Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-07T07:15:02.855Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Transnational Conservation Contracts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 May 2012

Abstract

Transnational environmental law is the subject of growing scholarly interest. Yet, much work remains to be done to fill in both the conceptual and empirical contours of this field. One methodological challenge that transnational law poses is the need to look beyond traditional sources of international and national law. This article contributes to efforts to understand transnational law's multilayered architecture by drawing attention to the use of transnational contracts as a mechanism to protect habitats and species. The diverse and proliferating examples of conservation contracts discussed in this article – which include forest carbon agreements, conservation concessions, debt-for-nature swaps, conservation performance payments, and private protected area agreements – reveal an ongoing and intensifying transnational attempt to use private contracts to address some of the most pressing issues of common concern. This article draws on fairness theory in both contract and international environmental law to argue for law's relevance in interpreting conservation's call for contracts.

Type
INTERNATIONAL LAW AND PRACTICE: Symposium: Fairness in International Environmental Law
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation of the Leiden Journal of International Law 2012

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

1 Scott, C., ‘“Transnational Law” as Proto-Concept: Three Conceptions’, (2009) 10 German Law Journal 859, at 876Google Scholar.

2 Andonova, L. B. and Mitchell, R. B., ‘The Rescaling of Global Environmental Politics’, (2010) 35 Annual Review of Environment and Resources 255CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 Llewellyn, K., ‘What Price Contract? An Essay in Perspective’, (1930) 40 Yale Law Journal 704, at 704CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 See, e.g., OECD, Handbook of Market Creation for Biodiversity: Issues in Implementation (2004), which frames a number of conservation contracts as attempts to create markets for biodiversity.

5 For an illustration of the value of analysing the architecture of international agreements along lines of form and substance, see Raustiala, K., ‘Form and Substance in International Agreements’, (2005) 99 AJIL 581CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

6 This article emerges from a workshop investigating diverse aspects of fairness in international environmental law, organized by the European Society of International Law's International Environmental Law Interest Group in Cambridge on 2 September 2010.

7 Bernstein, S., ‘Legitimacy in Global Environmental Governance’, (2005) 1 Journal of International Law and International Relations 139Google Scholar; Bass, S. and Guéneau, S., ‘Global Forest Governance: Effectiveness, Fairness, and Legitimacy of Market-Driven Approaches’, in Thoyer, S. and Martimort-Asso, B. (eds.), Participation for Sustainability in Trade (2005)Google Scholar.

8 The first issue of Transnational Environmental Law will be published by Cambridge University Press in 2012; see http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayJournal?jid=TEL.

9 G. Shaffer and D. Bodansky, ‘Transnationalism, Unilateralism, and International Law’, (2011) Transnational Environmental Law, forthcoming, available at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1920470.

10 I have argued elsewhere for the need to resist the temptation to conceptualize international law and private governance as belonging to separate and parallel universes; see Affolder, N., ‘The Private Life of Environmental Treaties’, (2009) 103 AJIL 510Google Scholar.

11 See Teubner, G. (ed.), Global Law without a State (1996)Google Scholar; Benda-Beckmann, F. von and Benda-Beckmann, K. von, ‘The Dynamics of Change and Continuity in Plural Legal Orders’, (2006) 53–4 Journal of Legal Pluralism & Unofficial Law 1CrossRefGoogle Scholar; G. P. Calliess and P. Zumbansen, Rough Consensus and Running Code: A Theory of Transnational Private Law (2010).

12 Calliess and Zumbansen, supra note 11, at 7.

13 Wai, R., ‘The Interlegality of Transnational Private Law’, (2008) 71 Law and Contemporary Problems 107, at 108Google Scholar.

14 Andonova and Mitchell, supra note 2, at 262.

15 Alcorn, J., ‘Big Conservation and Little Conservation: Collaboration in Managing Global and Local Heritage’, (1995) 98 Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies Bulletin 13, at 15Google Scholar.

16 K. I. MacDonald, ‘Community-Based Conservation: A Reflection on History’, Working Paper: IUCN – The World Conservation Union, Commission on Economic, Environmental and Social Policy, 2003, at 3.

17 Environmental Law Institute, Legal Tools for Private Lands Conservation in Latin America (2003), 25.

18 For a review of the activities of Conservation International with direct-payment contracts, see S. Milne and E. Niesten, Direct Payments for Biodiversity Conservation in Developing Countries: Practical Insights for Design and Implementation (2002).

19 Ellison, K., ‘Renting Biodiversity: The Concessions Approach’, (2003) (November) 4 Conservation Magazine, 20Google Scholar.

20 See, generally, Lago Preto Conservation Concession, available at www.mbowler.mistral.co.uk/lagopreto.

21 This definition is adapted from Sven Wunder's definition of payments for environmental services. Wunder, S., ‘The Efficiency of Payments for Environmental Services in Tropical Conservation’, (2007) 21 Conservation Biology 48, at 50CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

22 Zabel, A. and Holm-Müller, K., ‘Conservation Performance Payments for Carnivore Conservation in Sweden’, (2008) 22 Conservation Biology 247CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

23 Ferraro, P. J., ‘Global Habitat Protection: Limitations of Development Interventions and a Role for Conservation Performance Payments’, (2001) 15 Conservation Biology 990, at 994CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

24 See the Norton Rose Group, Forest Carbon Rights in REDD+ Countries: A Snapshot of Africa (2010); D. Takacs, Forest Carbon: Law and Property Rights (2009), 28.

25 S. Hawkins et al., Contracting for Forest Carbon: Elements of a Model Forest Carbon Purchase Agreement (2010), 1.

26 Ibid., at 3.

27 Takacs, D., ‘Carbon into Gold: Forest Carbon Offsets, Climate Change Adaptation, and International Law’, (2009) 15 Hastings West-Northwest Journal of Environmental Law and Policy 39, at 42Google Scholar.

28 Grainger, A., ‘Uncertainty in the Construction of Global Knowledge of Tropical Forests’, (2010) 34 Progress in Physical Geography 811, at 811–12CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

29 Venter, O. et al. , ‘Harnessing Carbon Payments to Protect Biodiversity’, (2009) 326 Science 1368CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

30 Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana and the Government of the Kingdom of Norway regarding Cooperation on Issues related to the Fight against Climate Change, the Protection of Biodiversity and the Enhancement of Sustainable Development (2009), available at www.regjeringen.no/upload/MD/Vedlegg/Internasjonalt/miljosamarbeid_utviklingsland/mou__norway_guyana.pdf.

31 S. Stolton and N. Dudley, Company Reserves: Integrating Biological Reserves Owned and Managed by Commercial Companies into the Global Protected Areas Network: A Review of Options, WWF International White Paper, August 2007, at 5.

32 See, e.g., Environmental Law Institute, supra note 17, at 16, 21.

33 Ibid., at 15.

34 L. A. Vivanco, Green Encounters: Shaping and Contesting Environmentalism in Rural Costa Rica (2006), 60.

35 Stolton and Dudley, supra note 31, at 16–20.

36 Ibid. The legal form of this agreement involved a 2006 memorandum of agreement between the Botanical Society of South Africa, Anglo Base Metals, and the Department of Tourism, Environment & Conservation, Government of Namibia.

37 Ibid., at 19.

38 Conservation International, Press Release, ‘Conservation International and Equatorial Guinea Sign Agreement to Collaborate on Conservation’, April 2006, available at Conservation International, www.conservation.org/newsroom/pressreleases/Pages/042506_ci_equatorial_guinea_agreement.aspx.

39 T. E. Lovejoy, ‘Aid Debtor Nations’ Ecology’, New York Times, 4 October 1984, A31. On debt-for-nature swaps generally, see P. A. Sheikh, Debt-for-Nature Initiatives and the Tropical Forest Conservation Act: Status and Implementation (2010).

40 Deacon, R. T. and Murphy, P., ‘The Structure of an Environmental Transaction: The Debt-for-Nature Swap’, (1997) 73 Land Economics 1CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

41 Freeland, S. and Buckley, R. P., ‘Debt-for-Development Exchanges: Using External Debt to Mitigate Environmental Damage in Developing Countries’, (2010) 16 West Northwest Journal of Environmental Law 77Google Scholar.

42 In 1987, Conservation International obtained a grant of $100,000 from the Frank Weeden Foundation, which it used to purchase a debt of $650,000 owed to a Swiss Bank by the government of Bolivia. In exchange for cancellation of the debt, the Bolivian government agreed to establish four conservation and sustainable-use areas covering over 4 million acres; see Sarkar, A. U. and Ebbs, K. L., ‘A Possible Solution to Tropical Troubles? Debt-for-Nature Swaps’, (1992) 24 Futures 653, at 658, 659CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

43 Lewis, A., ‘The Evolving Process of Swapping Debt for Nature’, (1999) 10 Colorado Journal of International Environmental Law & Policy 431Google Scholar.

44 Jakobeit, C., ‘Non-State Actors Leading the Way: Debt-for-Nature Swaps’, in Keohane, R. and Levy, M. (eds.), Institutions for Environmental Aid (1996), 127Google Scholar.

45 J. Kaiser and A. Lambert, Debt Swaps for Sustainable Development (1996).

46 Hamlin, T., ‘Debt-for-Nature Swaps: A New Strategy for Protecting Environmental Interests in Developing Nations’, (1989) 16 Ecology Law Quarterly 1065Google Scholar.

47 Gibson, E. J. and Curtis, R. K., ‘A Debt-for-Nature Blueprint’, (1990) 28 Columbia Journal of Transnational Law 331Google Scholar.

48 For a thoughtful taxonomy of the ‘anxieties’ that accountability concerns encompass, see Mashaw, J. L., ‘Accountability and Institutional Design: Some Thoughts on the Grammar of Governance’, in Dowdle, M. W. (ed.), Public Accountability: Designs, Dilemmas and Experiences (2006), 115Google Scholar. On legitimacy, see Bodansky, D., ‘Legitimacy’, in Bodansky, D., Brunnée, J., and Hey, E. (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of International Environmental Law (2007), 704Google Scholar.

49 See, in particular, R. E. Scott and P. B. Stephan, The Limits of Leviathan: Contract Theory and the Enforcement of International Law (2006).

50 For a more complete discussion of the case law on this point, see H. Collins, The Law of Contract (2003), Chapter 13.

51 Ibid., at 25.

52 P. Zumbansen, ‘The Law of Society: Governance through Contract’, Comparative Research in Law and Political Economy Research Paper 2/2007, i.

53 The term ‘classical’ contract law, as used here, refers to a body of rules formulated in Anglo-American legal contexts in the nineteenth century. An analysis of the degree to which modern contract law departs from these underlying assumptions for reasons of distributional fairness in different jurisdictions is beyond the scope of this article. Yet, the assumptions of freedom of contract and sanctity of contract continue to hold a dominant place in contract-law doctrine. The focus in this section on Anglo-American principles of contract law reflects the fact that US conservation organizations are the principal architects of transnational conservation contracts.

54 Leonard, C., ‘Beyond the Four Corners of a Written Contract: A Global Challenge to US Contract Law’, (2009) 21 Pace ILR 1Google Scholar, at 3. Leonard draws here on William Twining's work on legal concepts that ‘travel well’ and ‘travel badly’; Twining, W., ‘Have Concepts, Will Travel: Analytical Jurisprudence in a Global Context’, (2005) 1 International Journal of Law in Context, 5CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

55 Leonard, supra note 54, at 6.

56 Pattison, P. and Herron, D., ‘The Mountains Are High and the Emperor Is Far Away: Sanctity of Contract in China’, (2003) 40 American Business Law Journal 459, at 487–8CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

57 Schwartz, A. and Scott, R. E., ‘Contract Theory and the Limits of Contract Law’, (2003) 113 Yale Law Journal 541CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 550 (arguing, analogously, that rules that are appropriate for individuals too often are applied to sophisticated business parties).

58 Weinrib, E. J., ‘Corrective Justice and Formalism: The Care One Owes One's Neighbors: Corrective Justice’, (1992) 77 Iowa Law Review 403, at 403Google Scholar.

59 Kennedy, D., ‘The Political Stakes in “Merely Technical” Issues of Contract Law’, (2001) 1 European Review of Private Law 7, at 7Google Scholar.

60 F. Soltau, Fairness in Climate Change Law and Policy (2009), i (emphasis added).

61 See, e.g., Rajamani, L., ‘The Principle of Common but Differentiated Responsibility and the Balance of Commitments under the Climate Regime’, (2000) 9 Review of European Community and International Environmental Law 120CrossRefGoogle Scholar; French, D., ‘Developing States and International Environmental Law: The Importance of Differentiated Responsibilities’, (2000) 49 ICLQ 35CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

62 T. Franck, Fairness in International Law and Institutions (1995); E. Louka, International Environmental Law: Fairness, Effectiveness and World Order (2006); Chimni, B. S., ‘International Institutions Today: An Imperial Global State in the Making’, (2004) 15 EJIL 1CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

63 Franck, supra note 62.

64 Chimni, supra note 62.

65 Mechanisms for improving public participation in international law-making are the subject of significant scholarly interest; see, e.g., Ebbesson, J., ‘The Notion of Public Participation in International Environmental Law’, (1997) 8 YIEL 59Google Scholar.

66 O'Faircheallaigh, C., ‘Indigenous Women and Mining Agreement Negotiations: Australia and Canada’, in Lahiri-Dutt, K. (ed.), Gendering the Field: Towards Sustainable Livelihoods for Mining Communities (2011), 87, at 88Google Scholar.

67 See, e.g., R. Mushkat, International Environmental Law and Asian Values: Legal Norms and Cultural Influences (2004), 91; Razzaque, J., ‘Human Rights to a Clean Environment: Procedural Rights’, in Fitzmaurice, M. et al. (eds.), Research Handbook On International Environmental Law (2010), 284Google Scholar.

68 F. Van Dyke, Conservation Biology: Foundations, Concepts, Applications (2008), 411.

69 Richardson, B., ‘Environmental Law in Postcolonial Societies: Straddling the Local–Global Institutional Spectrum’, (2000) 11 Colorado Journal of Environmental Law & Policy 1, at 2Google Scholar.

70 K. Mickelson, ‘Critical Approaches’, in Bodansky, Brunnée, and Hey, supra note 48, at 278.

71 P. F. Steinberg, Environmental Leadership in Developing Countries (2001).

72 See the discussion accompanying note 30, supra.

73 On governance through contract as a dominant mode of transnational regulation, see Scott, C., Cafaggi, F., and Senden, L., ‘The Conceptual and Constitutional Challenge of Transnational Private Regulation’, (2011) 38 Journal of Law and Society 1, at 15CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

74 Orts, E. W. and Deketelaere, K. (eds.), Environmental Contracts: Comparative Approaches to Regulatory Innovation in the United States and Europe (2001)Google Scholar.

75 Orts, E. W., ‘Climate Contracts’, (2011) 29 Virginia Environmental Law Journal 197, at 205Google Scholar.

76 F. Cafaggi, ‘Private Regulation, Supply Chain, and Contractual Networks: The Case of Food Safety’, Florence: EUI Working Paper, 2010.