Mid Sweden University

Trophy hunting constitutes a major part of the global wildlife tourism industry and is connected through the export of kills to international wildlife trade. Inconsistencies between kills and exports can contribute to identifying illegal trophy hunting that constitutes a major threat to biodiversity conservation. This paper quantitatively analyses to what extent the data of trophy hunting kills and of trophy exports are consistent using the example of South Africa. Data was extracted from two different sources for the year 2018. These sources were trade data reported under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and its Trade Database on the export of trophy items from South Africa, which is compared with the South African Professional Hunting statistics (SAPHs) containing trophy kills information for each species and the country of origin of the hunter. The data of trophy hunting kills and data of trophy hunting export was found to differ to varying degrees across the countries contributing to trophy hunting and CITES-listed trophy-hunted species. We found that both databases report hunting of the same 28 threatened taxa. On the other hand, the same data reports that hunters of 64 nationalities participated in a total of 4,726 trophy kills, while only 3,131 hunting trophy items were exported from South Africa, to 37 countries as final destinations. Among the possible reasons for the discrepancies found, we suggest that the time required to taxidermize trophy specimens may delay the items being addressed to their final destination, in addition to the dual citizenship of some hunters that should also have some influence on our results, as well as the important commercial destination of Brussels Airport. The USA show the highest absolute number of trophy hunters, followed by Spain, but Denmark is the highest driver per capita. Therefore, greater participation of these countries in conservation policies for endangered species is necessary. Additionally, a more detailed differentiation of the term “trophy” to more specific terms such as claws, skins, skulls, etc. may improve reporting systems to easier identify illegal activities related to hunting. 

In December 2022 the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) was internationally concluded.  It aims to steer Biodiversity Governance, Policy and Laws towards a vision of living in harmony with nature.

The presentation aims

to provides an overview on the wider political embedding of the GBF,to shows the interrelations and distinctions among the GBF and further related governance settings, andto elaborate the development, novelty and implementation of the GBF Hermeneutic methods are applied such as comparative legal analyses and different types of text interpretation (e.g. historic, wording, rational).

The presentation will present

how during the process of negotiating the GBF its theory of change, mission and structure were modified,how the GBF’s wording changed related to the overall directions (goals, milestones, targets) related to more concrete measures against Biodiversity loss were modified andbased on these modifications, an outline of major legal implementation challenges and perspectives of the GBF, and exemplifies this by the project ALPMEMA.The final negotiations on the GBF levelled the path to finally conclude this new framework. While theory of change and mission of the GBF seem to have during the negotiations received a more varying and less concrete wording for further legal implementation, its overall directions could be considered at the first view more streamlined. The new inclusion of clauses referring to e.g. national priorities during the GBF-implementation will also enchance legal measures that solely aim at reducing biodiversity loss. While an opportunitiy for loss-reversal is exemplified by the ongoing EU co-funded project ALPMEMA.

Maintaining peace and conserving biodiversity hinge on an international system of cooperation codified in institutions, but Russia’s invasion of Ukraine brings recent progress to a crossroads. Against this backdrop, we address some implications of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine for the governance of biodiversity conservation both within and beyond Russia. The Russian invasion of Ukraine threatens the governance system for biodiversity conservation, as it pertains to Russia and beyond, due to three interacting factors: (i) isolation of Russia from the international system, (ii) halt and delay of international cooperation, and (iii) changes in international and domestic policy priorities. We recommend making the existing international system of governance for conserving biodiversity more resilient and adaptable, while aligning security agendas with biodiversity conservation goals. 

The European Union's climate strategy obliges its Member States to fulfil common Climate and Energy Targets by 2030 while the Member States are free in their choice of mixes among polices and instruments providing rule-, economic-and information-focussed incentives. This paper comparatively firstly calculates in how far 11 Member States have already progressed towards these targets, based on the goals set in the National Climate and Energy Plans. Secondly, the paper quantitatively investigates in how far there is a relationship between this progress and the use of different policy-mixes of the countries. The findings about the relationship between progress and policy mixes show that most Pearson correlations (weak to moderate) exist for the rule-focussed incentives (r = −0,41 to −0,62), while fewer but stronger correlations exist for economic- (r = −0,79) and information-focussed incentives (r = −0,73 to −0,74). Voluntary and other policies and measures seem to be of less importance as they only show negligible correlations. Since all discovered correlations are negative, this research shows that a good policy-mix should consist out of a fair share of the main three policy-groups. These highly current findings can guide also other countries globally in the development of a good climate strategy.

This paper uses content analysis of urban planning and guiding documents to research and evaluate relative adaptation approaches by categorising and comparing relevant indicators of progress. The scope of the paper is covering the 33 coastal municipalities that experience particularly exposure to negative consequences of climate change induced sea level rise. The findings indicate that the number of municipalities that address sea level rise has increased notably (∼43%) based on planning documents during the past ten years (2013−2022), which supports international trends of increased attention to urban climate change adaptation. Furthermore, the content analysis qualitatively shows based on a newly developed categorization the large variation in planning documents used by municipalities in terms of purpose and approach. Lastly, a comparison of the municipalities indicates that, while there are notable differences in approach and progress, municipalities with established adaptation plans are similarly structured in terms of ambition and level of detail, and could be considered frontrunners in sea level rise adaptation work. Thus, paper provides - based on a replicable and innovative method - current comparative results about progress in latest practices of planning management, relevant as a potential benchmark and/or blueprint for similar adaptation measures of urban coastal communities worldwide.