The Nagoya Protocol and the Diffusion of Economic Instruments for Ecosystem Services in International Environmental Governance

In: Sebastian Oberthür und Kirstin Rosendal (eds), Global Governance of Genetic Resources: Access and Benefit Sharing after the Nagoya Protocol, Abingdon: Routledge, S. 132-157.

In international environmental politics, more and morepayment schemes or markets for ecosystem services are introduced, changing the nature of governance. The paper explores and compares the following schemes: benefit-sharing on genetic resources under (a) the Convention on Biological Diversity plus its Nagoya Protocol and (b) the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture; (c) forest projects under the UNFCCC Clean Development Mechanism and (d) the emerging scheme of ‘Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation in developing countries’ (‘REDD+’) under the UNFCCC. The analysis covers (a) the targeted ecosystem services; (b) the in-struments’ evolution; (c) the instruments as such, focusing on their economic nature and the transactions they induce; and (d) the instruments’ effects. The research is based on institutional and document analysis, expert interviews as well as a review of quantitative and qualitative data on instrument effects. In a concluding assessment the author compares the four instruments, helping to elucidate the particular features of the CBD/NP market. More generally, the comparison confirms those voices skeptical of the introduction of markets for ecosystem services; non-market-based payment schemes are regarded as less problematic.