Brendan Coolsaet

Social-ecological outcomes of agricultural intensification

Land-use intensification in agrarian landscapes is seen as a key strategy to simultaneously feed humanity and use ecosystems sustainably, but the conditions that support positive social-ecological outcomes remain poorly documented. We address this knowledge gap by synthesizing research that analyses how agricultural intensification affects both ecosystem services and human well-being in low- and middle-income countries. Overall, we find that agricultural intensification is rarely found to lead to simultaneous positive ecosystem service and well-being outcomes. This is particularly the case when ecosystem services other than food provisioning are taken into consideration.A comprehensive review of studies about the impact of agricultural intensification on both human well-being and ecosystem services shows mixed evidence, which depends mostly on previous land use, the sort of intensification, and what specific outcomes are measured.

The Challenges for Implementing the Nagoya Protocol in a Multi-Level Governance Context: Lessons from the Belgian Case

The Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit-sharing is the latest protocol to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Its implementation can lead to two fundamentally different processes: a market-oriented self-regulatory approach, which emphasizes the self-regulating capacity of the economic actors involved, or a normative institutionalist approach, which focuses on the norms and formal rules of institutions that not only support and frame, but also shape and constrain the actions of the players acting within them. This paper analyzes the challenges related to the implementation of the Nagoya Protocol in the specific case of Belgium, and evaluates the possibility of moving from a self-regulatory to an institutional approach of implementation, which we argue is necessary to achieve the objectives of the Protocol. This move is analyzed in the specific multi-level governance context characterizing the Nagoya Protocol, which has a natural tendency towards a market-oriented self-regulatory approach.

Conclusion. Comparing Access and Benefit-Sharing in Europe

Brendan Coolsaet articulates a comparative analysis of the ABS regimes in Europe, and outlines a comprehensive evaluation of the challenges related to the implementation of the Nagoya Protocol taking into account the provisions of the EU Regulation on ABS.

Mapping the Landscape of EU Environmental Policy: Coherence and Linkages

EU environmental policy is at a critical crossroads with a number of important policy processes and strategic discussions currently underway. They include the adoption of new strategic plans (e.g. on future EU biodiversity policy) and roadmaps (e.g. on resource efficiency); as well as a number of comprehensive reviews of existing legislation such as EU policies on water, chemicals and air quality. Substantial discussions on priorities for spending under the next long-term EU budget are currently taking place as are efforts to take forward the EU’s new economic strategy - the ‘Europe 2020 Strategy’ and related ‘Flagship Initiatives’. In parallel, there are also a number of on-going reform processes in relevant sectoral policies such as energy, transport and agriculture policy. These different processes will have an important influence on the context and scope of EU environmental policy to 2020 and beyond. Given this convoluted and evolving backdrop, a key question concerns the inter-linkages, policy overlaps and omissions created, between different areas of environmental policy itself as well as with relevant sectoral policies. This paper provides an overview of some of the key strategic processes currently underway which are of relevance to or will have an impact on the development of future EU environmental policy. In doing so, it aims to identify some of the main inter-linkages and thematic overlaps between the different documents, the extent to which relevant sectoral documents take into account key environmental considerations, and to draw some initial observations on the overall coherence between the different initiatives.

Publisher Correction: Social-ecological outcomes of agricultural intensification

In the version of this Review originally published, the top heading in the first column of Fig. 2 was mistakenly written ‘Food poisoning’; it should have read ‘Food provisioning’. This has now been corrected.

Introduction: Access Benefit-Sharing and the Nagoya Protocol:The Confluence of Abiding Legal Doctrines

This chapter illustrates an innovative perspective aimed at demonstrating that the inception of the international legal regime related to the management of genetic resources and traditional knowledge long predates the discussion on ABS of the CBD, and is the product of the interaction of different legal fields: the international law on development, trade, environment and intellectual property protection.

Genetic Resources in a Multi-layered Institutional Cake: The Regulation of Access and Benefit-sharing in Belgium

This chapter analyses how original the Belgian context is – and especially the federal nature of the regime – for the implementation of the Nagoya Protocol. To what extent must the Belgian legal order and environmental policies be adapted in order to comply with the Protocol? What are the political and institutional challenges the ratification process will have to face? These questions are not only interesting per se: the Belgian case is interesting as it allows us to broach some of the governance issues federal states are likely to present when implementing environmental treaties. In addition, Belgium is a key user of genetic resources.