Catherine Aubertin

La construction sociale de la question de la biodiversité

Abstract The erosion of biodiversity is found alongside with the global environmental problems. As such, the stages of Its definition and of the elaboration of the measures to address It are organized along the same lines as for climate change. It was first brought to the fore by scientists who saw in the Increasing rhythm of species extinction an alarming evolution. The widespread adoption of the term biological diversity to account for the objectives of life sciences testified the development of a more complex, evolutionary and Integrated approach within these sciences. Then, scientific questions came Into the public domain. Their objectives was seized by various groups with diverse perceptions and interests, referring to several legitimacy orders, conveying conflicting views of rationality and efficiency (NGOs, representatives of the industrial world, United Nations agencies, ...). The Issue ceased to be a purely scientific concern, it entered the arena of social choices. This shift In the very definition of the question and of Its stakes was accompanied by a change In the words: biological diversity was turned Into biodiversity. Then a compromise among the participants - the convention on biological diversity - was sought and organized, In particular under the pressure of the Industries using biotechnologies. It confirmed the trends that had been outlined in the preceding years: the tendency to reduce bodiversity to its genetic components considered as resources, that Is potential inputs for Industry, and the claim for property rights, presented as the means to ensure access to genetic materials and to favour International trade agreements and technology transfer. Market logic and rationality have finally prevailed over concerns for ethics and heritage. Biodiversity has been reduced to a set of resources, the valuation and adequate appropriation of which appear as prerequisites for the institution of a market held to be a guarantee of sustainable management.

Les droits de propriété intellectuelle au service de la biodiversité. Une mice en œuvre bien conflictuelle

Abstract Intellectual property rights in favour of biodiversity, a most debated implementation. The discussions about biodiverslty are crystallized around the question of commoditization of knowledge and life forms by means of intellectual property rights. Though there were other protection systems, adapted to the particular characteristics of plant genetic resources, the Convention on Biological Diversity has confirmed the extension of patents to life forms. NGOs, organizing the opposition to the commoditizatlon of life forms emphasize the unsuitability of intellectual property rights for community knowledge on plant cultivars and medicinal herbs in the South. Acting as advocates and allies of local populations of farmers and indigenous peoples, they advocate the passing of farmers’rights and peoples’rights that would be grounded in tradition and community property.

Deforestation control policies in Brazil: sovereignty versus the market

After achieving a 76% reduction in the annual rate of deforestation in the Amazon using command and control policies, the Brazilian government developed a national REDD+ strategy, which it has since merged with its reform of the Forest Code. This is an important political, economic and environmental step in view of the amounts of land, carbon and money involved. This article addresses Brazils insistence on sovereignty over its forest resources and questions the capacity of carbon markets to assist in conservation. We start by describing the success of Brazils efforts to halt deforestation. We then identify player strategies in the ‘Sovereignty versus the market’ debate surrounding the implementation of REDD+. Finally, we discuss whether the markets for land- and forest-based environmental services encouraged by the Forest Code have the potential to contribute to further reductions in deforestation.

La construction sociale de la question de la biodiversité: Social construction of the problem of biodiversity

Abstract The erosion of biodiversity is found alongside with the global environmental problems. As such, the stages of Its definition and of the elaboration of the measures to address It are organized along the same lines as for climate change. It was first brought to the fore by scientists who saw in the Increasing rhythm of species extinction an alarming evolution. The widespread adoption of the term biological diversity to account for the objectives of life sciences testified the development of a more complex, evolutionary and Integrated approach within these sciences. Then, scientific questions came Into the public domain. Their objectives was seized by various groups with diverse perceptions and interests, referring to several legitimacy orders, conveying conflicting views of rationality and efficiency (NGOs, representatives of the industrial world, United Nations agencies, ...). The Issue ceased to be a purely scientific concern, it entered the arena of social choices. This shift In the very definition of the question and of Its stakes was accompanied by a change In the words: biological diversity was turned Into biodiversity. Then a compromise among the participants - the convention on biological diversity - was sought and organized, In particular under the pressure of the Industries using biotechnologies. It confirmed the trends that had been outlined in the preceding years: the tendency to reduce bodiversity to its genetic components considered as resources, that Is potential inputs for Industry, and the claim for property rights, presented as the means to ensure access to genetic materials and to favour International trade agreements and technology transfer. Market logic and rationality have finally prevailed over concerns for ethics and heritage. Biodiversity has been reduced to a set of resources, the valuation and adequate appropriation of which appear as prerequisites for the institution of a market held to be a guarantee of sustainable management.

Loi Biodiversité et choix de société

Natures Sciences Sociétés analyse la mise en politique de la biodiversité depuis la création de la notion1. Le projet de loi sur la biodiversité en discussion depuis 2013 et transmise au Sénat en mars 20152 nous permet de prendre conscience du chemin parcouru par cette notion, de son ouverture aux gènes, aux paysages, aux milieux marins, etc., et des missions auxquelles elle est associée : capacité d’évolution, services écosystémiques, continuité écologique, solidarité écologique, moteur économique, etc. Elle nous permet aussi, du fait des âpres discussions qui l’entourent, de mesurer les choix de société ainsi que le caractère politique des représentations de la biodiversité encadrées par la loi. On y trouve en effet la plupart des éléments qui rendent compte des relations entre les hommes à propos de leur environnement. La loi Biodiversité prend donc son temps. Il a fallu 39 ans, après la loi de 1976 relative à la protection de la nature essentiellement dédiée à la protection des espèces, pour que la France rénove sa législation afin de se mettre en accord avec les nouvelles visions scientifiques et sociétales de la biodiversité, de donner une base légale à ses propres stratégies nationales (de la biodiversité, de la transition écologique, de la mer et du littoral...) et aux normes internationales de la convention sur la diversité biologique (1992) et du protocole de Nagoya (2010). Dans sa dernière version transmise au Sénat, la loi arborait le titre guerrier et très ambitieux de « Loi pour la reconquête de la biodiversité, de la nature et des paysages ». Le terme de reconquête n’a rien d’anodin. L’atteinte des objectifs de biodiversité pose en effet la question de la reconquête de territoires de plus en plus artificialisés du fait du développement économique. Reconquête signale aussi la volonté de freiner ce mouvement d’artificialisation, ce qui, en France métropolitaine, se traduit

Extractivisme et développement régional

Entre extractivisme et reserve extractiviste Les debats portant sur la valorisation de la foret amazonienne ont favorise une confusion semantique. La notion generale d’extractivisme, qui renvoie a l’activite et a ses differentes formes d’expression, s’est effacee derriere celle de reserve extractiviste, notion plus operatoire pour pretendre figurer un modele de developpement durable et qui pourtant ne represente qu’un cas particulier des formes prises par l’extractivisme. Dans son acception l...