Hostname: page-component-5c6d5d7d68-sv6ng Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-19T10:17:51.574Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Tropical forests and climate change: a critique of green governmentality

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 May 2015

Sam Adelman
Sam Adelman*
Affiliation:
School of Law, University of Warwick. Email: S.Adelman@warwick.ac.uk
*
S.Adelman@warwick.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper contains three main arguments. First, tropical forests have become objects of climate and environmental governance under the REDD+ mechanism in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change that combines legal, market and scientific rationalities with measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) technologies in a neoliberal green governmentality regime. Second, the current structures and institutions of governance are contradictory and international environmental law provides inadequate means for regulating and protecting forests. Third, these deficiencies point to the need for imaginative alternative forms of governance to prevent further deforestation.

Type
Articles
Information
International Journal of Law in Context , Volume 11 , Special Issue 2: International Economic Law, Natural Resources and Sustainable Development , June 2015 , pp. 195 - 212
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adelman, Sam (2011) ‘Cosmopolitan Sovereignty’, in Baillie, Cecilia and Aas, Katja Franko (eds), Cosmopolitan Justice and Its Discontents. Abingdon: Routledge, 11–28.Google Scholar
Adelman, Sam (2013) ‘Rio+20: Sustainable Injustice in a Time of Crises’, Journal of Human Rights and the Environment 4(1): 6–31.Google Scholar
Adelman, Sam (2015) ‘Epistemologies of Mastery’, in Grear, Anna and Kotze, Louis (eds), Research Handbook on Human Rights and the Environment. Aldershot: Edward Elgar.Google Scholar
Ambrose-Oji, Bianca, Allmark, Tim, Buckley, Peter, Clements, Bindi and Woodgate, Graham (2002) ‘The Environmental State and the Forest: Of Lookouts, Lumberjacks, Leopards, and Losers’, in Mol, A. P. J. and Buttel, Frederick H. (eds), The Environmental State Under Pressure. Oxford: JAI Press, 149–169.Google Scholar
Bäckstrand, Karin and Lövbrand, Eva (2007) ‘Climate Governance Beyond 2012: Competing Discourses of Green Governmentality, Ecological Modernisation and Civic Environmentalism’, in Pettenger, Mary E. (ed.), The Social Construction of Climate Change: Power, Knowledge, Norms, Discourses. Aldershot: Ashgate, 123–149.Google Scholar
Boer, Henry (2013) ‘Governing Ecosystem Carbon’, Global Environmental Politics 13(4): 123–143.Google Scholar
Bollier, David and Helfrich, Silke (2012) The Wealth of the Commons: A World Beyond Market and State. Amherst, MA: Levellers Press.Google Scholar
Bosselmann, Klaus (2010) ‘Losing the Forest for the Trees: Environmental Reductionism in the Law’, Sustainability 2(8): 2424–2448.Google Scholar
Boyd, Emily, Corbera, Esteve and Estrada, Manuel (2008) ‘UNFCCC Negotiations (pre-Kyoto to COP-9): What the Process Says about the Politics of CDM-sinks’, International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics 8(2): 95–112.Google Scholar
Boyd, William (2010a) ‘Climate Change, Fragmentation, and the Challenges of Global Environmental Law: Elements of a Post-Copenhagen Assemblage’, University of Pennsylvania Journal of International Law 32(2): 457–550.Google Scholar
Boyd, William (2010b) ‘Ways of Seeing in Environmental Law: How Deforestation Became an Object of Climate Governance’, Ecology Law Quarterly 37: 843–916.Google Scholar
Brunnée, Jutta (2007) ‘Common Areas, Common Heritage, and Common Concern’, in Bodansky, Daniel, Brunnée, Jutta and Hey, Ellen (eds), The Oxford Handbook of International Environmental Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 550–573.Google Scholar
Burdon, Peter (2011) Exploring Wild Law: The Philosophy of Earth Jurisprudence. Kent Town, South Australia: Wakefield Press.Google Scholar
Cabello, Joanna and Gilbertson, Tamra (2012) ‘A Colonial Mechanism to Enclose Lands: A Critical Review of Two Redd+-Focused Special Issues’, Ephemera 12(1/2): 162–180.Google Scholar
Camilleri, Joseph A. and Falk, Jim (1992). The End of Sovereignty? The Politics of a Shrinking and Fragmenting World. Aldershot: Edward Elgar.Google Scholar
Cochrane, Regina (2014) ‘Climate Change, Buen Vivir, and the Dialectic of Enlightenment: Toward a Feminist Critical Philosophy of Climate Justice’, Hypatia 29(3): 576–598.Google Scholar
Corbera, Esteve and Schroeder, Heike (2011) ‘Governing and Implementing REDD+’, Environmental Science and Policy 14(2): 89–99.Google Scholar
Cullinan, Cormac (2011) Wild Law: A Manifesto for Earth Justice. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishers.Google Scholar
Daly, Erin (2012) ‘The Ecuadorian Exemplar: The First Ever Vindications of Constitutional Rights of Nature’, Review of European Community and International Environmental Law 21(1): 63–66.Google Scholar
Death, Carl (2014) ‘The Limits of Climate Governmentality’, in Stripple, Johannes and Bulkeley, Harriet (eds), Governing the Climate: New Approaches to Rationality, Power and Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 77–91.Google Scholar
Doherty, Emma and Schroeder, Heike (2011) ‘Forest Tenure and Multi-level Governance in Avoiding Deforestation under REDD+’, Global Environmental Politics 11(4): 66–88.Google Scholar
Eliasch, Johan (2008) Climate Change: Financing Global Forests: The Eliasch Review. London: Earthscan.Google Scholar
Fao (2010) Global Forest Resources Assessment 2010 (FAO Forestry Paper No. 163). Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Online: <www.fao.org/docrep/013/i1757e/i1757e00.htm> (last accessed 2 August 2013).+(last+accessed+2+August+2013).>Google Scholar
Fao (2012) State of the World's Forests 2012. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.Google Scholar
Fern (Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and Rainforest Foundation UK) (2011) ‘REDD+ and Carbon Markets: Ten Myths Exploded.’ Online: <http://www.fern.org/10myths> (last accessed 25 March 2014).+(last+accessed+25+March+2014).>Google Scholar
Foucault, Michel (2008) The Birth of Biopolitics: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1978–79. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
French, Duncan A. (2001) ‘A Reappraisal of Sovereignty in the Light of Global Environmental Concerns’, Legal Studies: The Journal of the Society of Public Teachers of Law 21(3): 376–399.Google Scholar
Garcia, Beatriz (2011) The Amazon from an International Law Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Glennon, Michael J. (1990) ‘Has International Law Failed the Elephant?’, American Journal of International Law 84: 1–43.Google Scholar
Gudynas, Eduardo (2011) ‘Buen Vivir: Today's Tomorrow’, Development 54(4): 441–447.Google Scholar
Hardin, Garrett James (1968) The Tragedy of the Commons. Washington, DC: American Association for the Advancement of Science.Google Scholar
Higgins, Polly (2010) Eradicating Ecocide: Laws and Governance to Prevent the Destruction of Our Planet. London: Shepheard-Walwyn.Google Scholar
Higgins, Polly (2012) Earth Is Our Business: Changing the Rules of the Game. London: Shepheard-Walwyn.Google Scholar
Higgins, Polly, Short, Damien and South, Nigel (2013) ‘Protecting the Planet: A Proposal for a Law of Ecocide’, Crime, Law and Social Change 59(3): 251–266.Google Scholar
Holmgren, Sarah (2013) ‘REDD+ in the Making: Orders of Knowledge in the Climate–Deforestation Nexus’, Environmental Science & Policy 33: 369–377.Google Scholar
Hooker, Ann (1994) ‘The International Law of Forests’, Natural Resources Journal 34: 855–856.Google Scholar
Hossain, Kamal and Chowdhury, Subrata Roy (eds) (1984) Permanent Sovereignty over Natural Resources in International Law. London: Frances Pinter.Google Scholar
Humphreys, David (2005) ‘The Elusive Quest for a Global Forests Convention’, Review of European Community & International Environmental Law 14(1): 1–10.Google Scholar
Humphreys, David (2006) Logjam: Deforestation and the Crisis of Global Governance. London: Earthscan.Google Scholar
Iff (2000) Report of the Intergovernmental Forum on Forests on its Fourth Session (E/CN.17/2000/14). New York: United Nations. Online: <http://www.un.org/esa/forests/documents-iff.html> (last accessed 2 August 2013).+(last+accessed+2+August+2013).>Google Scholar
Ipcc (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) (2013) Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Löwy, Michael (2014) ‘Ecosocial Struggles of Indigenous Peoples’, Capitalism Nature Socialism, 1–11, online: <http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10455752.2014.897414> (last accessed 27 March 2014).+(last+accessed+27+March+2014).>Google Scholar
Luke, Timothy W. (1997) Ecocritique: Contesting the Politics of Nature, Economy, and Culture. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Luke, Timothy W. (1999) ‘Environmentality as Green Governmentality,’ in Darier, Éric (ed.), Discourses of the Environment. Oxford: Blackwell, 121–151.Google Scholar
Lyster, Rosemary (2013) ‘International Legal Frameworks for REDD+: Ensuring Legitimacy’, in Lyster, Rosemary, MacKenzie, Catherine and McDermott, Constance (eds), Law, Tropical Forests and Carbon. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 3–25.Google Scholar
Methmann, Chris (2013) ‘The Sky Is the Limit: Global Warming as Global Governmentality’, European Journal of International Relations 19(1): 69–91.Google Scholar
Mgbeoji, Ikechi (2003) ‘Beyond Rhetoric: State Sovereignty, Common Concern, and the Inapplicability of the Common Heritage Concept to Plant Genetic Resources’, Leiden Journal of International Law 16(4): 821–837.Google Scholar
Oels, Angela (2005) ‘Rendering Climate Change Governable: From Biopower to Advanced Liberal Government?’, Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning 7(3): 185–207.Google Scholar
Ostrom, Elinor (1990) Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Paterson, Matthew and Stripple, Johannes (2010) ‘My Space: Governing Individuals' Carbon Emissions’, Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 28: 341–362.Google Scholar
Pellegrini, Lorenzo, Arsel, Murat, Falconí, Fander and Muradian, Roldan (2014) ‘The Demise of a New Conservation and Development Policy? Exploring the Tensions of the Yasuní ITT Initiative’, The Extractive Industries and Society, online: <http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.exis.2014.05.001> (last accessed 3 September 2014).+(last+accessed+3+September+2014).>Google Scholar
Pokorny, Benno, Scholz, Imme and De Jong, Wil (2013) ‘REDD+ for the Poor or the Poor for REDD+? About the Limitations of Environmental Policies in the Amazon and the Potential of Achieving Environmental Goals through Pro-Poor Policies’, Ecology and Society 18(2), online: <http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol18/iss2/art3/> (last accessed 20 March 2014).Google Scholar
Reich, Peter B. (2011) ‘Biogeochemistry: Taking Stock of Forest Carbon’, Nature Climate Change 1: 346–347.Google Scholar
Rockstrom, Johan, et al. (2009) ‘Planetary Boundaries: Exploring the Safe Operating Space for Humanity’, Ecology and Society 14(2), online: <http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol14/iss2/art32/>.Google Scholar
Rutherford, Stephanie (2007) ‘Green Governmentality: Insights and Opportunities in the Study of Nature's Rule’, Progress in Human Geography 31(3): 291–308.Google Scholar
Sachs, Wolfgang (1999) Planet Dialectics: Explorations in Environment and Development. London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Sands, Philippe (2003) Principles of International Environmental Law, 2nd edn.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Scholtz, Werner (2008) ‘Custodial Sovereignty: Reconciling Sovereignty and Global Environmental Challenges amongst the Vestiges of Colonialism’, Netherlands International Law Review 55(3): 323–341.Google Scholar
Schrijver, Nico (1997) Sovereignty over Natural Resources: Balancing Rights and Duties. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Shue, Henry (2014) Climate Justice: Vulnerability and Protection. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Stephan, Benjamin (2012) ‘Bringing Discourse to the Market: The Commodification of Avoided Deforestation’, Environmental Politics 21(4): 621–639.Google Scholar
Stephan, Benjamin (2013) ‘How to Trade Not Cutting Down Trees’, in Methmann, Chris, Rothe, Delf and Stephan, Benjamin (eds), Interpretive Approaches to Global Climate Governance: (De)constructing the Greenhouse. New York: Routledge, 57–71.Google Scholar
Stephan, Benjamin, Rothe, Delf and Methmann, Chris (2013) ‘Third Side of the Coin: Hegemony and Governmentality in Global Climate Politics’, in Stripple, Johannes and Bulkeley, Harriet (eds), Governing the Climate: New Approaches to Rationality, Power and Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 59–76.Google Scholar
Stripple, Johannes and Bulkeley, Harriet (2014) Governing the Climate: New Approaches to Rationality, Power and Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Takacs, David (2013) ‘Forest Carbon (REDD+), Repairing International Trust, and Reciprocal Contractual Sovereignty’, Vermont Law Review 37: 653–736.Google Scholar
Tarlock, A. Dan (1997) ‘Exclusive Sovereignty versus Sustainable Development of a Shared Resource: The Dilemma of Latin American Rainforest Management’, Texas International Law Journal 32(1): 37–66.Google Scholar
Tarlock, A. Dan (2007) ‘Ecosystems’, in Bodansky, Daniel, Brunnée, Jutta and Hey, Ellen (eds), The Oxford Handbook of International Environmental Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 574–596.Google Scholar
Unep (2011a) Towards a Green Economy: Pathways to Sustainable Development and Poverty Eradication. Nairobi: United Nations Environment Programme.Google Scholar
Unep (2011b) Forests: Investing in Natural Capital. Nairobi: United Nations Environment Programme.Google Scholar
Van Der Werf, G. R., et al. (2009) ‘CO2 Emissions from Forest Loss’, Nature Geoscience 2(11): 737–738.Google Scholar
Vogler, John (2012) ‘Global Commons Revisited’, Global Policy 3(1): 61–71.Google Scholar
Voigt, Christina (ed.) (2013) Rule of Law for Nature: New Dimensions and Ideas in Environmental Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Weston, Burns H. and Bollier, David (2013) Green Governance: Ecological Survival, Human Rights, and the Law of the Commons. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Weston, Burns H., Bollier, David et al. (2013) ‘Universal Covenant Affirming a Human Right to Commons- and Rights-Based Governance of Earth's Natural Wealth and Resources’, Journal of Human Rights and the Environment 4(2): 215–225.Google Scholar
Westra, Laura and Vilela, Mirian (eds) (2014) The Earth Charter, Ecological Integrity and Social Movements. London: Earthscan.Google Scholar
Whittemore, Mary E. (2011) ‘The Problem of Enforcing Nature's Rights under Ecuador's Constitution: Why the 2008 Environmental Amendments Have No Bite’, Pacific Rim Law & Policy Journal 20(3): 659–691.Google Scholar
Zarin, Daniel J. (2012) ‘Carbon from Tropical Deforestation’, Science 336(6088): 1518–1519.Google Scholar