9 slides

Agenda: Shifting Baselines And New Meridians: Water, Resources, Landscapes, And The Transformation Of The American West, University Of Colorado Boulder. Natural Resources Law Center

Shifting Baselines and New Meridians: Water, Resources, Landscapes, and the Transformation of the American West (Summer Conference, June 4-6)

The Center’s 29th annual conference will focus on the changes in the West resulting from rapid population growth, development, disrupted historical weather patterns and the effects of those changes on land, water, and energy resources. Speakers and panelists will address the adaptability of the legal and political institutions and how the transformation of the West may foreshadow fundamental changes to these institutions.

The agenda includes panel discussions that will address:

• Water for the 21^st Century —the big questions in Western water and rethinking Western water law.
• The Future of Energy —practical and sophisticated solutions to overcome the energy …

Slides: Energy Production And The West's Wild Places, Amy Mall

Shifting Baselines and New Meridians: Water, Resources, Landscapes, and the Transformation of the American West (Summer Conference, June 4-6)

Presenter: Amy Mall, Senior Policy Analyst, Natural Resources Defense Council

28 slides

Management Plans And State Of Environment Reports Prepared And Implemented By Local Councils In Nsw: Problems And Potential For Biodiversity Conservation, Andrew H. Kelly

Faculty of Law - Papers (Archive)

The Local Government Act 1993 (NSW) demands every local council in NSW to prepare, inter alia, a ‘management plan’ and a ‘state of the environment report’. This paper critically examines both mechanisms and the relationship between them. Discussion is underpinned by the context of biodiversity conservation at the local level. Whilst good intentions lie behind the legislative requirements, their environmental benefits are questionable. They are often recognised as little more than bothersome bureaucratic hurdles. Although overdue legislative and policy change is forthcoming, concern is raised about loss of focus on the conserving biodiversity.

Biodiversity, Baking And Boiling, Endangered Species Act Turning Down The Heat, Anna T. Moritz, Kassie R. Siegel, Brendan R. Cummings, William H. Rodgers, Jr.

Articles

Today the Earth faces an extinction event on a scale second only to Earth's largest mass extinction, the Permian-Triassic event, which occurred 250 million years ago. Upwards of 70 percent of the Earth's species could be at risk of extinction with a 3.5°C (6.3°F) rise in temperature, which could occur by the end of this century.

The driver is global warming, caused by anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. As such, a rational climate policy is needed immediately to prevent the complete collapse of biodiversity. Yet, the United States—the world's largest cumulative contributor to emissions—is in a state of paralysis when it …

Bridging Data Gaps Through Modeling And Evaluation Of Surrogates: Use Of The Best Available Science To Protect Biological Diversity Under The National Forest Management Act, Robert L. Glicksman

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

The implementation of environmental law and policy typically proceeds in the face of scientific uncertainty. Despite this pervasive uncertainty, Congress has directed environmental and resource management agencies to ground their policy decisions in science. Agencies sometimes cope with the paradox of making science-based decisions in the face of uncertainty by using scientific models or other surrogacy techniques to simulate reality. Such simulation enables agencies to conform to their statutory responsibilities to base decisions on scientific considerations, even though a complete understanding of the relationships between their actions and the resulting environmental effects may be beyond their current capabilities.

This article …