Special Issue "The Law of Climate Change and Biodiversity Protection"
Quicklinks- Special Issue Editors
- Special Issue Information
- Keywords
- Published Papers
- Submitted Papers
- Planned Papers
A special issue of Diversity (ISSN 1424-2818).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 January 2012)
Special Issue Editor
Guest Editor
Prof. Dr. J.B. Ruhl
Law School, Vanderbilt University, 131 21st Avenue South, Nashville, TN 37203, USA
Website: http://law.vanderbilt.edu/faculty/faculty-detail/index.aspx?faculty_id=360
E-Mail: j.b.ruhl@vanderbilt.edu
Phone: +1 615 322 6500
Fax: +1 615 322 6631
Interests: climate change adaptation; ecosystem services; endangered species; complex systems theory; land use
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Biodiversity conservation law and policy has been built around an assumption that nature’s dynamic equilibrium, while incorporating change, fluctuates within a relatively stable envelope of variability. Climate change will render that “stationarity” assumption obsolete, meaning biodiversity law and policy over the next century will confront a no-analog future of transforming ecosystems and migrating species. What relevance will familiar policy concepts of preservation, natural conditions, historic baselines, and invasive species have over time as climate change intervenes to impose a regime of constant change across all ecological dimensions? What goals will law and policy set for public resource managers, and what conservation demands will the law place on private landowners? How can legal measures protect species likely to be doomed by climate change unless we intervene? These are pressing questions for biodiversity law and policy as climate change begins already to take hold and impose changes never before anticipated as requiring legal and policy attention, thus it is fitting that Diversity devote an issue to the topic of The Law of Climate Change and Biodiversity Protection.
Prof. Dr. J. B. Ru
Guest Editor
Submission
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. Papers will be published continuously (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are refereed through a peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Diversity is an international peer-reviewed Open Access quarterly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 500 CHF (Swiss Francs). English correction and/or formatting fees of 250 CHF (Swiss Francs) will be charged in certain cases for those articles accepted for publication that require extensive additional formatting and/or English corrections.
Keywords
- climate change
- biodiversity law
- stationarity
- invasive species
- preservation
- natural conditions
Published Papers (3 papers)
 Article:
Adaptive Management to Protect Biodiversity: Best Available Science and the Endangered Species Act
Diversity 2012, 4(2), 164-178; doi:10.3390/d4020164
Received: 13 February 2012; in revised form: 20 March 2012 / Accepted: 21 March 2012 / Published: 30 March 2012
Show/Hide Abstract
| Download PDF Full-text (228 KB) | Download XML Full-text |
|
Diversity 2012, 4(2), 224-238; doi:10.3390/d4020224
Received: 19 March 2012; in revised form: 9 May 2012 / Accepted: 14 May 2012 / Published: 18 May 2012
Show/Hide Abstract
| Download PDF Full-text (231 KB) | Download XML Full-text |
|
Diversity 2012, 4(3), 258-300; doi:10.3390/d4030258
Received: 21 April 2012; in revised form: 4 June 2012 / Accepted: 14 June 2012 / Published: 25 June 2012
Show/Hide Abstract
| Download PDF Full-text (474 KB) | Download XML Full-text |
Submitted Papers
Title: Adaptive Management to Protect Biodiversity, Best Available Science and the Endangered Species Act
Author: Olivia Odom Green and Ahjond S. Garmestani
Affiliation: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, National Risk Management Research Laboratory, 26 W. Martin Luther King Dr., Cincinnati, OH 45268, USA; E-Mail: garmestani.ahjond@epa.gov
Abstract: One means of broadening the goal of ESA to include protection of biodiversity is via the mandate to use the best available science to protect the specific species in question. If the best available science dictates broader habitat conservation, biodiversity may be protected as well. Because “best available science” is not defined in the ESA, courts use the Administrative Procedures Act to guide judicial review of agency actions. Such review grants wide deference to an agency’s use of data. Three rules emerge from a study of case law: 1) Agencies may not ignore relevant data; 2) Agencies must analyze all available data, but are not required to generate more conclusive data; 3) Agencies retain the discretion to accept or reject scientific evidence after conducting a reasonable evaluation and articulating a rational connection between the facts found and the choices made. This article argues for the implementation of adaptive management principles as a means of data accumulation to fulfill and give teeth to the ESA’s best available science mandate. Agencies aren’t required to gather data or improve existing data before making management decisions, but they should be required to do so. If they use adaptive management, which is data intensive, they will have to gather and consider greater volumes of evidence. While limited judicial review does not require an agency to accept or integrate scientific evidence in their decision-making process, they would have to provide a rational basis for rejecting it.
Planned Papers
The below list represents only planned manuscripts. Some of these manuscripts have not been received by the Editorial Office yet. Papers submitted to MDPI journals are subject to peer-review.
Title: Transboundary Wildlife Conservation in a Changing Climate: The Adaptation of the Bonn Convention on Migratory Species and its Daughter Instruments to Climate Change
Author: Arie Trouwborst
Affiliation: Tilburg Law School, Department European and International Public Law, Tilburg University, Warandelaan 2, 5037 AB Tilburg, The Netherlands; E-Mail: A.Trouwborst@uvt.nl
Abstract: Species migrating across boundaries represent the classic case for international cooperation in biodiversity conservation. Climate change is adding fresh challenges to such cooperation, on account of the shifting ranges and particular vulnerabilities to climate change of migratory wildlife. In view of the need to help migratory species adapt to climate change with minimal losses, this article performs an in-depth analysis of the present and potential future role in respect of climate adaptation of the main intergovernmental regime for migratory species conservation, the 1979 Bonn Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) and its various daughter instruments.
Last update: 13 February 2012